I got your back, skip. http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cach...orld's+strongest+woman+ratings&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 IN case the link dies, here's the importnat part. Thsi document is something convincing people to advertise on World's Strongest Woman. MLS averaged a .19 last year on ESPN2. Its highest game was a .31, what WSM averages.
Right on, brother. Is it safe to assume that if soccer on weekend afternoons lose to oversized men in tight short shorts with 80's hair, soccer (with 80's hair) on weekday afternoons isn't going to do much better?
You have stats to back that up? Is that like having to take basic Algebra before they'll let you take advanced Algebra? This sentence makes no sense since nobody could possibly know what you mean by "these aspects" Among other things. Still doesn't explain why other shows shown at the same time get much higher ratings. Yeah, we hate soccer. No comment Yes you did. And they'd be right. The die-hards will find alternate delivery methods You act as though this were an original conversation. You're just gonna have to trust me on this - we're right, you're wrong. Mike doesn't need me to defend him so no comment.
Not ESPN's problem. And not one that ESPN needs to worry about Like FSW? Again, not ESPN's problem And ESPN has no problem carrying it on their own main channel ESPN, which I would like to once more point out is not a charity They're saying the same thing on bigwaterpolo.com But you can compare it to other shows shown at the same time, and they kick CL in the ass for ratings You're wrong. That's simply not true. Thank you kenn, wherever you are. http://www.kenn.com/soccer/tv.html You're speculating. We have numbers Or if you use it to go to war. Oops, sorry, wrong forum. I don't know if it does or not. What I do know is that ESPN doesn't care and from a business standpoint they are probably doing the right thing. http://www.kenn.com/soccer/tv.html
Regardless of how we feel about soccer's ratings (past, present, future) and general place in the media sphere, can we all agree that ESPN should have seen this situation coming and should have taken steps to warn people that the Champions League might not be shown as scheduled? (Or perhaps not even tried to schedule it?) I'll add this related axiom: ESPN doesn't owe soccer fans live broadcasts of European games, but they owe soccer fans a chance to make other arrangements by being more realistic in their scheduling. I ask this so I can quit reading this thread and move on. (Baseball editor backed me up on the scheduling, by the way -- we figured well in advance that there'd likely be two day games on Tuesday.)
I just want to say that I'm pissed that ESPN didn't make ESPN2 available for the beginning of the Cubs/Braves game. Instead, they showed some women's soccer crap, so I missed some huge baserunning plays. The women's soccer crap wasn't even live. What crap. Crap crap crap. Yeah, ESPN should have told everyone they were moving it to 1am earlier. I think we all agree on that. What I don't agree with are those who say 1) they should have not shown the baseball at all or 2) ESPN should have moved/sold/given away the rights to the game.
Two day games on Tuesday was the most likely schedule, but it was not certain. ESPN had the 8pm PDT/11 pm EDT slot available in case MLB decided to schedule a game at that time. The Giants requested that their game 1 be at that time. Also, MLB could have decided to have the A's/Red Sox start on Tuesday and Yankees/Twins start on Wednesday, in which case there would have been two west coast games and one of them would have had to take the late-night time slot. This is the first time since 2000 that the Division Series have been on ESPN (last 2 years were on Fox Family/ABC Family). I wonder if someone at ESPN had a last-minute remembrance of complaints from several years ago when they cut away in the middle of a CL game due to two baseball games overlapping. Since the baseball games are scheduled for ESPN and the CL is on ESPN2, it wasn't an obvious conflict.
They seriously missed part of the Cubs-Braves game? How much? If anything, that would prove that the scheduling woes aren't part of some soccer conspiracy. They're just scheduling woes.
I don't think anyone has disagreed with that, Beau. But this is a different day and age. Not everyone gets their TV listings from a TV book that might include the notation about things running over or schedule changes. People have on-screen guides that do have the capability to change on short notice. Because of that, people start to feel entitled. They screwed up. But I'm sure if people sat down and tracked TV on a regular basis, they would find this stuff is not uncommon.
See, that's one of the problems. There are so many sources of info, how can anyone guarantee that they are getting the right info. I missed the first half of the Dallas-San Jose shootout last week because my Shootout channels showed it starting at 11. But I was stupid (given my usual habits) and didn't cross check the iNDemand Web site, which indicated the change to 10 p.m. live broadcast. I lost out. But I long ago gave up the notion that anyone owes me anything and rely only on myself to find out this info. Now ESPN dropped the ball, no doubt. But these kind of complaints aren't new. And they always conveniently ignore things such as MLS overtimes running into other events and college football games not being shown so ESPN2 can show the WWC.
But I think there's a difference between juggling a schedule weeks in advance (as for the WWC) and what they did here. I'm assuming they changed their listings weeks ago. (If not, that's horrendous.) It's also more excusable if a live event runs long, especially if it's only a few minutes of MLS overtime. Sometimes, ESPN has underestimated event times, most notably with college baseball, but even that is more excusable. I'm sure it happens elsewhere, but it's still not good.
OH PLEASE ! One can always get soccer games from UNIVISION-GALAVISION-TELEFUTURA- Telemundo and Foxsports Spanish/FoxSports World, RAI International,etc. PLUS the Broadcasters are more passionate, and to hear GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAL is better than to hear , oh he scores with a same mono tone voice.
I'm not saying it's good. I'm saying it happens. My beef is with the self-flagellation that follows as if it's soccer-related. It's not. I's programming related with a dash of stupidity and shortsightedeness thrown in for good measure. My point was that even if they did know a few days ahead of time, it's not likely all sources of info could have been fixed. That would make this sort of exercise inevitable when combined with the natural predeliction of some people to bitch about any perceived slight against soccer. My other examples only served to show that nothing is ever set in stone. Some people just don't get that. Even if it benefits soccer sometimes.