Announcers Brad Sham and Dave Dir are too laid-back – and as a counter-example I mention a Galaxy x Quakes evening match several years ago at HDC where announcer Jon Shrader really got into his role, and, aided by the close match and the crowded venue, Shrader really made MLS feel MAJOR LEAGUE. Dodgers x A’s. Packers Cowboys.

I grant that Sham and Dir occasionally, briefly rise to the occasion – OTOH – I think that broadcast announcers, just like home viewers, adjust their excitement downward when they see the stands 15% – 20% full in their monitors/ home TV’s.

So, I don’t care how it happens. Photoshop the west-side stands into the east-side background, or move the cameras opposite, free tix for the east side, or have the team playing so well that the doubters attend PHP to raise avg. att: 18,000+ [my personal favorite strategy]:

If there is a side of the stands that’s 90+% full (by the time everyone has sat down): It is morally OK to have those stands in the TV background. Pope Ze Bill the first hereby grants FCD a dispensation to do so.

it’s like a self-fulfilling prophet, see?*:

Unless you do make the effort to re-locate the cameras to the east, the east side stands will not fill up with newcomers who had seen on TV in their living rooms an FCD match with stands full of people in the background, e.g., the west side stands which are usually pretty gosh darn gratifyingly full.

*that was a joke

in other words the camera is looking towards the sun.

u do see it on epl but not frequently.

u know, in olden days when you bought a Brownie StarFlash rollfilm camera, the instructions would say “Have the sun behind you shining over your shoulder directly in the face of your subject” therefore many family snapshots stunk.

I’d agree life is easier for the production crews to do it that way by the book — resulting in most day games looking the same — and only the audience suffers.

Don’t have a cow, buy a matchday program and pay a kid to hold it such as the sun doesn’t DIRECTLY hit the lens.