ESPN Soccer Coverage: Britons Cringe At The Thought

nytimes.com:

An advertising campaign for Budweiser in Britain a few years ago spoofed fears of what might happen to soccer if American television broadcasters had their druthers: "soccertainment," complete with enhancements like multiple balls, monster trucks and loudmouth commentators.

The spots ended with Budweiser expressing second thoughts: "You do the football; we'll do the beer."

Now an American cable broadcaster, ESPN, is poised to "do the football" in Britain. Last month, ESPN bought the rights to show live English Premier League matches, picking them up after the British arm of Setanta, an Irish pay-TV company, collapsed. So is it time for British soccer fans to prepare for "soccertainment" when the new season begins in mid-August?

Read the whole story: nytimes.com

Comments

[MGhamma]

The reason that soccer will never be popular in the US is twofold. On the one hand, as a spectator sport, it's painfully boring to watch. Americans are used to sports that engage the mind as well as the senses. On the other hand, what drives interest in soccer in the rest of the world is hatred, pure and simple. Every soccer team represents a country. Countries that speak different languages, have different cultures, look different, And every country has, at one time or another, been at war with just about every other country. How else do you explain the fan riots that are a regular occurance at soccer games? Sports fans don't kill each other in America. America is different. In America, just about every ethnic and racial group in the world is represented. We can't be brought together to hate the peoples of any other country. And there just isn't enough amimosity between the various states in the union to overcome the boring nature of soccer. So the relatively few soccer fans here might as well get used to that reality. Cuz it ain't gonna change.

[Gewyne]

What on earth are you on about ? Most games 99% + are league games within the same country - your whole premise starts and is based on a lie.

There will always be violence in society, 13 children a day are shot dead in the US for example, however how that violence manifest differs in different countires, some people in the past have pinned thier colours to football teams to get thier fix, now with texting and mobile phones they can arrange to get their fix easier away from sports.

As for the game being boring to watch, the game is the most popular sport in the world, you can play it in the street with nothing but a tin can, or you can spend millions on coaching and tactics so your team can amend its game whilst the match is flowing (no defence, offence, field goal, specials allowed - all players need to know how to adapt to the game as it moves) The skill level is as high as any other sport, the fitness levels due to the continuation and lack of stoppages/­timeouts/r­olling subs is also high.

Just because something is beyond your comprehension does not make it easy or simple.

[Hare]

Brazil is number 1 all around for all time sake. Kaka my darling one, I just wish I was fifty years younger. U.S.A. must stay away from this sport since you'll never get it. The world of football does well without the la me participation anyways. I got my tickets to S A. envy me people.

[MGhamma]

Want to increase scoring in soccer? Concidering that 95% of scoring happens in the last 5 minites of the game, players should be dropped off 26 miles from the field, and have to run to the game. Then time outs for commercial breaks would be nessessary. Solves 2 issues at once.

[Gewyne]

Well apart from being blatantly untrue (around 40% of goals are within the first half) - the reason more goals are scored in the 2nd half is partly due to tiredness / mistakes but also because games start to open up - at first you hope to score, maybe take the lead or in the worst case scenario you have conceded a goal - so as time goals you need to attack and push more and more to win the game. This leads to more goals due to the more attacking nature - but also because it leaves the team attacking more exposed itself.

[SwingVoter]

Why did you even bother to reply to his post in the first place.

[MGhamma]

Not the games that I've suffered through. And my point was that most of the scoring happens when the players are tired. Thanx for corroborating that.

[MGhamma]

ROFLMFAO!!!!!

[MGhamma]

You moderaters are pathetic. What was wrong with my comment? Except for the fact that I was spot on.

[PresidentRobertBooth]

***Soccer needs to be fixed before Americans will embrace it. Nothing too serious, just a few more pauses and timeouts, the right set of announcers to give the play-by-play, and the elimination of tie results. Come on, why more tied soccer games aren't decided by sudden death penalty shoot-offs is beyond me. MAKE GAMES MATTER MORE.

Americans want winners and losers, one way or another, and a sport that offers ties on as a consistent basis as soccer does is not going to win anyone's affection***

Soccer is the world's most popular sport. The fact that some matches end with draws/ties hasn't been an obstacle to people embracing it around the world, nor does it dilute the importance of games.

[mredder4]

"Soccer is the world's most popular sport."

And meanwhile is one of America's LEAST popular sports.

Sure, a lot of kids play it in local leagues (I did, and used to enjoy it), but there's no professional aspect and certainly nothing giving the sport a positive national profile. While kids with interests in basketball, baseball, and football can aspire to careers in their sports, what's there for soccer proteges? Nothing.

I would venture to guess that it's soccer's global popularity that leads contrarian Americans to hate it for just that reason. If Europe loves it, America must hate it by default.

[Bluedex]

"Onion bag"! (lol)

[mredder4]

Soccer needs to be fixed before Americans will embrace it. Nothing too serious, just a few more pauses and timeouts, the right set of announcers to give the play-by-play, and the elimination of tie results. Come on, why more tied soccer games aren't decided by sudden death penalty shoot-offs is beyond me. MAKE GAMES MATTER MORE.

Americans want winners and losers, one way or another, and a sport that offers ties on as a consistent basis as soccer does is not going to win anyone's affection.

[Gewyne]

I would rather the USA banned the game in the US than ruin it thanks.

[mredder4]

A few more timeouts and definitive endings to games would "ruin" your sport? That's pathetic.

[belfam]

woohoo as long as the commentators are Brits I'll tune in
but if an American calls football soccer I'll skip
it's bloody FOOTBALL not soccer

[gwhizz]

Oh please.

[MurrayAbraham]

I can understand them. I was lucky enough to watch the Wimbledon final on BBC England, 5 hours of broadcast without a single commercial break. It was marvelous.
Plus soccer doesn't have any breaks during playing time, so I can imagine they will do breaks during the game! Argh.

[Gewyne]

The problem for them is going to be the same as Setanta - Brits used to subscribe to one pay per view / premium channel (sky) and get to see all the Premier league games, then along came some bright sparks who decided to split the games across more than 1 station so people had to pay double for the same access across the now 2 premium / pay per view.

If ESPN can gett he pricing right they may be ok - but with little interest in Baseball / Basket ball and American football (for some reason hockey seems to do well) it will be interesting to see what people actually get besides a football match once a week for their money.

[NHBill]

Thank you for posting the lone comment that understands the topic.

[AMERIKA]

As long as they hire English camera men and women, and English editors and producers and English commentators and color guys they will do fine.

[sauravfromnepal]

I think ESPN will do fine....they just have to get rid of Tommy Smyth and his recurrent "onion bag" statement. They do a wonderful job covering the English Premier League in Asia...they probably have the best coverage in the world.....We need more soccer(football) coverage here in the USA and since ESPN are getting a few games hopefully people like me who cannot afford extended premium cable can watch the beautiful game......and for the naysayers...get used to it soccer(football) is taking over.......which is good news.....there is a limit to the amount of coverage one can take of MLB....it never ends....

and Robinseattle....no one is trying to shove soccer down our throats...if there is anything being shoved down our throats its Baseball..........a sport where even some steroid fueled overweight athletes are given the platform to perform.....

[RobinSeattle]

Why is there any soccer coverage on ESPN at all? Nobody watches it, but the bigwigs at Disney continue to believe that they can shove it down America's throat. That obviously hasn't worked since the audience in America for it is tiny to non-existent despite Disney getting a lot of those game feeds for free. If they insist on still airing it, then they ought to just consign it to ESPN Deportes.

The Japanese have won both WBC tournaments. How come we aren't seeing Japanese pro baseball on ESPN? There is certainly much more curiosity about that in the U.S. than soccer. But broadcasting that here would make too much sense, I guess.

[TheBaffler]

Disney/ESPN show what brings in the money for them. They aren't broadcasting soccer just to tick you off, no matter what you think, and they aren't going to show it if no one is watching.

I watch soccer and so do many others. I'm sure you'll get over it.

[RobinSeattle]

Great. All eight of you can have a party.

When even the Beckham stunt by the Galaxy doesn't work, when the defeat of Spain doesn't work, when U.S. women's olympic soccer teams doing well don't work to generate interest, then soccer is a non-starter here. It would be like trying to force pro football on europeans. The World League there didn't go very well, now did it?

Also the fact that FIFA often had to give the broadcast rights to ESPN during the last couple of World Cup tournaments for FREE shows that it has no worth here. For Disney, it's free programming and if they sell any ad time at all it's pure profit. Those broadcasts pack all the street credibility of your average infomercial in America.

[PKatherine]

hell YEAH!