This might have been said already, but why not again, why don't we just all keep sending emails to espn every day,trying to get more and better soccer coverage. askespntv@espn.com let'em have it!!!
so do you guys think its a good idea, i figure it can't hurt, and if they get enough emails, they might just actually do something. how many of you have written and email, i wrote one then just saved it so i could use it over again.
i figure, on this board there are enough people that could cause a big enough annoyance, and maybe possibly get something done, i plan on doing it everyday, cause i'm sick of seeing the same baseball highlights,and not one soccer highlight.
It's a stupid, stupid, stupid idea. What do you really expect to accomplish? Soccerfan: Please show more soccer. ESPN: Say, that's a good idea. Thanks for e-mailing us with that! Wish we'd been able to think of that one ourselves! ESPN gets spammed with e-mails calling for more soccer coverage, then the ratings for the soccer they DO cover stay in the toilet, what does that say to ESPN? It says that soccer fans are nothing but a bunch of whining crybabies who don't put their money where their mouth is (mostly cause the mouth's too busy from having a foot inserted into it). In case you hadn't noticed, we live in a capitalist economy. Money talks and b*llsh*t walks, my friends. ESPN isn't going to give us a lick of extra soccer coverage unless we make it financially viable for them to do so. That means watching more of what soccer coverage they do provide so that the ratings increase. Increased ratings will allow them to charge a higher rate to advertisers. Increased revenue will make it financially viable for them to show more soccer coverage. In the democracy of the free market, you vote with your dollars, not your data. But thanks for trying to vote anyway, Florida.
i watch pretty much every mls game i can, and all the nat games, and champions league, i'm glued to my fsw, it can't hurt to try. tell me what you plan on doing then to remedy the situation.
Has it ever crossed your mind that being an annoyance doesn't accomplish anything but get people pissed at you? If it makes you feel better, ok, but do we want ESPN pissed at us??? I suggest you write annoying e-mails and just post them here. Get it off your chest without harming our interests. Perhaps if you send ESPN a few million dollars, they will make programs specifically for you.
Then get all your soccer-loving friends to watch. And get them to get all their soccer-loving friends to watch. Then get anybody else you can to watch. If you absolutely MUST send an e-mail to ESPN, send one that THANKS THEM for the soccer coverage they do provide right now. Not really gonna help that much, but at least you won't be HURTING the cause.
Anyone who has followed soccer for a few decades in the USA knows that the situation is largely remedied!!! The first sentence you wrote should have made that clear. You want soccer to be the #1 sport in the USA? Me too. Convince 50 million people to agree with you and we'll have a little more soccer on tv, though I'm wondering exactly how much soccer you need to watch. Yeah, it would be nice if Sportscenter covered MLS. Yeah it would be nice is SI ever put a soccer player like Mathis or Donovan on the cover. Um, forget that last sentence. The glass is more than half full. Much more. Don't get me wrong. I'm pissed at how many sports journalists treat soccer. I know we could be in better shape, much better, if MLS got more coverage and soccer wasn't still a whipping boy. But overall, things are so much better than they ever have been. Being a soccer fan is pretty easy now.
well i have already converted my roommate here into a soccer fan, he even got up during the summer to watch world cup games, i'm just asking them for some highlights on sportscenter, and mabye promoting the games during other sporting events like they do during mls games for baseball and football, i think it sounds like a fair proposition. You would think they would want to promote the games to get their ratings up, in order to draw more commercial revenues.
In all fairness to the poster who wants us to bombard ESPN with emails, do we really think ESPN will get so annoyed as to show LESS soccer on Sportscenter? Anyone?? Perhaps an email campaign requesting at least the SCORES of the games?? Goal highlights would be nice, would only take a minute and who gives a rat's ass about Tampa Bay Devil Ray baseball highlights!? For those who don't wish to ANGER the great and mighty mouse, your tepid responses speak more in volumes than a few "annoying" emails requesting that Sportscenter at least show the damn SCORES!
Ben, as a soccer fan who has followed soccer in the US since 1974 and who has researched it's history, yes, soccer is at it's highest "acceptance" level since the heyday of the NASL. That's not saying much. Most major newspapers do not list soccer scores, standings or stories. The WC is over, and so is the coverage. You want stories to read...get on the internet. You want stats...get on the internet. If not for the internet, US soccer fans would still be watching German highlights hosted by Toby Charles. As for convincing 50,000,000 people to watch...soccer does not need NFL numbers to get at least scores mentioned on Sportscenter or the occasional goal highlight. ESPN broadcasts MLS. At least post the damn scores once in a while. I for one would like to see MLS sign up with the Fox Sports Networks for it's showcase national game. FSN is already the broadcaster of many regional MLS games anyway. I see more highlights of MLS on Fox Sports World than I see on ESPN. That's shameful. And I'm confused by your comment that soccer is still a whipping boy but it's easier to be a soccer fan. I can get info from the internet about soccer, and thank god for FSW, but if you tell people you are a soccer fan, you still get the "wha!" look on their faces. Show a few Landon Donovan or Taylor Twellman highlights on Sportscenter and "Joe Six-Pack" might see MLS as something else than that "foreign" sport.
The problem is that ESPN demands SCORES, too. Only the scores they're concerned about are Neilsen Ratings. And when our guys can rack those up a bit more significantly, then ESPN might cater to our wishes. As it is now, our Email campaigns just reinforce the stereotype that US soccer fans are few in number, but in possession of an inadequate social life that allows unlimited time to bombard ESPN with Emails.
I'm sure many casual baseball fans get most of their baseball fix from sportscenter. The same would be true for soccer. If they were to show highlights occasionally, people would see good goals, big saves, and begin to familiarize themselves (even if incrementally) with the MLS. Therefore, the next time they do happen to be flipping through the channels, they are less likely to keep flipping. ESPN knows this and that's exactly why they don't show highlights. It is not in their best interest to promote the MLS because the MLS pays to be on the channel. WHy would ESPN help increase interest in the MLS when that would mean forking out lots of money when it comes time to renegotiate television contracts. So in all honesty, I'm not really sure what we could do other than what ,as I believed someone mentioned, would have to be a very grassroots-type campaign (ie- soccer fans have to work harder to get their friends to watch and attend MLS games) Certainly, no other sport has a more difficult task.
Right....US soccer fans are so few in number....so let's not show scores for 25 seconds dare baseball fans grab the remote and switch to Fox. And of course soccer fans are the only fans that email ESPN. Question: During hockey season we get to see Hockey 2Night, several games a week, and almost every damn goal. Those Nashville Predator highlights keep me glued to the screen. Mickey Mouse bought the rights to the NHL out the ying-yang so they are going to promote, promote and promote. MLS has a time buy so it's screw you MLS. Perhaps MLS in their time buys could put in a rider that ESPN at least ONCE on Saturday night show the scores. Just ONCE. I don't think it's a lack of social life that MLS fans ask that. We already have the scores via the internet or the sports ticker at the bottom of Headline news. It's the casual fan that MLS needs to get interested in their product, and scores and one goal as a highlight would at least be a start. We don't have to show them that MLS averages 16K per game to get at least that. And soccer ratings on ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC are probably as profitable for Mickey Mouse as the NHL is with the amount that they paid to air it. Just my honest opinion.
It's easy being a fan because there is so much soccer on tv and information is extremely easy to find. That soccer gets ridiculed at times in the press and Sportscenter doesn't show any highlights may prevent some new people from picking up the sport. For those of us who do follow it, things have never been better. Being a soccer fan is 1 zillion times better now than in the past. Let's spend a minute appreciating how easy things are for us. Imagine if someone told you 20 years ago that you would have a decent domestic league with a match on tv every week, almost every USA game, a good number of European Cup matches including the key ones, plus have a chance of getting a network that shows almost nothing but soccer. You wouldn't believe it. And then there would be something called the internet which could provide virtually unlimited amounts of soccer information (not to mention tons of free porn ). Put aside what others are saying and doing for a second, we pretty much have it all right now.
This is not quite correct. ESPN is all about providing programming that people can't live without. There is a difference. ESPN makes a lot more money than networks with similar ratings.
Letters & petitions I agree with first just trying to get them to show scores. It would only take a minute out of their "quality" time and it's a positive start for us. But what about petitions and letters instead of e-mails? You know, the kind ya write by hand. E-mails are normally not taken as seriously. If we bombarded them with letters they really (or hopefully) may start to notice. And petitions would show how much scores would mean to the best fans in the US. How 'bout it?
Whoa, slow down there, slappy! The good doctor said none of that stuff, so put down your Jumping-to-Conclusions juice and help yourself to a bowl of Reading-Comprehension flakes! Now, as we all know, sterotypes don't have to be true, there just has to be people that THINK the sterotype is true. US soccer fans aren't few in number, sure, but they are hardly the majority of total US sports fans. And even if they were, taking the lump sum of all people in the US who are fans of soccer isn't even accurate in this discussion, since not everybody in the US who's a fan of soccer necessarily gives a rat's ass about MLS. So while we're talking about a significant number of people--enough to populate a city of decent size--those people represent a relatively small percent of people in the United States who are sports fans. Granted, not as small a percentage as the people who are fans of more obscure "sports" such as underwater basketweaving, but a relatively small percent when compared to say, NFL fans. Of course, the problem with these percentages is that the groups aren't mutually exclusive...one can be a soccer fan AND an NFL fan, for example. So really, all ESPN needs to look at is the percentage of people who are soccer fans but not fans of other sports. For the purposes of determining how much soccer coverage the need to provide, they can overlook the folks who are fans of other sports as well as soccer...though these fans might be miffed if ESPN offers minimal soccer coverage, they'll still go to ESPN for their fix of their other sports. This, in turn, adds to the perception that soccer fans are few in number. Now, soccer fans aren't the only ones to e-mail ESPN, like you said. But this really only goes to re-inforce Dr. Wankler's statements. When the percentage of emails recieved by ESPN with the subject of "Add more soccer coverage" is greater than the percentage of emails recieved by ESPN from people who are soccer fans, what does that say to ESPN? That the few people who are soccer fans (remember, ESPN needs only to define "soccer fans" as those who are fans of soccer, but not other sports) must have a lot of time on their hands to be sending ESPN so damn many e-mails. Which carries the implication that if they have so much time, they can't be making as much money as other sports fans, and are thus less desirable customers for advertisers to target. And if their source of revenue (advertisers) aren't wanting to cater to a particular audience, then it's not in ESPN's best interest to cater to that particular audience. Sure, by spamming them with e-mails you're getting their attention...but the attention you're getting is negative attetion, which defeats the purpose.
Re: Letters & petitions Worse. Much worse. Petitions and letters are much more time consuming. Which would imply that soccer fans have a lot more time on their hands, and thus must be making a lot less money, and thus be a lot less desirable customers for advertisers to target. The problem with these suggestions is that y'all are looking at the situation from your standpoint and not looking at it from ESPN's standpoint. From ESPN's standpoint, there is no problem. What are they doing to alienate soccer fans? They're showing soccer...often at times when they could be making as much money or even more money showing other stuff.
Re: Re: Re: Letters & petitions Try reading the whole thread, slappy. I've already made it quite clear what I suggest.