Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Major League Sucker - Is the soccer home team first or last on TV scorebar?

Home team DC United displayed second on score bar.

Noticed something this weekend that kinda bugs me. 

Not every TV station displays MLS home teams in the same position on the score bar.

As you can see above, DC United is the home team. CSN Washington placed them second, in what I assume would be the more American position. Like you would a home baseball team that bats second, or the bottom team on a basketball or football game score bar. 

Traditionally, soccer teams have the home team placed first. It's like this for international games and foreign leagues.

Switzerland, the home team, displayed first.
Liverpool, home team, displayed first.


It doesn't bother me which way US stations, broadcasts display the teams. Any which order is ok as long as it's consistent. Which I learned last weekend, it is not. 

Of the ten games on TV/MLS Live, three displayed the home team second. CSN Washington, TXA 21 in Dallas-Fort Worth and Root Sports SW in Houston.
TXA 21 displaying home team FC Dallas second

Root Sports displaying home team Houston Dynamo second
Fox Sports 1, ESPN, TSN, TWCSC-OH, YES and CSN NE all displayed the home team first during last weekend's games. Interesting that the CSN stations differed. I guess no internal style on a corporate level. 

Any other stations display the soccer home team second on the scorebar, score bug?