Obviously, seeing as we live in America (well, most of us) then yes we're talking about ESPN in America. Personally my grudge is more with their news gathering entities than with anything else. Bringing on a guy from ESPN Deportes when SC does deign to cover MLS kind of bothers me. They don't bring on someone from the Speed Network to cover NASCAR, you know? I would expect ESPN (original or 2) to cover SuperLiga and MLS soccer in general above fishing, cheerleaders, and poker because supposedly they are our broadcast partners. I don't know where I got that crazy idea from. I'm sorry if you think me being upset that an international tournament involving the league I follow (with a million dollar prize) wouldn't be covered in some degree by the "Worldwide Leader In Sports" makes me a "whiny and persecuted" soccer fan...but hey, any reason to be snarky huh?
Well, they own Deportes and don't own the Speed Channel so that could be one explanation. And I have seen Hopkins and Smythe do plenty of soccer spots so the Deportes minute isn't the only time they cover soccer. OK, you say you are upset with their news gathering, not their programming. How often do you see cheerleading on SportsCenter? Or poker? Or fishing? I don't recall seeing much of those on the news side, but they do broadcast them (and they do own the BASS tour so that is a reason - along with the strong ratings of outdoor shows) so maybe you are back to complaining about the scheduling and not the news gathering. It's easy to be snarky when the facts are on my side. You can complain all you want, but if you're going to ignore reality and facts, then don't complain that someone gives you a snide answer. Complaining about SuperLiga while ignoring all other evidence of their soccer coverage pretty much puts you right in the category of "whiny and persecuted."
That would be sarcasm, my friend, sarcasm. I know they don't own Speed. Have you seen Hopkins and Smythe do any on SportsCenter? I said I was mainly upset with their news gathering. Their programming also bothers me. What facts am I ignoring? Do they cover soccer globally and not so much in America? Yeah. You got me there man. What I'm saying (and what I said that started all this) is that I'd be upset if SuperLiga didn't get covered by ESPN uno or dos, our broadcast partner. How does that make me whiny?
I have definitely seen Hopkins there and I think I have seen Smythe. I have seen both along with a number of players on ESPN News. "not so much in America?" MLS World Cup All other FIFA properties CL which grows in coverage pretty much every year Euro MNT WNT Ignoring that and saying they do a bad job is incredibly whiny. Maybe it doesn't satisfy you but you need to step back and look atthe big picture. They cover a pretty decent amount of soccer. You're just one of the vocal minority who will never be satisfied. And that's not an objective measure.
SuperLiga was created by SUM and Univision (TeleFutura). And Univision is a Broadcast partner of MLS so the tournament is being carried by a MLS broadcast partner. ESPN is a broadcast partner but so are FSC and HDNet. They didn't carry any of the SuperLiga games either. Do we even know if English-language rights were offered to the other partners? Maybe Univision wanted the exclusive. They put up the money, that gives them a lot of control.
If I'm not mistaken, your comment is that they should cover SuperLiga just because they cover the league. It's not that simple. I wish it were, but there are a lot of properties that could be added. I don't see how not coveirng one tournament is such a black mark when they own and cover all the ones I listed. Ever heard of the phrase "not seeing the forest for the trees?" And thanks for totally ignoring the facts about what ESPN does do.
What's funny is that next week between PPC, and Champions League, the ESPN networks will probably show just about as many or more live soccer games than FSC and people will still complain. What the hell else do you want them to show right now? They don't own the rights to the European leagues so they can't show them! It sucks that the average top 25 College Basketball game is more important to most Americans than the average EPL game, but that's the way it is. You'd have to be a dumbass producer to put EPL highlights anywhere but the last 15-20 minutes of Sportscenter on Saturdays and you do get some highlights then. A game on every Champion's League matchday, a weekly Champions League wrap up show, every important USA game, an MLS game every week. What more can you want? The only thing that ESPN could do better, IMO, is to add an MLS Wrap up show on either Saturday or Sunday nights.
Quick question: Are Cheerleading, competitive eating competitions, fishing, darts and poker receiving rights fees or are they buying time on ESPN?
I heard a rumor that all SuperLiga games will be available in English and this will be announced next week when they roll out the SuperLiga groups and schedule.
Re: San Jose Earthquake Jersey You will probably be able to find the jersey at MLSGear.com when it is made available for purchase. athletics68 posted the following on the San Jose board:
Those types of events are filler programming. The network buys a bunch of episodes cheaply and shows them whenever there is a gap in the live programming schedule. They don't generate income on their own--no one calls up ESPN and says I want to run adds during the hot dog eating contest--but, more importantly, they don't cost anything either. Live production is very expensive. Buying rights for a live event from an independent broadcaster is not as expensive, but it's still not free. So, even though poker draws flies, it's still a better business decision by ESPN to run it because it doesn't cost them money (and the standard ads that run on the network regardless of programming more than cover the nominal fee paid for the syndication). A network like ESPN doesn't need to run live events as loss leaders anymore. God knows, we know they are the World Wide Leader because they tell us everyday. So, any event they show must pass the smell test of being able to generate income for the network. In that context, soccer falls in with the hockey, lacrosse, truck racing crowd--niche sports that have a dedicated following but lack wide appeal outside their core audience. Some events in that sport can draw numbers--i.e. the Champions League--but typical games/events do not. Which is why there is a FSC, Speednetwork and why the NLL pays for its programming to be on the air.
Really? Really? People don't want to be on a show that is on a day when everyone is off and drew more than 1 million viewers in 06? And ESPN owns a lot of its fishing properties so I hardly think they consider it filler. I wouldn't say poker draws flies. The ratings aren't what they used to be, but there's a reason that stuff is on all the time.
50,000 seat Aloha Stadium. Are tickets even going for this? Hawaii doesn't seem like a soccer hot spot to me.
I believe Galaxy vs DC United pre-Beckham drew 17,000 in Honolulu. Plus, I've read that there are a lot of Japanese immigrants, and tourists there all the time. Don't be surprised if at least the Galaxy game sells out.
Just fyi - the Dynamo just announced that their English language radio schedule for 2008 will include their two games in this tourney. The radio station streams online at www.790thesportsanimal.com.