There are pros and cons to extensive usage of crowd microphones. At their best, those mics give viewers at home significant insight into the atmosphere at a game. At their worst, well, you get things like what was picked up on the crowd mic during an ESPNU broadcast of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference men’s lacrosse championship between the Sacred Heart Pioneers and the Siena Saints Saturday:
That clip starts with a voice of “For the viewers back home, a lot of people saying this doesn’t go anywhere, but for those who are lucky enough to listen…Sacred Heart has diarrhea.” The actual announcer cuts in with “And now we’ll get our penalty,” but after a short discussion there, the crowd mic again chimes in with “Lottttt of people saying Sacred Heart has diarrhea,” prompting a booth apology of “Okay, we apologize for our crowd mic.”
It’s far from clear what led to people specifically talking into the crowd mic with those comments. But that mic did definitely go somewhere, in this case directly onto the airwaves.
As for Sacred Heart, we can’t comment on their team’s gastrointestinal condition, but they did fall 12-8 here. And this is the second significant lacrosse hot mic we’ve seen in just a couple months.
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.