Not sure if anyone's mentioned this, but MANY of the shows you see on ESPN/2 are there because the league has PURCHASED the airtime from ESPN. All that bowling/poker that's not ESPN branded or does not have an ESPN copyright is purchased time. ESPN does not pay to produce anything that will lose them money. So if you see a game on ESPN and say, "WTF is this! Why is it on instead of a far superior team/game/product..." the answer is that they probably bought the time from ESPN.
[whiner mode on] Why does ESPN always care about making money? Can't they care about promoting the sport (translation: what I want to see on cheapo analog cable)? So if soccer loses money for them, they should think about soccer would make them big money in the future, say, like 50 years (translation: TV networks should lose money now for my current enjoyment of soccer, who cares about 50 years later?) Soccer is the most participated sports among youths in America (translation: I hope ESPN will think that soccer can draw them ratings). NBA, NFL and MLB are dying (translation: I hope ESPN will think that these American sports are dying => they will start to cover foreign soccer leagues: la Liga/Serie A/Premiership for my enjoyment, because I can't afford a premium package that includes GolTV and FSC. Hey, I am a poor 19-year old foreign student living on 2 part-time waiter jobs, albeit illegal, what do you expect?) [whiner mode off]
espn's in it for a profit, not some socialistic idealism..... the game is still a niche sport, and espn will treat it... the careful observer should notice the phase change espn has had regarding nascar, where it went from very minimal coverage to significant coverage... when soccer has the demographics, espn will follow the curve, but they ain't defining the curve....
Problem is this is something that most american media outlets dont practice. Unlike what happens in mexico televisa and tv azteca follow their nat. team everywhere thet play even they're playing in china at 4a.m. bettcha that these two will have it if not both. Heck even televisa follows the u.s. nats. that mic that you see on us soccer all access one of them says TD this frm noticiero Todo Deportes and the last couple of u.s.games they were there.
Or C if there's a riot just like the incident in Milan earlier this year they had that on for like 5 mins. just blasting away at soccer and how this always happens and stuff.
So....Why we can see all soccer riots, masacres, killings in prime time TV but not even a second of soccer highlights
The same reason why we can see basketball/nascar/football/hockey/.... riots, massacres, killings in prime time tv.
Fact, this year's MLB All Star game had the lowest ratings in history........... Fact, the interest in the sport is dying, just like it's 50+ yr old fan base.......... Why do they call it the "World Series", when the rest of the world is not even invited ???
As long as major US corporations keep tossing their advertising $$$ at that crap, it will continue as is. Perhaps it's time to go after the advertisers rather than the networks who are just content to sit back and take their money for the same-old-same-old...
You guys always see the bad stuff. Nobody mentioned that ESPNews did a 7 min preview last night on The Gold Cup semi final. Good stuff on how important J O Brien was to the team and Keller role. Also talked about Arenas 100 game so it was good stuff. They almost had the right score said 2-1 maybe 3-1 settled for 3-1.