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Hope Solo Plays Nasty On Twitter With Double Gold Medalist, NBC Soccer Analyst Brandi Chastain

July 30, 2012 by

It wasn’t too long ago when media organizations were deciding if quoting athletes’ from their Twitter feeds was appropriate. Now the Associated Press, the international news service, has dedicated multiple 600-word articles about athletes criticizing each other on Twitter during the Summer Olympics.

The current Twitter rant is between current U.S. soccer goalkeeper Hope Solo and NBC Sports analyst Brandi Chastain, the retired U.S. women’s soccer double gold medalist.

Hope Solo (L) and Brandi Chastain

Solo blasted Chastain following the Americans’ 3-0 win over Colombia last Saturday, saying the popular former player should “lay off commentating about defending” and goalkeeping “until you get more educated” and “the game has changed from a decade ago.”

Chastain has responded to Solo’s remarks only briefly, saying, according to the AP, she commenting as an “honest and objective journalist at the Olympics.”

NBC, Chastain’s employer, is apparently more sensitive. It believes the Twitter banter was important enough to issue a statement:

“We are thrilled to be able to offer such complete and compelling coverage of the entire Olympic soccer tournament, and Brandi has been doing an outstanding job,” NBC spokesman Adam Freifeld said. “We wish the U.S. women’s team the best of luck.”

When asked about her strong opinion, Soto commented:

“It’s not about what made me unhappy. It’s not about one game. I have my beliefs that the best commentators and the best analysts should be analyzing come Olympics, come World Cups, and it’s only my opinion. You can take it or leave it, to be honest, so it’s my opinion, and I think analysts and commentators should bring energy and excitement and passion for the game, and a lot of knowledge, and I think it’s important to help build the game, and I don’t think Brandi has that.

“It’s just my opinion, and nothing else really matters, to be honest. What matters is tomorrow’s game against North Korea, playing at Old Trafford. The team’s excited. It’s my birthday. I don’t really care to answer any other questions about Brandi.”

The Twitter exchanges also attracted concern and a subsequent meeting among the U.S. team’s coaching staff and team captains to discuss the team’s image. Solo is known for her strong opinions, and she was kicked off the 2007 World Cup team for criticizing former coach Greg Ryan.

The U.S. will play North Korea on Tuesday at Old Trafford, the home playing field famous men’s squad, Manchester United. The stadium hasn’t hosted a women’s match since 1989 and an estimated record-crowd of 35,000 is expected.

James Raia is an editor and publisher in Sacramento, California. Visit his site: www.tourdefrancelife.com

Filed Under: Olympics, Social Media, Sports Social Media, Twitter

Olympics Wireless Network Gets Overloaded on Day 1: Organizers Ask Fans Not to Tweet

July 29, 2012 by

Well, despite lots of planning and press releases, it turns out that the folks behind the wireless networks at the London Olympics weren’t prepared for the smartphone revolution. According to a Reuters story today, fans effectively shut down TV coverage from the men’s cycling road race by overwhelming the wireless network with their communications, leading the games organizers to ask fans not to tweet so much.

(As Gizmodo says, good luck with that.)

Of course we here at Mobile Sports Report have been covering the whole Wi-Fi at events topic pretty closely, but from here it looks like we’re about to get a new failure data point, for what happens when big-event organizers underestimate the connectivity needs of the crowd. (Stay tuned this week for an in-depth report on the subject.)

According to the Reuters story, the men’s cycling road race Saturday didn’t get key broadcast information during the race because the hundreds of thousands of fans lining the course apparently gummed up the wireless network. Sunday, the games asked folks to back off on Twitter use:

An International Olympic Committee spokesman said the network problem had been caused by the messages sent by the hundreds of thousands of fans who lined the streets to cheer on the British team.

“Of course, if you want to send something, we are not going to say ‘Don’t, you can’t do it’, and we would certainly never prevent people,” he said. “It’s just – if it’s not an urgent, urgent one, please kind of take it easy.”

We are trying to get a response from networking gear vendor Cisco, which made much about its involvement with service provider BT, formerly known as British Telecom, the main service provider in and around London. While Cisco touted its networking chops before the games, like Michael Phelps the network’s performance so far is something short of gold.

Anyone over there in London have any downtime experiences? Let us know in the comments. More on this as we hear from Cisco.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Cisco, Olympics, Twitter, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Watching NASCAR: Back to the Brickyard

July 27, 2012 by

This week: Crown Royal presents the Curtiss Shaver 400

The Sprint Cup Series took a holiday weekend last week so the teams should be rested and repaired for this week. This week’s race, held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the Crown Royal presents the Curtiss Shaver 400 at the Brickyard.

No introduction is needed for a track that is so regularly used, and one that so regularly provides a great deal of driving entertainment. There has been some tweaking to the teams however as JTG Daugherty Racing reported that Bobby Hutchens is the new general manager for its one-car team and Bobby Labonte its driver. Gone is Todd Berrier, who left for Furniture Row Racing to replace Pete Rondeau.

It is starting to look like the suspension of AJ Allmendinger may be a long term one if reports that are surfacing are true. ESPN is reporting, via Bleacher Report, that he also failed his “B” test and is in violation of the sport’s substance abuse policy. No idea if Sam Hornish Jr. will keep the wheel of the 22 car.

Broadcast
July 29 at 12 pm ET ESPN

An interesting side bar on this week’s race is that actor and film director Ron Howard will be driving the pace car to open the race. While he has not directed a film about NASCAR he has just completed filming a movie entitled “Rush” about F1 drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda with a very memorable crash scene.

Twitter– Instead of pointing to a number of Twitter addresses as we have in the past it seems to make much more sense just to send you to a site that appears to have consolidated a who’s who of racing twitter addresses instead. So head over here for a list.

Sprint Cup Series Standings
1) Matt Kenseth
2) Dale Earnhardt Jr. -16
3) Greg Biffle -40
4) Jimmie Johnson -51
5) Denny Hamlin -79
6) Kevin Harvick -85
7) Tony Stewart -89
8 Martin Truex Jr. -90
9) Clint Bowyer -93
10) Brad Keselowski -94

The Nationwide Series did not take a week off last week and points leader Elliott Sadler is happy about that. In a nail biting finish he held off the #3 in points Ricky Stenhouse on a green-white-checker finish to gain victory row at Chicagoland.

Towards the end of the race it certainly looked as if Stenhouse had enough car to catch and pass Sadler but the restart at the end and a push from Justin Allgaier was all that Sadler needed to clinch the win. The top five was filled out by Allgaier in third followed by Kenny Wallance and Michael Annett. Wallace’s car failed a post race inspection and penalties are expected.

Nationwide Series Standings
1) Elliott Sadler
2) Austin Dillon -11
3) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -19
4) Sam Hornish Jr. -42
5) Justin Allgaier -78

This Week Indy 250

Broadcast
July 28, 4 pm ET ESPN

Filed Under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., ESPN, Greg Biffle, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, NASCAR, Nationwide Series, Sam Hornish Jr., Twitter Tagged With:

Watching Golf this Week: The Open Championship, aka The British Open

July 19, 2012 by

Are you ready for the third major of the year? It all kicks off Thursday morning at one of the stranger-named courses, Royal Lytham & St. Annes (not St. Anne’s), which its own website describes as “It is not a conventionally beautiful golf course, surrounded as it is by suburban housing and flanked by a railway line, but it has a charm all of its own.” Never you mind. This is the British Open, aka The Open Championship, and it’s all about history. With Champions at the course named Seve. Tom Lehman, Gary Player, and most recently, David Duval in 2001.

And best of all, golf when you wake up in the morning here in the U.S.! If you want to watch the Open Championship this weekend you best have a cable subscription with ESPN (and really, who doesn’t in the sports world). If you want to watch online or on your mobile device, you need a cable sub with the WatchESPN qualifying carriers: Verizon FiOS, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks or Comcast. This tourney is four days of wall to wall ESPN coverage, including ESPN radio, probably a bunch of SportsCenter from the Open broadcasts… starting at 4:30 a.m. Eastern time on Thursday, to catch all of Tiger and Phil, who are going out early.

And who will win it? Odds on favorite is, of course, the man who would be back: Tiger Woods. If he plays all four days like he played the first two days at Olympic, Tiger will be tough to beat — he’s even been seen working on his infamous “stinger” shots. Lurking in the gorse is Phil Mickelson, who is way overdue overseas — and had himself a few nice sub-70 rounds at the Scottish Open last weekend as a tuneup.

What about the local lads — guys like Lee Westwood and Luke Donald, who reign atop the world standings but have zero majors between them? Of the two I like Westwood’s chances since he always seems to be in it at the end, while Donald tends to disappear. Maybe like Darren Clarke last year, this is Westwood’s time. As a dark horse I like a guy who I saw live for the first time at the U.S. Open, and marveled at the style of his swing: Former British Open champ Louis Oosthuizen. Go join the MSR group on the ESPN fantasy golf game if you want to show your own picking savvy.

In case the Open isn’t enough golf, there is also a PGA Tour event this week, the incredibly ignored True South Classic in Madison, Mississippi, as well as the fun-to-watch American Century Classic from Lake Tahoe, where celebs and athletes from other sports show off their golf prowess, or lack thereof (see Barkley, Charles). We will include TV times for those tournaments as well, below.

Our final pick? We say Tiger gets off the major schneid. Here’s where to follow the action:

THE OPEN CHAMPIONSIP

(all times Eastern)
TV COVERAGE
Thursday, July 19 — ESPN, 4:30 a.m. — 3 p.m.
Friday, July 20 — ESPN, 4:30 a.m. — 3 p.m.
Saturday, July 21 — ESPN, 7 a.m. — 2:30 p.m.
Sunday, July 22 — ESPN, 8 a.m. — 1 p.m.

RADIO
ESPN RADIO (check local channels)
Thursday, July 19 — 7 a.m. — 1 p.m.
Friday, July 20 — 7 a.m. — 1 p.m.
Saturday, July 21 — ESPN, 9 a.m. — 3 p.m.
Sunday, July 22 — ESPN, 8 a.m. — 12 p.m.

Radio broadcasts will also be available through the Open app, at TheOpen.com, and at
ESPNRadio.com.

ONLINE
This is long, but worth it… what follows is the entire ESPN lineup of content from The Open:

The Open Championship on ESPN Digital Platforms
WatchESPN
All Open Championship programming on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN3 is also available on computers, smartphones and tablets through WatchESPN and the WatchESPN app, which are accessible to fans who receive their video service from affiliated providers Bright House Networks, Comcast, Time Warner and Verizon FiOS TV.

ESPN.com
News, blogs and columns from ESPN.com national columnist Gene Wojciechowski and senior golf writers Farrell Evans and Bob Harig.
“Digital Drive,” an exclusive ESPN.com program hosted by ESPN the Magazine columnist Rick Reilly, will be produced each day.
“CoverItLive” live chat with Michael Collins throughout the championship.
“Red Light/Green Light” with Collins each day, examining pin placements on selected holes.
The ESPN Golf Cast application, which offers an easy-to-use interface with scoring, “CoverItLive,” video and social media elements.
Best Ball Majors, the latest installment of the ESPN Best Ball Challenge.
Interactive leaderboards and live scores.
Extensive video content, including highlights, analysis, clips from SportsCenter and press conferences.
Photo galleries, podcasts, live chats, SportsNation polling.
Mobile WAP site.
Spanish-language highlights and coverage on ESPNDeportes.com.

ESPN3
ESPN’s live multi-screen sports network will carry ESPN’s telecast of all four rounds of The Open Championship. An additional feed will have live coverage of the 1st & 18th Holes, plus player interviews from the practice range, highlights and features. Trey Wingo and Jim Kelly will share the host role, with analysts Jane Crafter and Kim Thomas and reporter Mark Donaldson. Former Open Championship winner David Duval, who is competing in the event, also will serve as an analyst while not on the course.
ESPN3 also will have a Spanish-language feed with ESPN Deportes golf announcers Francisco Aleman and former LPGA pro Silvia Bertolaccini as well as the International View from the BBC/World coverage and alternating coverage of holes 8, 9 and 10.

ESPN Mobile
Live mobile video simulcasts of ESPN’s Open Championship telecasts on Thursday-Sunday will appear on ESPN Mobile TV. The Best of The Open Championship programs for the first, third and final rounds and Thursday’s The Open Championship Today programs also will be simulcast.
News, highlights and a leaderboard will appear on the ESPN mobile Web and there will be Open Championship Insider content, news and columns, scoring alerts for top players and video shot packs for select golfers.

PGA SHOT TRACKER
No Shot Tracker at the British Open, but it will be online for the True South Classic.

FACEBOOK PAGE
Get yourself close to the Claret Jug at The Open’s Facebook page.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW
The Open’s own Twitter feed.
Geoff Shackelford — well known golf writer. If you’re not following Geoff you are missing the online boat.
Golf Channel — official Golf Channel feed
@PGATOUR — official PGA Twitter feed
@StephanieWei — great golf writer who is a Twitter fiend. You may also catch her video reporting debut this weekend. Go Stephanie!
Doug Ferguson is the lead golf writer for AP. Good Twitter insights that often aren’t part of your wire-service lead.

TOURNAMENT APP
Powered by video mavens at Ooyala, the Open’s App has everything you want in a handheld device app. iPad, iPhone and Android. You will still need the ESPN contract to view live video, though.

WHAT’S THE COURSE LIKE?
The Royal Lytham & St. Annes has its own website, and there is good stuff on the PGA site as well.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST YEAR?
Darren Clarke.

WHY IS IT CALLED LYTHAM & ST. ANNES?
Because the two towns of Lytham and St. Annes-on-the-Sea grew together and formed one seaside resort. And they dropped the “sea” bit. According to Wikipedia.

FEDEX CUP LEADERS
1. Tiger Woods, 1,952 points
2. Zach Johnson, 1,920
3. Jason Dufner, 1,849
4. Hunter Mahan, 1,654
5. Bubba Watson, 1,617

See the full standings for the FedEx Cup points list.

WORLD GOLF RANKINGS
1. Luke Donald; 2. Rory McIlroy; 3. Lee Westwood; 4. Tiger Woods; 5. Webb Simpson.
See the official World Golf Ranking list.

TRUE SOUTH CLASSIC TV
Thursday, July 19 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Friday, July 20 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Saturday, July 21 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Sunday, July 22 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.

AMERICAN CENTURY CLASSIC TV
Saturday, July 21 — NBC, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Sunday, July 22 — NBC, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, British Open, ESPN, ESPN Radio, ESPN3, Facebook, Golf, Golf Channel, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, PGA, Tiger Woods, Time Warner Cable Television, Twitter, Verizon Wireless, WatchESPN, WatchESPN Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Cadel Evans Seeks Title Repeat as Tour de France Unfolds With Vast Network, Mobile Viewing Options

June 29, 2012 by

Australian Cadel Evans, riding in the midst of an unheralded season, will seek to successfully defend his 2011 title beginning Saturday in the 99th edition of the Tour de France — a route highlighted by more time trial distance and less severe climbing.

The race, beginning with a prologue in Liege, Belgium, will encompass 21 days of racing and two rest days and conclude with its traditional finale — circuits around the Champs Elysees in Paris on July 22.

For race enthusiasts not in attendance, the Tour de France will have an unprecedented variety of online viewing options, paced by nearly 300 hours of network broadcast, online and mobile options via the NBC Sports Network. Live race video online, however, isn’t free — it costs $29.99 for the entire race, or $4.99 per stage. Plus, you need to sign up for a Map My Ride account.

Hundreds of online cycling publications will also feature live Tour de France content, most notably in the event’s official site, letour.fr and two largest cycling websites in the United States, cyclingnews.com and velonews.com.

The race’s official site letour.fr currently has vast archived Tour de France history and daily will offer a live updates and nearly instantaneous results.

VeloNews.com and cyclingNews.com will have multi-platform journalists at the race providing daily reporting, analysis, video and a live feed text feed from each stage.

Bicycling Magazine (bicycling.com) will offer daily multimedia content from the Tour de France, while steephill.tv will offer an exhaustive list of content and global live feed options.

The riders, race staff and media will also be a large part of the social media mix. More than 100 of the entrants have Twitter accounts accessible via the Twitter handle, TDF 2012

This year’s overall title competition will suit a strong time trial rider who doesn’t necessarily possess dominating climbing skills. The race features only three uphill finishes but includes more than 100 kilometers of time trials.

Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan) is favored for Saturday’s 3.8-mile prologue and Germany’s Tony Martin (OmegaPharma-Quick Step) and American teammate Levi Leipheimer will also likely be in the time trial mix.

Evans (BMC), 35, didn’t race in May and has only a victory in the three-day Criterium International in April this season. Evans will be supported by a strong teammate group featuring 17-time Tour de France participant (and hopeful 16-time finisher) George Hincapie, Philippe Gilbert of Belgium, and 23-year-old American Tejay van Garderen.

The Olympics, which begin less than a week after the conclusion of the Tour de France, has sharply altered the overall competition and other sub-plots like the best sprinter and climber contests.

Mark Cavendish (Sky) of Great Britain, who already has 20 Tour de France stage wins, has lost weight and has predicted he won’t dominate sprints as he has in recent years in favor of focusing on the Olympic road race.

Likewise, former world titlist Tom Boonen of Belgium, a six-time Tour de France stage winner, is skipping the race as is promising American Taylor Phinney (BMC). Both riders are also focusing on the Olympics.

Alberto Contador of Spain, a three-time race winner, and two-time runner-up Andy Schleck (RadioShack-Nissan), who inherited Contador’s title in 2010 when the former was post-race suspended for the using the banned stimulant clenbuterol and who also finished second twice, are not competing.

Contador’s suspension will last until the end of the summer while Schleck is recovering from a spine injury sustained in early June while racing in France. Norway’s Thor Hushovd, who won two Tour stages last year, will also be absent this year while he recovers from a virus.

Eight Americans will compete this year, with Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp) of Wenatchee, Wa., who won his first Tour de France stage last year, favored in sprinting stages and veterans Leipheimer, Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Sharp) and Chris Horner (RadioShack), all top-10 overall finishers.

Bradley Wiggins (Sky) of Great Britain, who has three wins this season, Robert Gesink (Rabobank) of the Netherlands, winner of this year’s Tour of California, and Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale), second last year in the Tour of Italy are among a half-dozen potential overall title contenders.

After three days in Belgium, the race progresses from the English Channel across northern France to the Vosges, south to the Alps, farther south to Cap d’Agde on the Mediterranean Sea, then into the Pyrenees and conclusion in Paris.

James Raia is a California-based journalist who writes about sports and leisure. Visit his cycling site at tdf100.com

Filed Under: Apps, Cycling, Tour de France, Twitter

U.S. Open Sets Records for Online, App Viewing

June 20, 2012 by

We don’t have any definitive viewer numbers, but according to a press release from the USGA, the recent U.S. Open golf tournament in San Francisco attracted a record number of online viewers, especially for live online video and via mobile devices. This is hardly a surprise, since online golf viewership overall has been spiking this year, with no end in sight to the growth curve.

According to the USGA, which pioneered online coverage of golf, overall viewer visits to the U.S. Open website during the week increased 79 percent from the year-before totals, while views of live streaming video increased 210 percent from 2011. Though the USGA hasn’t provided exact numbers on page views and streaming video looks, it’s a good guess that the latter number is somewhere in the one- to two-million range, since approximately a half-million to a million folks will watch online video of a regular PGA event, according to PGA Tour reps. The U.S. Open’s website features were powered technically by IBM, which also helps produce the wonderful online experience for The Masters golf tourney.

The availability of an Android version of the USGA’s U.S. Open app helped spike visits to the mobile version of the Open website — according to the USGA, mobile website views increased 375 percent in 2012, with iPhone app downloads jumping up 44 percent from the previous year. In addition to live video the U.S. Open websites also included a live leaderboard, a photo stream and a unique feature that let you look at an interactive map of the course and see which players were on which hole. The USGA was also extremely active on Twitter, with the official U.S. Open Twitter feed providing constant scoring updates and links to feature coverage.

Even though the U.S. Open live online video wasn’t very comprehensive — on Thursday and Friday the coverage followed one “marquee” group throughout its round, and on the weekend the coverage consisted of only play at two holes — it was extremely well produced, with commentators that were critically judged by many observers to be better than some of the broadcast TV talent. It’s probably a safe guess to say that next year the USGA will continue to expand live online coverage of the U.S. Open, in sync with the expanded live online views coming next season from the PGA Tour for regular events. That’s good news for golf fans, who will apparently be rewarded for finding more ways to watch.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Android, Apple, Apps, AT&T, ESPN, Golf, Golf Channel, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, PGA, Smartphone, The Masters, Tiger Woods, Twitter, US Open, USGA Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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