Gareth Wheeler

[The Real Marc]

24 minutes ago, Kent said:

People like Rauter and Dobson and both those guys knew nothing about the game when they started. I literally think they knew that you aren't supposed to use your hands, but I wouldn't be surprised if in their first game they were shocked and confused to see a throw in. Obviously over the years they learned more about the game, and I would say they ended up being decent (Dobson better than Rauter easily).

So well put. And not an exaggeration. Unless my old brain is playing tricks on me, I remember Rauter would actually ask Leggat questions during the game. Dobson would regularly get things wrong...what just happened, what was going to happen, who was involved, mistaking someone like Carl Fletcher for Tony Menezes...

But I think what set them apart from Wheeler is that their commentary, persona, narrative were so much more natural. They tried hard to make up for their deficiencies. And to be fair, that might have been easier to do back then, when they weren't expected to create a persona, represent the brand on multiple mediums, and garner twitter followers. Wheeler tries hard to make himself ... sound what he thinks he's supposed to sound like? ...what he thinks we want him to sound like? ...what he needs to sound like to be memorable?

It's just off. It reeks of a newbie thinking his big shot is calling ultimate frisbee on a local TV station. I don't want to dislike him. But he makes us look amateur at our time of potentially highest exposure.

Edited July 27, 2021 by The Real Marc

[Oranje]

I enjoyed Sharman and KJ doing PBP when The Score had Serie A years back... From that The Footy Show crew, hasn't Dunlop bouncing around since he left SN?

[gigi riva]

6 hours ago, Floortom said:

I'm actually amazed that people care about this issue so much one way or the other. I must be the weird one - I couldnt care less about Wheeler. He has no positive or negative impact on my enjoyment of the matches tbh. 

that makes two of us

[sstackho]

It's understandable that Wheeler would grate on some people's nerves.  The repetitive OneSoccer commercial break promos don't help.  The repetitive OneSoccer commercial break promos don't help.  The repetitive OneSoccer commercial break promos don't help. 

I've grown to enjoy his approach.  Yes, the homerism can go a bit far, but it is easy to use our own eyes to form our own opinions. 

He generally knows his stuff, which is of utmost importance. 

Also - there really aren't all that many Canada games, so it's not like I'm listening to him through a 40-match TFC season. 

FWIW - I ran into and chatted with Wheeler at a nearby brewery, and he was very friendly and chatty and his on-screen persona seems to match the in-person one.  But perhaps that biases me... 

[Ruffian]

7 minutes ago, sstackho said:

It's understandable that Wheeler would grate on some people's nerves.  The repetitive OneSoccer commercial break promos don't help.  The repetitive OneSoccer commercial break promos don't help.  The repetitive OneSoccer commercial break promos don't help.

I love the repeating commercials. Now when ever my son scores while playing with me he yells "Oh Canada, Oh Baby!"

[Obinna]

3 minutes ago, Ruffian said:

I love the repeating commercials. Now when ever my son scores while playing with me he yells "Oh Canada, Oh Baby!"

The key to brainwashing is repetition lol 

[narduch]

38 minutes ago, Oranje said:

I enjoyed Sharman and KJ doing PBP when The Score had Serie A years back... From that The Footy Show crew, hasn't Dunlop bouncing around since he left SN?

Believe Dunlop is doing Olympics. He did do CPL for One Soccer in 2019 and 2020.

My current favourite Canadian announcer is former TLN host Alf De Blasis. He has resurfaced this year calling CPL.

Personally can't stand Wheeler. But I don't like Wileman either. So maybe I'm just a snobby hater.

 

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

1 hour ago, The Real Marc said:

...I remember Rauter would actually ask Leggat questions during the game...

Remember that as well, but Rauter wasn't always deferential. An argument they had about how to pronounce McGeoch properly (Leggat obviously knew better but Rauter was having none of it) sticks in the mind 30 years on for some reason.

[dyslexic nam]

2 hours ago, Oranje said:

I enjoyed Sharman and KJ doing PBP when The Score had Serie A years back... From that The Footy Show crew, hasn't Dunlop bouncing around since he left SN?

I miss The Footy Show.  

[LeoH037]

oh lord... why does this thread exist??

[Lansdude]

Someone made a good point in the CR match thread and I tried to quote it, but the site wouldn't let me for some reason, but a lot of what makes Wheeler and Dunfield sound bush league is the bad sound feed/mixing. Other broadcasts also have that flat, tinny audio that sounds like it's a local cable show covering high school sports. Just improving that and changing the levels would subsequently dial down the obnoxiousness.

But yeah, Wheels just doesn't have the voice, doesn't have the diction and eloquence, his attempts at zingers and catchphrases sucks and his metaphor and descriptive game is weak, and it's all wrapped up in a dorky IPA socks and sandals dad package. He's fine on the show because he can play a role in a larger dynamic but describing the action he's a fail.

[JohnnyFranchise]

is he a terrible commentator? yah. does he affect my game-watching 'experience'? nah, i'm so focused on the game itself i don't even notice him 95% of the time. like when i watched the US game on fox because onesoccer app wasn't working as usual, i hardly even noticed the american commentators.

is he enthusiastic about the national team like i am? absolutely. do i respect that he has a high soccer iq? absolutely not.

so, i couldn't care less about him doing commentary, i like when he gives info and updates on the national team program, and fast forward past him giving his opinion on onesoccer today. easy enough.

conversely, i think he would be best utilized as our national team reporter and game sideline reporter. just give the facts, player updates, interviews, etc., but i guess he's entrenched as the play-by-play guy and onesoccer 'expert' so there's no point complaining about it. onesoccer got my hundred bucks so they couldn't care less what i think anyways.

[DavemTFC]

1 hour ago, The Real Marc said:

I don't want to dislike him. But he makes us look amateur at our time of potentially highest exposure.

This is where I'm at with him and you could argue it's an insecure position to take.

Here's the thing though - the canadian men's national team is still relatively unpopular no matter who you compare them to. Other countries' national teams (both in and outside of Canada), other Canadian national teams, other domestic soccer teams, other foreign (mostly European) teams - Canadian NT games are never must watch events for the general public in Canada. Even just sticking to within soccer, it's no longer a niche game in this country. My friends who follow the sport generally pay attention to wc/euros, champions league, some EPL, and maybe TFC if they're doing well, in that order. I'm sure most (esp millenials) would say the same in their experience.

I'd say there are lots of very knowledgable canadians when it comes to football and we finally have a national team with genuine world class quality that those who only watch the top level (the euro snobs if you will) would still appreciate. All of this makes the amateurish presence of Wheeler stick out like a sore thumb and makes it tough to shed the imagine of Canada as a small time team.

It's not just that Wheeler's bad, it's that it's impossible to watch a game and not be distracted by him (and frankly Dunfield belongs in this category too whenever he's on with him). Dobson and Rauter were pretty bad too, but they were at least somewhat low key and you could kind of tune them out (dobson more so). Wheeler is too loud and too umm "unique" to do that - the HOW DID THAT STAY OUT calls when the keeper makes a routine save, the whining about obviously correct refereeing decisions, the cringey goal calls...the only way to actually ignore this is muting the game entirely, which takes away a lot of the enjoyment of actually watching a game. A lot of people in this forum can't stand Wheeler and were quick to take their chance with fox just to avoid him. Can you imagine the people who only watch games with DAZN/BBC/FIFA commentary? If they aren't as into MNT at the outset and Wheeler is the only commentary they can get, I think many would simply stop watching.

Point is, we need to find a way to make our mens national team more popular to the masses, especially those who are already familiar with the sport, and having a commentator so noticeably bad is a major obstacle in actually being taken seriously. I'm convinced he will single-handedly turn people off if he's on pbp - we need someone else to be the main guy

[narduch]

35 minutes ago, LeoH037 said:

oh lord... why does this thread exist??

Nobody is forcing you to read it

[Chad_Impact]

I don't mind him for Canada games or CPL games but I remember both him and Dunfield were extremely unprofessional in allowing their bias to show in the MTL vs TFC Canadian championship final. 

I'll never forget Dunfield at 3:30: SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT! I was literally laughing 

 

[JohnnyFranchise]

3 minutes ago, Chad_Impact said:

I don't mind him for Canada games or CPL games but I remember both him and Dunfield were extremely unprofessional in allowing their bias to show in the MTL vs TFC Canadian championship final. 

I'll never forget Dunfield at 3:30: SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT! I was literally laughing 

 

i'm a tfc fan and i agree 100% with that. bias when they're doing the cmnt, or even a canadian based team vs a non-canadian based team, is cool. but when you're doing 2 canadian teams you gotta be as impartial as you can get.

[Macksam]

57 minutes ago, DavemTFC said:

A lot of people in this forum can't stand Wheeler and were quick to take their chance with fox just to avoid him. Can you imagine the people who only watch games with DAZN/BBC/FIFA commentary? If they aren't as into MNT at the outset and Wheeler is the only commentary they can get, I think many would simply stop watching.

Point is, we need to find a way to make our mens national team more popular to the masses, especially those who are already familiar with the sport, and having a commentator so noticeably bad is a major obstacle in actually being taken seriously. I'm convinced he will single-handedly turn people off if he's on pbp - we need someone else to be the main guy

Disagree with everything said.

A lot of people watched Fox because it's easier to flip the TV on and utilize their basic cable package than hook up the HDMI to their laptop or use Chromecast, and knowing how the feed routinely kicks out on Onesoccer, they opted for the more pain-free option of channel 28. 

Commentary is a major obstacle? No, the team's performance is the first, second, third and fourth factor into getting more eyeballs watching the men's national team.

If people are new to watching the national team, they have budding interest in the sport and they want to see how the country does in said sport. How the team plays and how entertaining the matches are, which will be taken care of visually, is what's going to keep their viewership. The commentary is not a big enough factor to cause any sort of deterrent. 

Anyhow, like I mentioned in the Costa Rica match thread, the main issue is in the sound production. Right now the commentary volume is too loud and drowns the in stadium noise out. The in stadium noise should be the main focal point and the commentary volume should compliment it, not overtake it. They fix that, I doubt people would be complaining.

 

[Obinna]

3 minutes ago, Macksam said:

Disagree with everything said.

A lot of people watched Fox because it's easier to flip the TV on and utilize their basic cable package than hook up the HDMI to their laptop or use Chromecast, and knowing how the feed routinely kicks out on Onesoccer, they opted for the more pain-free option of channel 28. 

FWIW....I have never been kicked out using Chromecast, but I run directly from the browser instead of the app. The problem I do encounter (only recently) is that once I connect to Chromecast I need to refresh the browser to get it to play. Once I do that though it's golden.

[Bertuzzi44]

Where is the "F#@k no" option?

 

[sstackho]

21 minutes ago, Obinna said:

FWIW....I have never been kicked out using Chromecast, but I run directly from the browser instead of the app. The problem I do encounter (only recently) is that once I connect to Chromecast I need to refresh the browser to get it to play. Once I do that though it's golden.

How do you Chromecast OneSoccer from a browser - or are you using the Cast Tab functionality in Chrome? 

Edited July 27, 2021 by sstackho

[yomurphy1]

5 minutes ago, sstackho said:

How do you Chromecast OneSoccer from a browser - or are you using the Cast Tab functionality in Chrome? 

I've tried it all. Browser and app. Chromecast dongle and Android TV box. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't with no rhyme or reason. 

[JohnnyFranchise]

now "growth of the fanbase" is a different focus for conversation. right now, wheeler isn't the biggest obstacle for fanbase growth, the whole concept and execution of onesoccer itself is....

...better take cover for a minute

 

while onesoccer is awesome for already diehard fans of the national teams like us, and i know they've pumped a crazy amount of cash into the national team program, it does nothing to attract new fans to the program. and i'm not talking about our buddies that we make watch games with us. i'm talking about hundreds of thousands of joe shmoe's across the country that might tune in to watch a game while they're channel surfing, or might watch a game that's on at the pub. sidebar: a few weeks ago i asked the manager at the pub if they can get onesoccer, he had no idea what it is. that's on them, not him. they should be marketing it like crazy and offering it for next to nothing to pubs and restaurants to get as many eyeballs on the games as possible.

so no need to finger point at wheeler as a deterrent for fanbase growth, we're the only people watching anyways.

rant over.......for now 

[Obinna]

22 minutes ago, sstackho said:

How do you Chromecast OneSoccer from a browser - or are you using the Cast Tab functionality in Chrome? 

This.

Edit: Microsoft Edge has this functionality under More options > More tools > Cast to Media device

Edited July 27, 2021 by Obinna

[JohnnyFranchise]

3 minutes ago, yomurphy1 said:

I've tried it all. Browser and app. Chromecast dongle and Android TV box. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't with no rhyme or reason. 

my app stopped working for casting through my chromecast a week and a half ago. i then casted my tab to the tv off my chromebook and that worked ok, but skippy and the audio didn't sync with the video. then i hooked up my chromebook to my tv with the hdmi cord for the costa rica game and it worked perfectly. pain in the a$$ but it is what it is.

[BrennanFan]

I don't mind Wheeler. Having an English accented play by play guy has become rote/cliche in North American soccer broadcasting - so I was happy OneSoccer went in a different direction. His use of alliteration in calling goals (Davies in Dreamland, Phonzie having all the fun) is just pure cringe though. 

Nevertheless, I don't like how divisive he has become within the community. Every single game, twitter is ablaze with people throwing Wheeler under the bus.  OneSoccer simply doesn't need that negativity. That's enough for me to want him replaced.  The play by play guy should not have this much attention. 

The guy I'd like to see come on board is former Whitecaps play by play guy, Peter Schaad. Knowledgeable, no nonsense, and yet still passionate.