I have been a fan of Saluki Athletics for over fifty years. This past weekend's game had a great atmosphere and huge crowd and for three quarters a great game.
What hasn't been great this season is our stadium announcer who frequently is inaccurate in a variety of ways regarding down, timeouts, yardage, and general commentary. Frankly, I have heard enough of him in both football and basketball these past however many years and wish the university would consider another option. Too often I believe he makes it about himself rather than the game experience.
In addition, our scoreboard running and electronics have been embarrassing. The first week technical difficulties were ridiculous from the scoreboard to the play clock and game time issues. Some of these issues continued this week to the point that the field referee had to explain what to set the play clock to given the situation and when to start it. Being a consistent top program in FCS we should run a tighter ship in these two areas. I am done complaining and will always be a Saluki Fan. Go Dawgs.
I would prefer they stop pumping in so much music and allow the band to play during stoppages/timeouts. If the band needs a break or is going down for the halftime performance, sure, but I was there for the UIW game and I can’t remember a time when I actually heard the band play during the game.
Listen to the announcer at the softball games - he very loudly mangles the name of every Saluki coming up to bat, trying to be cute. Ridiculous and annoying as hell.
Agree with the music at football - way too much. Much rather hear the band play something.
Worst of all is baseball. It's like they can't stand 10 seconds of silence. TOOOO loud and constant music. Sit anywhere near the broadcast booth and you'll need ear plugs. Then somebody there broadcasts silly little phrases almost every time the opponent misses a pitch or flubs somehow. About 10 times too much of that. It's so annoying and unprofessional I'd rather sit in my vehicle and watch the game through the windshield while listening to LM.
Agree with both of you on the music at both football and baseball. Have a bit more balance. We have a tremendous band and should get more time. Also, the blaring of the music at baseball is really bad. Hurts your ears loud. And I don't think it is because I am getting older lol. Steve's schtick has gotten too old and self-involved for me.
I agree the PA announcer is WAY too much. I can’t imagine another stadium where the PA announcer is turned up to 10 blaring down and distance and whatever else between every play when our offense is trying to communicate and sometimes still talking while they’re hiking the ball. I have started setting opposite side of stadium cause of him - it helps some….
I can understand the music. I think they’re trying to keep the energy up during the crazy number of game breaks. These game are tough for some to set through with all the media timeouts, reviews, injuries, flags, etc. More band time would be nice though.
The PA announcer has plenty of detractors.
Unfortunately this is a problem that is a plaque at all levels of sporting events as i have grandchildren that play various sports at various levels and this plaque is everywhere
I'm shocked Nick Hill hasn't told him to stop encouraging the crowd to make noise on 3rd downs when we're on offense. It's a very unintelligent way to announce the down and distance when your coach and QB are calling the plays out.
Re: Steve Falat, his booming voice/schtick plays OK when the Arena is jumping with 5,000+ fans ... adds to a big-game atmosphere. Outside of that scenario, the critiques are probably more than fair. And agreed I'd rather the band vs. piped-in music mix tilt more toward the band (both football and basketball).
This conversation reminds me that our PA announcer when I was in school was named John Yack. Not sure I've heard a more appropriate name for someone in that role. At least we didn't have piped-in music or sound effects back then -- just the band, and that was plenty good.
I didn't realize there was a different guy for softball. I go to a lot of softball games - really enjoy that team, but the announcer is really obnoxious. It's possible to show enthusiasm without the cutesy high-volume mangling of every player's name.
