Altitude Continues To Be An Embarrassment

The Rapids game just ended, a 1-1 draw.  Game recap coming by Monday.  Unfortunately Rapids fans didn't get to see the tense final minute as right at 4pm the feed was dropped, even for Richard and 'Celo in the studio.  We missed a chance by Henry saved by our rookie keeper and a tight chance by Sanchez to win the game.  The feed continued for people watching the game in NY so it wasn't a failure at the source, I don't know if the MLS Live or Univision Deportes feeds continued or not.

EDIT: MLS Live dropped, but illegal streams did not.  If MLS Live was just taking Altitude's feed (don't know if they were or not) though that might explain it.

Maybe its just a coincidence that Altitude had another show scheduled at 4, but I wouldn't be shocked if somebody at Altitude just assumed the game was over and shut down the feed without checking.  Even if it was a technical difficulty and not human error this is hardly the first time Altitude has screwed up a Rapid game.  Its embarrassing that it keeps happening.  Last year the Rapids really went out of their way to work on these issues, hiring Fleming because they were unhappy with who Altitude was using and publicly apologizing for Altitude's screw-ups (remember the "ASS" goal last season?).  Hopefully the Rapids can continue to put pressure on Altitude to solve these problems.

Rapids Live On Altitude...Most Of The Time

Colorado announced its TV plans today, and once again their on Altitude.  Not a surprise since KSE owns both the Rapids and Altitude TV.  28 games will air live on Altitude.  One game, April 1st, will be live on Altitude2 which is only available in SD on Comcast.  April 1st is a home game against the Fire though so I'll be seeing it live in person. ;)  3 games will air live on NBC Sports Channel and 1 game will be live on ESPN (later rebroadcast by Altitude).

That adds up to 33 of the 34 games this season.  The missing game?  April 7th @ FaKe SaLt LaKe.  At the same time as that game the Nuggets and Avs are also playing and being shown on Altitude and Altitude2.  The Rapids game will be shown tape-delayed on Altitude.  For a normal game I'd roll with that, but a Rocky Mountain Cup match against FSL?  That sucks.  Luckily I've heard that the Rapids are working on a number of options to make the match available live to fans.  I'm guessing this will be a viewing party with a direct feed somewhere in Denver and/or a lifting of the normal blackout restrictions on MLS Direct Kick and MLS Live. We'll see what they come up with.

The on-air talent this year will be Todd Romero doing play-by-play and Marcelo Balboa once again doing color.  Romero has no play-by-play experience outside of World Wrestling Entertainment, so I have my concerns that we're going to have yet another season of Balboa having to explain the game to his partner instead of having two experienced people calling the game.  This is particularly annoying since I know two play-by-play broadcasters with MLS experience contacted Colorado about doing games this year only to be passed over for a new guy.

On the bright side though, we get 32 of 34 games live in HD.

TV and Roster News

Two big pieces of news today. first the Rapids officially announced that they'll be back on altitude in HD this year for 27 games. That appears to be every non-FSC or ESPN game, and the two ESPN games will be rebroadcast on Altitude. When the games overlap a Nuggets or Avalanche game the game will be on Altitude 2. All the games will have a 30-minute pre-game show and the home games will have a 30-minute post-game locker room report. They'll rotate through 6 different play-by-play guys, using the whole Nuggets and Avalanche staff and also pulling in local independent (and View From the Couch favorite) play-by-play guy Marc Stout. Rapids legend Marcelo Balboa will continue to do color commentary.

The bigger piece of news is that both Mike Holody and Steven Emory have signed contracts with the team. Today was roster and salary compliance day, which means all teams had to get down to 30 players and below the salary cap. This doesn't mean that teams can't continue to sign players, just now if they sign anyone they have to fit in under the roster and salary limits. With today's signings the Rapids currently have 25 of a possible 30 players under contract. We won't know the salary cap room they have until after the Union releases the salaries after the seasons starts. Here's the roster as we know it right now:

Under Contract:

Goalkeepers:

Steward Ceus

Ian Joyce

Matt Pickens

Defenders:

Michael Holody

Kosuke Kimura

Tyrone Marshall

Drew Moor

Scott Palguta

Anthony Wallace

Marvell Wynne

Midfielders:

Davy Armstrong

Steven Emory

Ross LaBauex

Jeff Larentowicz

Pablo Mastroeni

Brian Mullan

Joseph Nane

Sanna Nyassi

Jamie Smith

Wells Thompson

Forwards:

Andre Akpan

Quincy Amarikwa

Conor Casey

Omar Cummings

Macoumba Kandji

Offered Contract Or In Negotiations:

Defenders:

Eddie Ababio

Forwards:

Caleb Folan