Did anyone see that MLS playoffs update on Sportscenter today??

The update with the highlights from the Galaxy vs Sounders game they just televised?? No? Me neither....

I know Sportscenter is the NFL, Lebron, Cowboys, Yankees network but its frustrating to see the league not covered...exposure for the league anytime and anywhere would be welcome.....But between highlights of grounders during the summer and around the clock weekly coverage and analysis of a league that generally plays one game a week...surely there would be time just for the good of the growth of the league...

Sorry for the bitching, its just annoying...

Check out the Bristolmetrics blog on Deadspin. They breakdown the amount of time Sportscenter spend on each league/sport each week.

Unfortunately soccer is usually put in the "Other" category but that category is often small.

Word

Wow..I wish you hadn't shown me that. That metric is utterly depressing. I understand that revenue, interest, and serving as a promotion vehicle for ESPN is what sportscenter exists for but the data truly underlines the ridiculousness of it all.
I have a love hate relationship with the channel, I love sports in general and enjoy having a channel that covers it but sportscenter spends so much time covering such stupid crap. I wish someone would actually stand up a competing alternative to sportscenter but its such an instution now..it would almost be a fools errand. (not only that but whats to say advertising and interest wouldnt turn that alternative into nothing more than a clone).

Sportscenter is so random when it comes to soccer highlights. Some times it literally makes no sense.

The people who run SportsCenter really have no clue about soccer. I just stopped caring at a certain point. Maybe wait 10 years and things will improve.


Although if you really want to see bad coverage, look at LA Times coverage of the LA Galaxy. Out of all the MLS teams, Galaxy rank near the bottom in terms of the amount of local coverage. LA times barely even acknowledge Galaxy's existence. There isn't even a Galaxy or soccer tab on the website.

They did show the Dynamo-SKC score the other day. I was surprised.

I know of the LA Times BS... back in the late 90s the Lakers were being stagnant so the Sports section focused on the Galaxy, in that time the Lakers signed Shaq.....all the coverage focused on Shaq and their big editorial went on to say how Shaq had saved LA from having nothing to cheer for, that things had gotten so stagnant in the LA Sports scene that the city had started paying attention to soccer and the galaxy..it said it in such an indignant way..I was so pissed.

There is a Los Angeles soccer blog at http://www.insidesocal.com/soccer/

Who cares? It's 2012, you can pick and choose your media to suit your tastes and interests, sporting, political and otherwise...

I wanna see highlights of MLS, I don't need to sit on my couch watching SportsCenter, hoping they might throw me a crumb. I can go to FSC or - in the case of DC United - my local Comcast affiliate and if I don't want to wait for those channels, I can use this handy-dandy Internets thingy and get all the highlights I want exactly when I want them.

It's not 1998 anymore.

Sportscenter jumped the shark years ago on sports coverage. It's basically a balancing act between generating viewers and hyping their most profitable properties.

Basic rundown last year in mid-November:
Tebow!
LeBron!
Cowboys!
Knicks!
Yanks/Sawx!
This guy is Christian and unorthodox, who cares if he plays a different sport, let's compare him to Tebow!

Perhaps, perhaps not.
But they are very clueful about their viewers, and their content reflect that.

Traditional media is slowly but surely dying. The good thing about soccer is that it may have gotten the jump on the other leagues in the new media world because the fans didnt really have much choice but to embrace it.

MLS needs its own channel. Or the USA needs a USA-centric soccer channel.

Been a decade since I bothered with Sportscenter. As others mentioned I have no patience to watch 90% of something just to get to 10% or less I want. YouTube and watch MLS highlights, I do miss the weekly round up they did at one point with voice over and all.

The thing is, America is deliberately fighting the fact of how popular soccer is becoming for many reasons. One of the reason I strongly believe IMO, is that I think it all boils down to being because the USA is such a prideful nation (which is what I envy).

My reason for saying that, is if you look at the top 5 list below( based of this link http://deadspin.com/bristolmetrics/)....

• NFL
• College Football
• NBA
• MLB
• Nascar

....you can clearly see that these are sports that USA is number 1 in the world in.
MLB - (USA#2 - behind Cuba, and consisted of majority of the players playing within the MLB) best league in the world for its sport, and also host the "World Series" but only the American teams participate in (except for the Wonderful Blue Jays)
NFL & College Football- only professional football league in the World, other than the prestigious CFL in which they play by different rules.
NBA - (USA#1) Best League in the World for its Sport, not further explaining.
Nascar - Don't know to much other than it being predominantly popular in America, and that the top 20 rankings are all American. (http://msn.foxsports.com/nascar/powerRankings)
NHL - (USA#7) Best league in the World to play in, however doesn't resonate on its national team, too many lock outs, decreasing salaries, decreasing attendances, and IMO this sport is on a massive decline .
MLS - (USA#27) Fastest growing league for its 16 year age, rise in attendance, world awareness, quality, sponsorships, ect. We all know where the MLS is at, and where its going if you truly follow.
So to sum it, the league will get more attention when the national team gets better, and for tv and broadcasting
....they can fight because they don't want to talk about it for now, we can argue it all the time....however the time will come where MLS/soccer in America will slowly takeover some of these "Major/World/National Leagues with in USA.

I am beginning to like the NBC production of MLS games a lot more than ESPN's. For example, they didn't even televise the national anthem on Veteran's day!

My only problem with NBC has been a consistent problem since the first match they had. They are horrible about timing of replays. They always take their time getting into the replay instead of showing it as soon as there is a stoppage.

Living in the Bay Area, I pretty much get nothing from ESPN. All our teams are ignored or marginalized, even when one of 'em wins 2 World Series titles in the last 3 years.

FYP

Yup..agree with all the above..

In NBA is..Lebron and the Heat won, if they lose the story is why Lebron and the Heat lost..same with Yankees etc. etc. etc.. right now the entire network and their purse of analysts is having an aneurism over the Lakers coaching decisions...

The resistance in the US popular media in acknowledging the growth of Soccer is what really eats at me...sure they show up to collect ratings and sponsorship revenue during Euros and World Cup but they do nothing to grow the sport (even if it would benefit them).

Hell, MLS Cup 2012 will be on ESPN, how many times has is been mentioned or even advertised??

I'm watching Sportscenter less and less. Not just because they don't cover MLS but because it's the same ********ing shit everyday. LAKERS, LEBRON, TEBOW, YANKEES, COWBOYS. I mean for ********s sake they spent a whole ********ing month talking about the Jets, Tebow and Sanchez. It was ridiculous. They've gone the way of MTV. ********'em.

/rant

This is why I like NBC more. They seriously advertise the games, and give them an event feel. Now, ESPN is light years ahead of FSC, but I think NBC is doing it better at this point.

Will MLS fans ever get over their SportsCenter inferiority complex?

Welcome to my life in Buffalo.. This was always my thoughts in the 90's regarding hockey.. But like a previous poster (and Jurgen) said, at least we have numerous other soccer friendly channels which allows us to skip by espn... Sure, I wish we were on network tv, but who cares.. NBC SN showed soccer highlights, maybe I will watch that..

Interesting related article from an outside group that was asked to come in and be essentially an ombudsman for ESPN over the last 18 months. They make similar points (the over-exposure of Tebow-mania for example) but also point out that the complaints about repetitiousness on the channel aren't really justified, because ESPN is designed for viewers who may only watch 1-2 shows a day, not for somebody sitting down and mainlining it for 8 hours.

http://espn.go.com/blog/poynterreview/post/_/id/522/finale-espns-size-power-demand-scrutiny