This is not exactly soccer related. I just thought you guys would appreciate how much ESPN and Sportcenter suck. 1.Besides for Dan Patrick, I have never seen such a bunch of unfunny guys who thought they were hilarious. Mr. Eisen you are the worst offender. Linda Cohn? Good god. 2.HereSay. They now have a 5 minute gameshow segement on Sportcenter where one of these lame anchors interview some meathead athlete. If I wanted to watch a gameshow I would watch The Price is Right. Just show the damn highlights and shut the hell up. 3.Would you like to know who ESPN plans to have on their NCAA tournement selection show? Yes that's right it's those two well known college basketball experts Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake. Are you kidding me? 4.The BOTTOM LINE, the annoying scoll at the bottom of the screen. It is bad enough that they have to run it 24 hours a day on ESPN2. Now they have decided to run a special college bball addition on every game. Most mondays this season. This meant them constantly running scores from the only three games being played that night. I was really pleased to be given updates every 2 minutes on the Bethune-Cookman/Radford game. And every 2 minutes I was informed of ESPN's weekly programming schedule. It was super. MLS does not need to be assosiated with these clowns. They have abandoned serious sports coverage in favor of mediocre "entertainment" programming.
Humor is subjective--some people think Gallagher is a hoot. Personally, I think that SC is not as good or as funny as it was during the heyday of the Patrick/Olbermann Big Show, but when I watch (which isn't very often; I don't own a TV), there's usually at least a few funny lines per show. This is admittedly awful, but as I understand it, it's been a temporary experiment during a time when very little is happening in US sports--after football, before baseball, and you've got to fill the time somehow. Of course, the official selection show--the one that hard-core bracketheads tune into--is the CBS one. ESPN's programming is a preview for someone else's party, so perhaps it's no great surprise that they're taking it easy. The merger of sports and more general entertainment started a long time ago and it sure isn't the exclusive property of ESPN--viz. the Fox NFL preview shows featuring noted football expert Jimmy Kimmel and WeatherTits. Better they run the promos on a bottom-of-the-screen crawl than take up a quarter of the screen with a huge box pimping the NHRA Funny Car Winternationals like they do during MLS games. May I suggest a mystical Zen technique called Not Looking At The Bottom Of Your TV Screen if the Bottom Line really bugs you that much. In any case, I find it hard to reconcile this complaint with your others--ESPN's forays into light entertainment bug you, but so does an attempt to provide information that only a hard-core fan would really care about, like a Bethune-Cookman/Radford score? What, exactly, are you looking for? Speaking as a college basketball fan who has a soft spot for noted non-powers like New Mexico State, it's nice to be able to get information about teams which aren't regularly featured on national telecasts, and I'm not sure how my access to this information detracts from anyone else's viewing experience in any meaningful way. I'm presuming that a Bethune-Cookman alum would feel similarly about your example. Even if MLS had a choice of national networks to show their game of the week, which they most emphatically do not, it's fallacious to argue that ESPN has merged sports and entertainment any more than any other sports outlet, and just plain silly to suggest that they've abandoned serious sports coverage just because of some dodgy segments on Sportscenter.
Let me summarize: "MLS should find another TV partner because their current TV partner has a fetish for keeping you somewhat informed." Sheesh. There are a myriad of reasons to rip ESPN, but the Bottom Line is NOT one of them. If I had a nickel for every time the Bottom Line gave me a score that I otherwise would've had to wait to get, well, I'd have a buttload of nickels. Probably enough to buy a combo meal at Mickey D's.
i love espn and the deuce why?... (in no particular order) -college basketball -major league baseball -nfl -nhl -mls -champion's league -tons of meaningless national team friendlies -world cup qualifiers -world cup -pti -sportscenter (i still miss keith olberman though) -college championship weeks (hell, they show the men and women's soccer semifinal and championships!!) -college football -baseball tonight -college basketball tonight in ways, i love that they don't gloat about soccer... it gives us more reasons to stay the straight and narrow and fight for more respect... make sure we do things the right way, not become the wnba
Let me just say that I watch ESPN everyday. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't like the direction they are heading. Also as far as the bottom line goes. If you want to see the scores you can check it out on ESPN2, but on most nights in college bball it doesn't provide much information and the whole scroll lasts 2 minutes before it repeats. They don't have to show it all the time. I don't like the way it distorts the picture. And I'm not saying MLS should leave ESPN, just that maybe its a good thing that MLS isn't on sportcenter as the show does appear to be going downhill.
Re: Re: ESPN is lame, but you already knew that. All soccer. All the time. From all over the planet from the smallest teams to the biggest. On three channels at all times.
Re: Re: ESPN is lame, but you already knew that. Loved the rest of the post. I have a pretty serious addiction to SC, and might just study the form of watermelon seed-spitting if someone would sanction it. I also get a kick out of HearSay. Love trivia(al) games. All of that said, if the Mothership is so hard up for genuine sports content that they have to contrive a game show to fill potentially dead air, wouldn't make sense to try and generate a little interest in a property they're committed to every week from April until November for the next several years, but is viewed as a ratings dog? They should use the time to pimp some MLS preseason. Would it be so hard, or expensive, to do a phone piece with Connolly or Bradley every few days? They're in Florida covering baseball, anyway. My principle beef with the Mouse Networks is the lack of effort they put into packaging and promoting the game. My son sees more MLS references in a couple of hours of Nick GaS than he will in a week of SC. Don't bitch that there's no audience, when you've done nothing to build one.
Re: Re: Re: ESPN is lame, but you already knew that. they spend pretty much jack on mls... nothing not a cent... so why should they spend their own money to promote something they aren't invested in??... when they could spend that same money on promoting the nba... something they *are* invested in they get paid for the time that mls takes on their channel, mls produces it and mls keeps the revenue from the commercials espn doesn't hire the announcers, they are mls'... (and really, all these mentionings of mls should be s.u.m.... soccer united media, iirc.... mls owners plus a couple of others) so in other words, if you got a problem with the packaging and the promoting... don't be looking at espn/abc/mouse, be looking at sum and mls (essentially the same thing)
Yeah, I know...it would be like if they showed MLS scores on the Bottom Line, I mean...who really cares about that!! You need to have a little perspective, there are people who care about Bethune-Cookman, and Radford. Being another mid-major fan, I like to know I can find out the Appalachian State score without having to boot up my dad's agonizingly slow computer. I know ESPN doesn't give much props to MLS...they actually give more to Arena Football, but at they do a halfway decent job of fitting it in every once and while. Let's not forget, ESPN was one of the first places you could see Euro pro soccer on TV in the US.
Re: Re: ESPN is lame, but you already knew that. I guess what I'm ranting against is this merger of sports and the entertainment world. I've actually stopped watching the NFL, b/c of the way it's been presented the past few years. It used to all about tradition and that's gone out the window with the free agency and the strict cap. And all your left with is a game which isn't as good as I remember it being. Also on the Super Bowl did you notice that after the game they made the Buccaneers stand on the field before they presented the damn trophy. I mean come on. And yes this is a rant, not be taken to seriously. I'm just trying to see if anybody agrees that this entertainification, my word, of sports is not such a good thing.
All this means is that Sportcenter shouldn't be considered the be all and all for MLS. MLS games on epsn? Absolutely. A return of ESPN2's weekly MLS show? Absolutely. But highlight on sportcenter? I don't really care or not b/c the anchors are clowns and the show's standard in general has taken a big step backwards.
Because all you've done is bitch about ESPN not doing anything the way you like it. If BigSoccer is any indication of the American soccer commuinity, we're a bigger bunch of whiners than four-year olds at bedtime. I just hope no one at ESPN is reading this and thinking "You know, we get higher ratings for test patterns than we do for soccer and all soccer fans do is whine and bitch. Let's put on something people actually watch, like bowling." I'll say it before and I'll say it again, if we put one-tenth as much energy into actually selling soccer that we do put into whining, people over at BigNFL.com will be bitching about being second class-tenants in soccer stadiums. Sachin
This is not exactly a soccer related rant. I am a bigger basketball fan then a soccer fan. I am not saying they need to cover more soccer. All I have been saying is that Smartalec anchors and gameshows do not make a good sports highlight show. And that having Justin Timberlake on your basketball selection show is going in the wrong direction.
I'm sure you're right. I mean, how many wildly successful all-sports cable channels have you started and sold to the Disney Corporation? Probably a lot more than those idiots up in Connecticut, right?
I'm sure this is the right way to make $$$. But I don't think it is the best way to serve the core sportsfan. And it was a better network before they sold to Disney. Not necessarily better finacially, but better sports related content.
Hey, not everything that ESPN comes out with, works. "Hearsay" is simply unwatchable, and I literally turn the channel for 5 minutes (when that comes on) and then come back, once I'm sure it's done and over with. They need to produce more gems like "Pardon The Interruption". Wilbon and Kornheiser are hilarious together
Before reading this thread, I had thought that sports was entertinament. But I now realize that I did not take it seriously enough to be considered a fan. Apparently, sports must be reported with a straight face and intersection between popular culture and sports is wrong. Just wrong. I have now seen the light.
It's the difference between having Andrew Shue on the Galaxy vs Peter Vagenas. One is just an entertainer, but the other is a solid soccer player and thus is entertaining. Sports is enertaining in itself it doesn't need celebrities or gimmicks to make it any better. And by the way I love PTI and like Around the Horn. HearSay is a travesty though.
I can't get into "Around the Horn". Part of it is because I don't like the format of the show, and part of it is because I find Max Kellerman highly annoying.