ESPN Needs to Break Down Wall Between Soccer and American Sports
ESPN has slowly enhanced the soccer coverage on its network, over the past year. What was once an occasional appearance in the Top 10 plays, is now semi-regular highlights from the big three European leagues and the Champions League on ESPNews and Sportscenter. However, rather than assimilating soccer into the mainstream mindset, these forays have still maintained the distinction between soccer (foreign) and sport (American). Here are a three simple steps that ESPN could take to rectify this.
1. Provide Greater Cohesion With Soccernet and ESPN.com
Searching for soccer news on ESPN.com, an American immediately gets asked where he is form (because what kind of freak would be looking for soccer highlights) and then is thrust into the British site which is a whole separate entity. Providing great cohesion would allow for material (blogs, highlights, etc.) to be more easily accessed from the main site. Having soccer split from other sports unintentionally promotes the distinction of soccer as “foreign” and distinct from “real” sports.
2. Place Soccer Highlights Within a Regular Sportscenter Segment
Soccer highlights, regardless of the country of origin, are almost always thrust into the special ESPNdeportes segment and read by a special ESPNdeportes presenter. Having the Sportscenter presenters do the soccer highlights, like those with any other sport, would once again alleviate the Chinese Wall between Soccer and the rest of American sports.
3. Spell Names Phonetically On the Teleprompter
I was shocked to learn that some club called FenerBOTCH had beaten Inter Milan 1-0. That Fubbrigus fellow is quite a talent as well. This doesn’t really fit in with the other points. It is just annoying.
Tags: ESPN
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21 September 2007 at 6:18 am
I know that when I watch “American Football” in the UK, I really do not like listening to British commentators. They do not have that “died in the wool” knowledge of the game and its nuances.
Similarly, when I am in the USA and listening to US commentators taking about football (soccer to US population), what they say really stikes a nerve (in a bad way). They just don’t have it in their blood.
If you really want to keep in touch with British football then may I suggest the BBC at http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/default.stm
P.S. don’t forget about Scottish Football, Glasgow Rangers and Glasgow Celtic are our most famous clubs.
21 September 2007 at 7:30 am
Yeah, I agree. Most serious fans in the States use BBC, Guardian, Football365 et al. Soccernet is actually not that horrible of a site as well.
My concern was that to begin shifting American mindsets about the sport, the information needs to be readily accessible to the average fan, which it isn’t.