more specifically soccer in the US needs ESPN. ESPN has been excellent with their coverage of Euro and the World Cup. Great broadcasts, great exposure. Lots of coverage on all their channels both TV and radio. Finding the 2009 Gold cup on TV wasn't easy. Some rounds were on Univsion. The late rounds were on FSC. To have any exposure to the American sporting public this tournament needs to be on ESPN. FSC is a disaster both in presentation and broadcasting and promotion. ESPN has treated the Euro and The WC with respect bringing in top notch announcers and studio analysts. The Gold Cup needs the same.
The Univision Family of Networks showed all the games. I'm fine with it...but I see what you are saying as far as reaching more Americans I guess.
I agree that ESPN should cary Gold Cup matches but I think FSC still has the rights. (I am not sure though.) Even if ESPN does not get the rights to the tournament they should at least talk about the USA's matches on some sort of weekly soccer show on ESPN2 or something. People in America need to know that Soccer does not only happen every 4 years.
I agree that the English broadcasts of the Gold Cup should be on ESPN. The main issue is other than the US and possibly Mexico matches ESPN would probably not be willing to show matches live on TV. They would probably be willing to show those other matches on ESPN3 online. I think this tradeoff woud be worth it for the organizers to get more exposure around the tournament(presumably if they had the rights ESPN would then cover the event more than they do now).
ironically having the tournament on espn and the exposure it would bring would make concacaf take the gold cup more seriously. but the gold cup is taken very seriously when the confed cup tie in is on the line. It's the year that it is not that the gold cup is not taken seriously. (All the more reason to just have the gold cup every 4 years)
This might solve a couple of these problems... http://www.goal.com/en/news/1884/no...roscope-why-the-mls-on-versus-needs-to-happen
By "seriously", most people mean concacaf needs to treat its own tournament like a real tournament, instead of a weird mutant money grab series of friendlies. That would require, of course, that the host is rotated around the different federations that participate, instead of just hosting it in the US every time. True, that might not make a lot of money, at least initially, but it would go a loooong way towards making the tournament something worth playing for, even if it remained every 2 years (although every 4 years would be ideal).
yes it should be rotated . Costa Rica has the infrastructure to handle such a tournament. Canada too. It could be co-hosted by several central american teams.
Some of the posts in this thread (and others in the Gold Cup section) express a lot of ignorance. People are making it seem like the CONCACAF is some money hungry organization that does not care for its Federations. NEWS FLASH PEOPLE: No country is clamoring to host the Gold Cup. NONE! There were talks of Canada negotiating to host a group in the last Gold Cup but even that turned out to be "all talk no action". People have to realize that soccer is a business just like all other sports these days. YOu would be stupid to run your business into the ground by forcing a tournament to be played in a Country that has not shown serious interest in hosting the event. IT is flawed logic. Having the Gold Cup in the USA is not only the best option... ...but the only viable option until another country's Federation comes into the CONCACAF offices and tells them otherwise.
I believe that other countries have made bids, but I do not think they can offer the same profits as the USA does, Well at least that is what they claim, FMF claims that they bid but were not successful for the last one 2009. I will try to find a link. The truth is that the Gold Cup in the USA is the best option for profits, the GC would probably lose money in other countries, or the associations would not get a big paycheck for playing in it as they do when playing in the USA. I believe that all associations that send teams to the GC make pretty good money, there must even be a $ money price for winning it. I assume that other associations can not guarantee that they will make enough cash to cover the prize money, the expenses and Jacks cut. so they know their bids will be too low to be accepted.
What they claim and what actually happened are two different stories. Besides if they did do a bid it was mostly talk and obviously not something serious. The last time Mexico hosted in 2003 it was practically a failure outside of the Brazil matches And that is smart business. But this is a chicken and egg argument. Assumptions are nice but no Country has shown an intense amount of interest in hosting this tournamnet outside of the USA. Until there is a Serious candidate people should not complain.
Agree, as a business the USA makes perfect sense, it is as sporting fairness it would be nice for the GC to rotate, but the reality of concacaf is that we have one very wealthy country (and Canada) and a bunch or middle to poor countries.
Sport fairness does not exist unless you are willing to lose everything you have. Look at the World Cup. It would be "fair" if the small crappy nations would host... ...but dumb business wise. Never confuse "fairness" with "justice". We should always focus on justice and not fairness in life. What is "just" is having a Confederation that is profitable and successful, not one that panders to the smaller , poorer nations.
But back to the topic at hand, I think ESPN should look into broadcasting these game in the future. IT looks like FSC may still have the rights but I hope it changes soon.
Unfortunately FSC still has the rights. Hopefully MLS moves away from FSC and goes to Versus because chances are Versus would also get the rights to the Gold Cup. That would be better than ESPN in my opinion.
yeah, I found this old article indicating that. Well there is always 2013. http://www.multichannel.com/article/159823-Fox_Soccer_Nets_2009_2011_CONCACAF_Gold_Cups.php