ok, let's say this happens on FSW... mls gets a weekly 30 minute highlight show who hosts it? bretos? bretos and a lacky? -wynalda is tied up with espn2's broadcast team, dir appears to be available (paging dave dir, please pick up the nearest white courtesy phone)... ramos? -rotating weekly views from various journalists? (bradley, connolly, wahl, lewis, bell, etc.) all i can say is i'm frothing at the mouth over this one... i want my kibbles and bits and bits and...
Potential show Well, it appears this potential show might just become reality, coupled with a weekly game... http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/17/s...fbcd06044db03943&ex=1046149200&partner=GOOGLE even another reason to like FSW. I'm kind of hoping that if the deal materializes, the show and games are shown on FSWE as well
sorry, i meant to provide the link with that... i just want to keep the idea that it's not hatched yet, so don't count it until it does but please come up with some hypotheticals
my guesses for talking heads are bretos, with allen hopkins and/or christian miles and/or sean wheelock. also, who did the color for FSW during the gold cup? was that caliguri? it wouldn't surprise me to see him on TV somewhere (as bad as he was during the WC), especially since he's in socal. as for writing heads, i don't see any of them getting on all that much. bradley has baseball, wahl college hoops, connolly works for the mouse, and the newspaper folks probably have better things to do with their lives (or at least some of them think as much).
Jeff Bradley was on MLS ExtraTime weekly, IIRC. I think we can safely assume that Roy Wegerle and Veronica Paysee are out of the running. My surprise prediction will be Lisa Salter being involved somehow -- if, assuming she's still under contract to ESPN, they don't mind her doing a highlight show for a rival network. Probably unlikely, but stranger things have happened. Howzabout Lionel Bienvenue?
ExtraTime was an ESPN show so there was no problem with his being on it-- in fact, there was plenty of cross-promotion between TV, website, and magazine. Salter won't be involved because she still does lots of work with SportsCenter, in addition to (I think) doing NBA sideline reporting from time to time. Stranger things have happened, but honestly I'd put the odds of Paysee being involved higher than those of Salters. I have no idea whatsoever where Bienvenue is.
Thanks for the info, then. Bienvenue, last I heard, was doing the nightly sports broadcast for a local station in Denver. One night, much to the amazement of his fellow on-air staff, he went on a 20-second riff where he gave a quick rundown on the day's Premiership action.
Ten bucks all of this is an MLS production with MLS people. Who says the highlight show wil be Saturday? Hell, it might be Stone, Dir and Wynalda doing it on Tuesday night to broadcast on Wednesday.
Hell yeah!! Lionel Bienvenue would be a great host for the show. He did a great job when he hosted the EPL show, and it would be a good idea for him this. I think he was always a supporter of MLS and US soccer
Maybe - but he got better as time went along. ESPN has a couple of geeks doing NFL stuff (Ed Werder and some guy who looks like a nerdy math teacher), so who's to say? Jeff Bradley - who knows the league inside and out and has contacts AND can get real info would be better in my opinion than using a guy who has great hair. Not to say Jeff doesn't have good hair - but lets just say he's no John Tesh.
I like the idea of Bretos and Bienvenue. I thought they had a really good rapport on the FSW/FSN weekly EPL show, and I wouldn't mind seeing them get back together. But you have to ask yourself...why did Lionel leave Fox in the first place? No disrespect intended, but the logical career path isn't going from FSW to local Denver TV. I'm thinking he didn't *go* to Denver, he *ended up* in Denver. If that's the case, then the decision to leave Fox probably wasn't his choice, and we probably won't see him back there. One more bucket of cold water: As was mentioned at the beginning of the thread, one of the choices was Bretos solo. My guess is, for a 30-minute weekly highlight show, you probably don't need two hosts. Max Bretos has become the voice of FSW. If he wants the gig, he'll get it, IMO.
This is fabulous news if it happens. I think MLS really needs a weekly highlights show. A big reason why I've started following EPL regularly this year is because of the weekly highlights show on FSW. What's the possibility that they use the same news team used for the nightly Fox Sport World newscast? [IIRC, it is produced by FSW Canada.] I'm guessing that would help keep the costs down. Do you think there's any chance that MLS sponsers would spring extra bucks for FSW ads? Or, are we stuck with even more Enerex ads?
A top sports anchor in Denver would make about a quarter-million dollars a year, give or take 10%. An EPL studio host at Fox Sports Net...wouldn't. I don't have any specific information on Lionel's departure from Fox, but if you're career-advancement-oriented and you've got a chance to go to Denver, you go to Denver. You do well in Denver, and pretty soon you're anchoring in San Francisco or Philadelphia or Boston. Then you're making the really big bucks. Not to mention the EPL show is gone, as is the National Sports Report. What would he do if he still worked for Fox?
Fair enough. Thanks for the information. You're right, there is nothing for him at Fox. And if the move to Denver was a step up, then coming back to do an MLS highlight show is probably a step back. So no Lionel. Oh well. Like I said, it'll probably be a one-man show, anyway.
I don't think anyone is presuming it'll be a Saturday show, but, like you say, more like a Tuesday or Wed. night show. You're probably right it'll be a MLS production which FSW will pick up (which is how the EPL highlight show works, right?).
He's at KMGH Channel 7 in Denver, the ABC affiliate. And him pimping soccer was more than a one-off - he does the Premier roundup about once a week. When he talks soccer, the other anchors look at him like a) he's speaking a foreign language and b) he just farted on the set.
Therefore, it should follow that Rapids fans shouldn't have to whinge when it comes from a perceived lack of coverage about their team from that station. Bienvenue is committed to the sport, and especially in that region of the country. Good onya, Lionel... Cheers, William
I know I will be pummelled for this but what about Andrew Shue? He loves the sport and is more comfortable in front of the camera than anyone else mentioned.
I'd rather have Elizabeth Shue. She might not know as much about soccer or MLS, but she'd be better to look at. If it's FSW doing it, Bretos will be in there. Maybe team him up with the English (or is it Scottish) gentleman who works on the nightly Fox Sports World Report. If it is an MLS production, I'd love to see Dir in there (and Stone has experience with two years of Extratime). However, we'd probably get Rob & Ty with some special pieces from Dir and/or Wynalda every now and then. Keough, Dir, and Wynalda might be expendable to ESPN, but would they really let Stoner do a show on FSW? Looks like Jack Edwards will be back on TV! Also having a shot would be the guy with the goatee (cannot remember his name for the life of me, but he did the PbP for the extended highlight games on MLS Extratime 2001) who announced some of the early year MLS telecasts. Longshot: Bob Ley and Seamus Malin.
To continue with the aside, I think this is the key point as to why Lionel made the move to the Denver ABC affiliate. I believe his primary duty for Fox Sports was being a head for the National Sports Report. I got the impression that very little of his time was spent doing Fox Sports West and/or Fox Sports World shows. In fact, on the EPL highlight show he would regularly make fun of the fact that Max and the rest of the FSWD gang would spend their days locked away in soundbooths doing game voiceovers. Plus, he may have been the first person on the air to refer to Christian Miles as a "muppet". It seemed pretty clear then that he wanted to differentiate himself from the FSWD soccer guys. When Fox killed the NSR and went to having Regional Sports Reports, I don't think there was a ton for Lionel left to do at Fox in LA. So, similar to Kevin Fraser, he went and got another gig, though not as glamorous. I think it's kind of funny that now he goes out of his way to pimp soccer on the local Denver sports reports and now everyone else looks at him like he's the weird guy. He used to pimp his website on the EPL show (www.lionelbienvenue.com , I think, but nothing comes up now) and I think he is originally from Louisiana and went to Tulane. Oh, and while a little of Max goes along way, I think he would be fine doing an FSWD MLS game of the week and/or a highlights show. As much as I don't like his solo announcing, Hopkins is probably the best of the rest of the FSWD crew to pair with him for either. IMHO, they've done okay on their Open Cup broadcasts together, plus the rest of the FSWD crew (Giles Elliot [who I nearly ran over on his bike on his way to work at Fox one day in LA], Christian Miles, and Nick Webster) are significanly less skilled at calling games and in the studio.