ESPN: Where’s the Love?

Entertainment and Sports Programming Network AKA ESPN is the largest TV and Online sports reporting network in the United States and is by far the most predominate 24/7 sports information source.

However, I think ESPN is gotten fat and happy with extreme coverage of a very select amount of sports. And I speak from some experience here; I have had a discussion with ESPN’s SVP of Programming about this very topic. He explained that there simply isn’t enough of a demand for other sport coverage outside of their current line card. And used his love of skiing and the lack of coverage as his reason why.

My simple response: BULL SHIT!

This year’s and past year’s demand for both summer and winter Olympic coverage from NBC has truly proven the demand for sports outside of the Americanized gold standard more than once every 4 years.

So what are the “Americanized gold standard” sports?

American Football
Baseball
Basketball
Hockey
NASCAR

If you tune your TV to any of the multiple ESPN channel offerings, chances are you’ll be engrossed in interviews, videos, and discussion on one of these sports…and I gotta say it’s getting pretty old.

I personally can’t stand another minute of reviewing the mid-season, mediocre athletic efforts of over paid, semi-chubby “professionals” who spend the majority of they’re game leaning against a rail watching some guy take a pitch.

Come on! Are you honestly telling me that watching 3 hours of the Nationwide series practice is more of a news story than Kristin Armstrong bringing home the American gold? We watch hour after hour of “will this guy accept his million dollar contract or not”, but we can’t give a moment’s notice to the hundreds of other sports out there?

I must admit, I am biased to swimming, cycling and triathlon, simply because these are the sports that I like to participate in. But, there are so many more than the one’s listed above.
A few sports that I have seen recently that I really enjoyed were volleyball, skiing, Australian rules football, rowing, fencing, decathlon, track and field, gymnastics and field hockey. And that’s just scratching the surface of the multitude of sports that are out there.

So here’s my call to action. We all have DVRs now, so…

ESPN: At least give us your late night and early morning programming to cover some of these other sports! Stop playing the World’s Strongest Man Competition from 2002 or Poker (Why this is a sport, I have no idea!), and give some sports that deserve it more time in these lesser viewed hours. We can record them and you can base your future programming on the ratings of how the “test” coverage goes.

How about it? Who’s with me?