ESPN and Soccer

[gosya]

I was wondering if all our resident espn-haters watched yesterday's SportsCenter. Champions League came 12(!) minutes into the show and they devoted at least 5 minutes to it.

Addiitonally, for those who were wondering if ESPN would devote as much commercial time to World Cup as they did to World Baseball Classic - have you seen ESPN in Prime Time lately? I think they are averaging one World Cup spot per commercial break.

Just further goes to prove that ESPN is about money (surprise, surprise) and if something makes money, they'll give it appropriate air time, whether it's soccer, checkers, or synchronized swimming.

Separately, FYI:

Top ten most popular sporting events in recent times (as of mid-'05).

1. 2002 FIFA World Cup Final (1.3 billion viewers)
2. Euro 2004 Soccer Final (153 million viewers)
3. 2004 Olympic Games: opening ceremony (127 million viewers)
4. 2004 Olympic Games: closing ceremony (96 million viewers)
5. 2004 Super Bowl (95 million viewers)
6. 2004 Olympic Games: men's 100m metres (87 million viewers)
7. 2003 Champions League (67 million viewers)
8. 2004 Olympic Games: men's 200m freestyle swimming (66 million viewers)
9. 2004 Formula One: Monaco Grand Prix (59 million viewers)
10. 2004 Basketball: NBA finals (25 million viewers)

Additionally, Cricket and Rugby World Cup Finals (both 2003), garnered 23 and 25 million viewers, respectively.

[kebzach]

I was wondering if all our resident espn-haters watched yesterday's SportsCenter. Champions League came 12(!) minutes into the show and they devoted at least 5 minutes to it.

Of course they didn't watch it. Why would the "experts" on here want to watch something that would show them up?


Addiitonally, for those who were wondering if ESPN would devote as much commercial time to World Cup as they did to World Baseball Classic - have you seen ESPN in Prime Time lately? I think they are averaging one World Cup spot per commercial break.

Just further goes to prove that ESPN is about money (surprise, surprise) and if something makes money, they'll give it appropriate air time, whether it's soccer, checkers, or synchronized swimming.

This is something that people have said on here for years, and it's true. But, since soccer usually is the sport that's not being shown, because most soccer games aren't money-makers, people don't like to hear the news/truth.

[Pyro]

Of course they didn't watch it. Why would the "experts" on here want to watch something that would show them up?



This is something that people have said on here for years, and it's true. But, since soccer usually is the sport that's not being shown, because most soccer games aren't money-makers, people don't like to hear the news/truth.


I was impressed with ESPN's in-game coverage! They had a four man team actually at the Stade and a special studio back in the US (i think?).

They're promo for the Champions League Final and the World Cup has been very good. I was most surprised by the MLS News item on the bottom line Monday on the Guevara suspension. I don't recall ever seeing a MLS player specific news item on the bottom line.

[kebzach]

I was impressed with ESPN's in-game coverage! They had a four man team actually at the Stade and a special studio back in the US (i think?).

They're promo for the Champions League Final and the World Cup has been very good. I was most surprised by the MLS News item on the bottom line Monday on the Guevara suspension. I don't recall ever seeing a MLS player specific news item on the bottom line.

They also had the Lalas to L.A. Galaxy news on the bottom line, just a few weeks ago.

[fgn]

Curious, what is your source for this information?


Separately, FYI:

Top ten most popular sporting events in recent times (as of mid-'05).

1. 2002 FIFA World Cup Final (1.3 billion viewers)
2. Euro 2004 Soccer Final (153 million viewers)
3. 2004 Olympic Games: opening ceremony (127 million viewers)
4. 2004 Olympic Games: closing ceremony (96 million viewers)
5. 2004 Super Bowl (95 million viewers)
6. 2004 Olympic Games: men's 100m metres (87 million viewers)
7. 2003 Champions League (67 million viewers)
8. 2004 Olympic Games: men's 200m freestyle swimming (66 million viewers)
9. 2004 Formula One: Monaco Grand Prix (59 million viewers)
10. 2004 Basketball: NBA finals (25 million viewers)

Additionally, Cricket and Rugby World Cup Finals (both 2003), garnered 23 and 25 million viewers, respectively.

[gosya]

Curious, what is your source for this information?
Just googled it. Found it on some board, but seemed credible enough. Personally, I'm surprised that the gap b/w Euro and Wold Cup is that big. The World Cup final viewership seems too big to me, while the Euro seems to small. 1.3 bln is 20% of world's population - seems way too much. My guess would have been 600-800 mln for the World Cup and 200-300 for the Euro final.

Also, I always thought Champs League final was in the 150 range.

[BWMcTell]

I checked out ESPN.com and I saw this article was among the headlines:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=370200&cc=5901

I just pisses me off that 75% of the soccer links that ESPN.com puts on their front page are these anecdotal articles about some psychotic soccer fan who cut off his own testicles on a bet or some game where the home team scored 45 own goals. It would just be nice to see an article about something relevant for a change.

I know this has been discussed a million times but I just had to get it off my chest...

[the equaliser]

I'm a subscriber to ESPN pacific rim here in Australia and here is a run down of their usual weekly soccer broadcasting

4-6 games from each match day of UEFA CL(live and delayed)
3 games from each round of La Liga(live and delayed)
2-4 games from each round of Spanish Cup(live and delayed)
1-2 games from The Dutch League(live and delayed)
1-2 games from each round of Dutch Cup(live and delayed)
1-2 games from Serie A although not bestof fixtures(live and delayed)
3-4 games from each round of FA Cup(live and delayed
1 game from MLS(live and delayed)
All England home internationals(live and delayed)
All US home internationals(live and delayed)
All Holland internationals(live and delayed)
2 episodes of soccernet press-pass fri/mon
plus a few other magazine shows here and there

Can't really complain about that to much!!

[SavannahFan]

You know, they are a business and not a charity, right...? I guess it kinda depends which market you are in.

Put it this way, if you were able to watch the Euro version of Sportscenter tonight, you would never complain. First up was the Rooney recovery story, then more WC coverage, follwed by further WC coverage, and then a little tennis tossed in. Then EPL coverage, followed by a piece on footballers wives that are models, and so on.

Heaven :)

If I can figure a way to get the Sat feed for this version of ESPN, I think I will no longer have a complaint about decent Soccer coverage.

[critchio]

Put it this way, if you were able to watch the Euro version of Sportscenter tonight, you would never complain. First up was the Rooney recovery story, then more WC coverage, follwed by further WC coverage, and then a little tennis tossed in. Then EPL coverage, followed by a piece on footballers wives that are models, and so on.

Does European ESPN hate baseball?

[King-James]

Just googled it. Found it on some board, but seemed credible enough. Personally, I'm surprised that the gap b/w Euro and Wold Cup is that big. The World Cup final viewership seems too big to me, while the Euro seems to small. 1.3 bln is 20% of world's population - seems way too much. My guess would have been 600-800 mln for the World Cup and 200-300 for the Euro final.

Also, I always thought Champs League final was in the 150 range.

Why do you think that? It's just UEFA. The viewership of their competitions often gets exaggerated by the European fans. It's not THAT big. Europe's population is only 700mil.

[SavannahFan]

Does European ESPN hate baseball?They did not mention a thing about baseball or the NBA finals.

I gotta see if there is someway to pull in this sportscenter instead of the one I have to watch at home.