What is the matter with ESPN??!! Why did they broadcast most of the season and then totally drop the ball with the playoffs quarterfinal match rounds? Something I would have liked to see: But I didn't get to 'cause ESPN can't spare the time even for the brief post-season? What gives? phooey
This morning's SportsCenter had Hernan Crespo's goal for Inter versus Ajax (yeah, Stuart Scott said A-Jacks), followed by Donovan's goal against the Crew. Had to watch the bottom ticker go through 3 times before getting the MLS playoff scores. They didn't miss a beat with pre-season NHL though, the niggleboppers...
He said "A-Jacks" instead of "I-ax" which isn't a big deal. I never called it "I-ax" until I heard it pronounced on TV duing CL. But at least they put a highlight out there for the people watching Sportscenter.
That actually caught me off guard when I saw the Donovan and Crespo's goal on the Top Plays of the night.I tune in almost every night and rarely see any soccer highlights,especially not in the Top Plays.
Soccer gets better ratings than Jumprope competitions or Outdoor games but that hasn't stopped ESPN from putting those things on instead of soccer. They have their heads up their butts, that is the only explanation.
I would like to see that in writing....f-ing NO ONE watches the soccer games when they are on.......until there is a greater demand...buy the shootout and get FSW.....
As I renewed my MLS SHOOTOUT package beginning of the year, I reflected on how I really can't watch alot of the games because they are always on Saturday. Then I remembered watching all the playoff games and how great it was getting those. So I renewed and I enjoyed watching all three games last nite
Yup, and it's so cheap that it's worth buying JUST for the postseason. Personally, I say screw ESPN. I'm far more worried about all the soccer fans that don't buy the MLS shootout package. I'm already worried about what it's going to look like next season. C in SJ
Even if your theory is correct - How many commercials run during those shows as compared to a Soccer match?
pipe dreams... Perhaps the reason that the matches/league aren't popular is that they're not featured prominently enough in the first place? I mean, I know no one wants to take a gamble on this (and by television's standards ESPN & ABC already have) but maybe if they want to see a profit eventually come out of the games ABC should consider running more than just the AllStar match and the finals on television. It stands to reason that no one will care about the All-Star match or the finals if they haven't been following the progress of the season... and if regular season matches and playoffs are only on cable (when the playoffs ARE on cable that is), no one can build up any interest. That is: Even though the vast majority of homes have cable (or so I heard... I also heard that more people connect to the Internet via DSL than dial-up but I'm not sure I want to believe it)... I really don't think many people will stumble on to a cable program and stick with it unless it's the Sopranos and its full of tits and guns... a sporting event that lasts an hour an half per match needs a bit more of a jump start than that... ABC should run at least one match a week over the airwaves for a season with the rest on ESPN and then... ONLY then will they know whether viewers either are or are not going to take an interest in this stuff... modest growth in viewer ship more than what is already occuring could be considered success and a profitable enterprise six or seven years from now would be acceptable.. no?
its harder than just putting it on tv FSW should know that, they will show games but from one week to the next you go from West Ham vs Southampton to Arsenal vs Leeds. And frankly there are a lot of MLS games on tv that I wouldn't care to watch. If KC plays Colorado I'm not going to tune in. I think MLS very much should have tried to focus on getting a national tv audience around someone like San Jose this year. Maybe show a game of theirs every week or at least every other week. If they can build popularity in the league by selling one team (how about DCU the first 4 years?!?!) to the nation that would be great. Its like the Dallas vs Colorado play off series. How interesting is that to a nonMLS follower? Jason Kreis leads the Burn against Pablo Mastroeni and the Rapids. That has very little national appeal. Market Donovan, Cobi Jones/Ruiz, DMB/Wolff (okay he's injured), McBride, etc.
Well, I didn't mean to suggest that it was easy. I think your idea seams more workable. It's true there are only a few baseball teams that seem to get much national coverage.... the Braves being the most obvious 'cause Aol/Time Warner owns them. I guess I'm a little sycophantic... hooked on the idea of recreating media coverage of soccer on a European scale and thinking that anything short of that is a failure. Still, I think we both agree that regulary (i.e. weekly) exposure of the sport is necessary to make the public aware of the progress of the sport... to give it some narrative, some drama and pull people in. If it has to be San Jose and Landon Donovan with his Vanity Faire/NY Times/W mag fashion spreads then so be it. (But we also want guys to follow the game, too. Right?)
Those shows ARE commericals (for STIEHL chainsaws and axes)... If you think they're exciting you've been had.
My grandma JUST got DTV on Monday. By Tuesday I had talked her into letting me pay her for Shootout on her bill. Definately worth it!
Since you, presumably, do NOT have your head up your butt, I'm sure Disney is anxiously awaiting your resume, so that they can hire you to run ESPN.
I thought the thread title was "Buddy Epson!!". Geez, I was waiting to see a Jed Clampett/Barnaby Jones slamfest.
lol They moved this thread once.... starting talking about Buddy Epson too much and I'll lose it forever...
This entire thread is a non starter. You can't blame ESPN for not showing playoff games. MLS is a time buy, no different than an infomercial. Had SUM bought more time on ESPN for the playoffs, then we would have seen more games. It makes no sense to blame ESPN because they basically have nothing to do with broadcasting MLS, besides providing the air time that SUM purchases. Andy
hunh? So all the ad revenue from half-time and during the pre and post game coverage goes to MLS? None of the advertising that occurs during the match (e.g. "this portion of the match is brought to you by mastercard") goes to ESPN? ESPN is totally disinterested in the ratings that MLS matches draw? I'd be very surprised if that's the case.
Are you sure they haven't been doing that? If you check the schedule for "Soccer Saturday" I think you'll find an inordinate number of Metro matches. In hindsight probably a mistake, but who knew? C in SJ
Re: pipe dreams... Please, can anyone who has made this argument (and plenty have) explain why ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 owes soccer anything???