V.I. Raiders must-see TV on Weekends

August 10, 2009

Author: Greg Sakaki, Nanaimo News Bulletin

By season's end, the V.I. Raiders are going to have themselves a pretty impressive highlight package.

Nanaimo's Canadian Junior Football League team is the first to offer live video of every game on its website.

The first broadcast, a 71-0 win over the Kamloops Broncos last Saturday at Caledonia Park, was a ratings success. According to colour analyst Dom Abassi, the webcast garnered 700 live hits and 300 more fans viewed the archived footage over the next few days.

"It's a huge thing for exposure for the team," Abassi said. "We have so many parents back in Winnipeg and Saskatchewan that [wouldn't] have a chance to see every game."

Abassi and play-by-play voice Fraser Rodgers will call home and away games and host pre- and post-game shows. Abassi is excited about the project.

"When I watch the game in the stands I never stop talking about the game anyways," he said. "It's just a natural thing for me."

The former Raiders' O-lineman started lending his voice to the team back in 2005, when he handled public address duties while rehabilitating an injury.

He now views the colour job as a career move, so he's toned down the Raider flag-waving in the broadcast booth.

"Last season it did get a little biased and it's hard because the Raiders are something that's very close to my heart," Abassi said. "I want to further myself in this field and it's not going to be useful to me to become known as some guy who loves the Raiders.

"We try to make it professional but with a little bit of a hometown edge on it."

He said other teams around the league allowed Raiders Radio to set up space for broadcasts last season, so he hopes they'll be just as accommodating now that camera equipment is involved.

"We are Raiders TV but we're there to promote the league," Abassi said.

If anything, said V.I. coach Matthew "Snoop" Blokker, the webcasts allow other CJFL teams an additional tool for scouting the Raiders. He's not overly concerned, however - seeing what the Raiders are doing and stopping them are two different things, he said.

As well, the video is targeted toward fans, not coaches.

"You see the ball and you see what's close but you don't get really wide angles to critique coverages and stuff like that," Blokker said.

As the season progresses, Raiders TV will consider adding camera angles, video advertising and maybe even replays.

"It's just a matter of tracking down the technology and learning how to incorporate it on the lowest budget possible." Abassi said. "The possibilities are really endless."