from 2006 to 2010 is 4 more years of a soccer generation coming into being... espn looks at the demos and who watches and with the unerd 30 being their most pursued demo, they are horny to get these folks watching...
Think there's any chance they might bring back Jack and Ty? I'm climbing the ladder in anticipation!!
WC 2006 and Euro 2008 were successes in the US, ratings-wise. And now the Confed Cup run. ESPN saw the writing on the wall and are taking advantage of an opportunity... The only thing that has me a bit worried is that as they kept referring to the Olympics and this as one of the 2 major quadrennial sporting events that they think to cover somewhat analogously, that they'll hype the event as it occurs in a vacuum and not the underlying sport and all that's been continuously going on in the last 4 years (and not only in the national side but club football as well) to get them to what is a culmination, not merely a once-every-four-years big event. Maybe I'm different, but when I was first a casual fan interested by the WC, the realization that there was all this soccer going on that culminated in the WC made me wonder just what I was missing. And then I got into all that, and a fan was born. Likewise here. Interesting casual fans in all the soccer that's played apart from the WC earns them future Champions League viewers, EPL viewers as they look to be buying more into that, USA WCQ viewers, MLS viewers, etc.
i bet SUM is said that they sold ESPN the rights to 2006, 2010, and 2014 all together. IIRC no English Language American company bid on the Cups when the bidding was announced so SUM bought the rights and shopped them around to everyone. ESPN obviously won the bidding and SUM made some profit, but imagine if they held back the 2014 rights, they may have been able to sell them for what ESPN paid for 2006 and 2010. Edit. Nevermind it was the 2002 Cup http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=347956&cc=5901 SUM should buy the 2018 rights: Between ABC/ESPN they could start a bidding war with NBC/USA/etc
"Mine eyes have seen the glory!" "They're drubbing Portugal!" "Shock the world!" "That's why he's here!" "Friedel is from Mars, he's certainly not from this planet" I needed some Jack Edwards calling the goals vs. Egypt, Spain and Brazil instead of Harkes - "I coulda done that." and J.P. - "um, what do you think about that Harksey?" Instead the most passionate (and therefore accurate) calls were from Italian, Arabic, Univision and BBC announcers.
ESPN having a long term stake in the success of soccer is what is driving these improvements. To justify investing in the product, they need to be able to enjoy the rewards later. Basically the 3 cup deal is what I believe made them invest heavily in WC06 compared to WC 02.
wow... I think I need to a decoder to read this garbled mess of a post demos = demographics "unerd 30" = under 30 anything else you want to throw at us to make your post impossible to understand?
I watched the 1990 WC on TNT (one of the lowest scoring WC on record btw) as a teenager and was hooked. Looking back that coverage was embarrassing - they had commercial breaks!?!?!? I think the WC is where the casual American is going to get hooked on soccer (MLS just isn't there yet) and ESPN's massive coverage in 2010 and 2014 can only dramatically increase that interest.
It would be cool for them to run a Gameday as is done with College Football. I went to Gameday in Lubbock, TX for TEXAS TECH v Texas. It is an amazing event and for a World Cup, it would be epic.
i was exactly the same way. by both our examples, i'd say nothing to worry about. if non-fans get a taste of the WC, and they like it, maybe they see that ad for an MLS match, or a regional tourney down the road, or run across it while flipping the channels, and decide to take a longer look. thats all we really need to see at this point.
My first experience with live soccer on TV was as a kid in my grandmother's room, I'm pretty sure it was on ABC's Wide World of Sports. It was probably what one would term a "snooze-fest" that ended in a 0-0 draw, and it was definitely an international between Qatar and... I don't remember their opponent. I was fascinated. Why? Because I was playing the game as a kid at the time and had never before seen live professional soccer. The field and the ball were familiar, and yet the game was not. It was new and exciting to be able to see. This was around, oh, 1982 I'd say. I would've watched a lot more had I been able to, but you couldn't just tune in to soccer any time you wanted back then. How much more we (my age group) could've gotten into the game had it been available to us. A bunch of my friends used to watch "Victory" (anybody remember THAT silly movie??) on HBO over and over, and they came over to my place to play the Subbuteo set my dad bought me. And that was just about all the soccer fandom that was available to us, short of having my dad drive us 2 hours down to San Jose to watch the NASL Earthquakes and then 2 hours back. (And that 2 hour drive didn't stop me from going to see the MLS Quakes when I was older until I moved away from the Bay Area, by the way.) I picked the game up as a fan much later. During the 1994 World Cup.
Yep. And reading about their partnership with GOL TV, I wonder if Ray Hudson may be our commentator? Because that would rule. PS--I am also glad they mentioned that Balboa was a failure too.
As much as we all picked on Jack in 2002 and beyond, his calls were certainly memorable in a way that no calls since have been. I have no doubt that I'd have much rather heard Jack calls our goals in the Confed than J.P. And that's not to knock J.P.-Harkes who I think are a big improvement from O'Brien-Balboa. Still, when your fans would rather listen to the BBC call your own country's goals, there's a serious problem. ESPN take note.
I don't know, I think JP gets pretty excited on his goal calls. Just because he's not screaming at the top of his lungs doesn't mean he's not excited. I think some of the appeal in the BBC calls of our goals is simply the Sally Field Syndrome: "They like us, they really like us!"
I'm tired of simply being grateful that there's no more obrien/balboa to f--- everything up... I used to really like JP but these days he really gets on my nerves... so much of his excitement seems artificial - almost like his bosses have told him to get really into it if we enter the final third of the field. I also grow weary of hearing him describe the action based on what TEAM is acting instead of the individual player - but I realize part of that may be because he's watching a feed and it's not always clear. (For example, "and it's headed away, by the US" - yea I know it's the US, thanks!) But I really want to believe there's better analysts out there than Harkes... He makes good points here and there, but so much of that is offset by the absurdly obvious things he says the rest of the time. It would be nice to have an analyst in ESPN's booth that didn't make you want to come up with drinking games - wouldn't it? "That's better from the U.S." "That's played very well." "...as well" "Distribution out of the back" And at any rate the discussion of the tactical side of things is seriously lacking, still. Half the posters in the US forums here have more insight to offer a viewer. (I posted all of this in the annoying commentator thread over in tv/sat/radio but in light of the fantastic 4-4-2 thread here, that last point is all the more prescient.) *sigh*
Yes Bob Ley I miss the days when him and seamus malin did games they where the best in my opinion. I wish Bob Ley was still a commentator tho
come on you misssed his greatest quote every after we beat mexico how did it go something like this Ik cant remember exactly THE LAND OF THE FREE AND HOME THE BRAVE THE USA ARE IN THE QUATERFINALS
They will do all usa game what they meant is sending 2 or 3 other groups along with jp and harkes to south africa
dont beat on it if england make world cup witch they will or better yet if scotland gets in playoff and wins Gray will be working for sky sports or bbc
Golly gee, you mean more people are willing to watch quality UEFA cup soccer than Galaxy vs Earthquakes? Amazing what putting a quality product on TV can do for your ratings! MLS, are you listening? It's about time they increase the salary cup significantly and really start mining the Americas for quality talent.
I can't wait for Alcides Ghiggia's interview. That man scored a great goal in the most hostile crowd in soccer history. It should be great for the casual fan to see and hear.