I heard about this on another thread and decided to check it out, and it is true: http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tvlistings/schedule?date=20030607&network=02 They have blocked from 4:00-6:30 p.m. for the game. But it looks like it's for this game only, as Chicago-NY is a 2 hour slot the week after. Comments?
I'm not sure if it's because, as someone suggested, that they are going to do a half hour on the stadium or not. To me it would more likely be because also, there is going to be a lot of pre-game stuff happening such as the raising of the championship flag or something and the rings and Pele is going to be there but I have no idea what he'll be doing. Perhaps a combo of stuff and a "tour" of the stadium before kick-off.
I think its so they can slot in an extra showing of NBA Tonight in place of the first 30 minutes of the game.
In talking with my "source", yes, there will be 30 minutes of a pre-game show with "tour" video and the like.
The College World Series is slated for 12:30-3:30, with a mere half-hour buffer of World's Strongest Man programming before the MLS kickoff. College baseball (and softball!) games are notorious for running long. Perhaps they're adding just a little bit more buffer ....
1) because there isn't another thread about it on b&m 2) because we don't usually get that much time 3) because people like to set their vcrs 4) because we should be happy for once. and 5) because rob stone just said it's 2 1/2 hours and until then there had only been one place saying so, and i usually like to find more than one source for that kind of thing.
don't you think it would have been better if the block started 30 min earlier rather then 30 later!? if it started 30 min earlier then we would have been certain there would be a pre-game. Well i guess it depends, what time does the match start!? should start at 4:30 ET if there is a pregame show... i dunno... i'm too lazy to get look up whats really happening...
too lazy?... too lazy??... jeesus... I'm sure it took you longer to type all this than it would have taken you to go and search for the match-start info! So... does anyone know when the match starts?
Argh! They pick THIS week to open HDC! I have to do some videotape recording because I won't be at home tomorrow, but I also want to see the Belmont Stakes. How could you do this to me!?
You probably won't see the HDC stuff elsewhere. The Belmont will be available, pretty much 2/3 of it at least, on every SPortsCenter.
That, and Post Time is 6:38 pm ET so if you gamble on there not being overtime you can tape the race as well.
an enhanced show featuring a behind the scenes tour of The Home Depot Center with Cobi Jones, an Alexi Lalas original song composed exclusively for the broadcast... Oh my god, the Dork Meters all over southern California must be going crazy.
We're still here. You want an ABC/ESPN item which made me very happy this morning? From the Hollywood Reporter: "ABC's telecast of the opening game of the NBA Finals on Wednesday night was a ratings air ball, drawing only the smallest audience in 22 years, according to Neilsen. Only 9.6 million viewers watched the San Antonio Spurs rout the Nets 101-89, though the game was tied at halftime. That's compared with the 15.8 million people who watched the Lakers-Nets opener a year ago. A 40% drop-off. Unless ratings for NBA finals improve, ABC Sports and its sister cable network, ESPN, face the costly prospect of massive "make-goods," free ads offered to advertisers as compensation for falling short of minimum ratings guarantees." GOOD!
In addition to the extra half-hour for the MLS telecast, ESPN is alloting three hours for the NCAA Super-Regional telecast of the College World Series playoffs. Last I heard, they were showing Baylor-LSU live from Alex Box Stadium, starting at 12:30. Time of yesterday's game, 2:51. http://www.lsusports.net/bb/03stats/ncaar/ls606.pdf Of course, if today's game goes way longer (there's a half-hour Worlds Strongest Hormone Ingestor competition buffer), I won't have time to check Bigsoccer to see all the action on the "ESPN Sucks!" threads, since I'll be hoping for LSU to win and force a game three tomorrow.
Espn is great. When is the last time they gave an extra 1/2 hour to any other sport on the opening of a new stadium? Oh, never? Yep, they sure hate soccer.
They're giving MLS nothing. The telecast -- like every MLS one on ESPN -- is a time-buy. MLS is giving us an extra half hour.