Home Viewers of Sounders-Red Bulls Tilt Need to Consider Precedent
by James Bray on Jun 23, 2011 5:07 AM PDT
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DC United @ Seattle Sounders 06/17/2009 (via stmatte)
For many Sounders fans and soccer supporters in general, June 17, 2009, featured one of the most offensively entertaining games of the season. At one point, the Sounders were up 3-1* against the Black and Red. However, the Sounders played D.C. United to a 3-3 draw. The final D.C. goal off Tyrone Marshall's head - into his own net - was memorable. What happened before that moment is something viewers at home would like to forget. That would be a mistake.
Preceding the match was a College World Series game between the Arkansas Razorbacks and the Virginia Cavaliers. As the 7:30 pm match time approached, the baseball game was in extra innings. It wasn't until the 12th inning that the Razorbacks won the game. By that time, the Sounders-United match up was at halftime. That's right, ESPN2 missed the entire first half of one of the most exciting games of the year.
As Match Fit USA's Jason Davis noted, ESPNU was showing a replay of a recent Confederations Cup game, while Classic showed the 2008 U.S. Open golf championship (no doubt promoting their coverage of the 2009 U.S. Open). That's right a year-old golf tournament wasn't preempted for a live MLS match. The only place to watch the match was on ESPN360 (now ESPN3.com).
That brings us to today. The Sounders-Red Bulls tilt tonight is scheduled for 7 pm. It will be following a College World Series game. Now I could be making something out of nothing. The 2009 CWS game started at 5 pm, while this year's game starts at 4 pm. Let's hope it doesn't bleed into the soccer match. But if it does, make sure you're near your computer.
* Because of this match, whenever I see a 3-1 scoreline, I always wonder if the team that's down will tie it. Of course this past Sunday, the Red Bulls tied the Timbers. The referee for that match: Ricardo Salazar. I bring this up because the only things they have in common are the comeback, the scoreline, own goals, discrepancy in fouls called, the month it happened, the controversial red card** and the referee. Weird right?
** For the record, I don't believe Ricardo Salazar is a bad referee. Some Sounders fans disagree with me, probably due to the Chivas USA-Sounders tilt last year that got Leo Gonzalez wrongly sent off. While Salazar was the fourth official during the match (and had the clearest view), he wasn't the one who was responsible for the Gonzalez red card.
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Probably head-to-head
then goal differential
which would be same as playoffs
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
I remember that game
We were at a brewpub that had promoted the game, only to come and watch some f’ing baseball game. Then the OG, then the tie. It was a disappointing night.
Try being there
At least you could keep drinking after the 60th minute!
You will hear us on Brougham, you will hear us on Occidental, you will hear us on King. We are all around you, there is no escape.
ESPN is a joke
But they know who pays them (and what they’ve paid for). MLS is a relative bargain for the WWL compared to the price they pay for big college/pro rights and they can sell ads for a ridiculous amount of money to try to recoup their buy.
And, they know soccer fans will tune in no matter what. They see no need to promote MLS at the expense of games they need to make a ton of money back on.
It stinks and, as a result, MLS loses a ton of word-of-mouth it could have if ESPN even gave it any sort of proper billing. But I don’t know how we solve this in the short term.
ESPN is a business and they're pretty good at what they do.
At a certain point, people need to realize that it’s less the fault of ESPN for not doing enough and more the reality of MLS just not getting solid ratings.
And I don’t buy the “they don’t promote it!” line either. It’s rare that I’m watching ESPN without seeing them push the game of the week a few times an hour. They want as many people to watch those games as possible.
by Aaron Campeau on Jun 23, 2011 9:50 AM PDT up reply actions
I agree
ESPN wants it to grow, because it is in their long-term interest to grow the sport. I am sure they see the kind of ratings Mexican league and national team games get, and I am sure they would love to have those ratings for MLS games. Once the MLS is on par with the Mexican league (whenever that happens), ESPN will want to be the home of the games. Soccer is probably one of the few sports ESPN knows has a huge potential for growth.
still...
promos in ads are overrated. true promotion comes from Sportscenter time/segments and shows created to support their “major” sports.
We’re in a time of year when the MLS and MLB are the key active sports, yet ESPN is leading with the NBA draft. While the NBA delivers high ratings, ESPN pays millions upon millions to broadcast the NBA. They have considerably more to lose if NBA ratings tank, so they make sure it’s top line on their core viewers’ agenda.
This is a two-way street. People make decisions with their eyeballs but media outlets set the agenda for what people should consider in their viewing. A 15-second ad a few times an hour doesn’t engage viewers like College Gameday. If MLS wants to grow its ratings numbers, it needs to do more than depend on us tuning in. It needs to ask ESPN why off-season NBA and college football news beats out same-day highlights of games and discussion in key ESPN programs.
The NBA draft will will demolish tonights game in the ratings
It won’t even be close.
Hard to blame ESPN for giving the people what they want.
by B-Lot tailgater on Jun 23, 2011 10:26 AM PDT up reply actions
Right
If ESPN had an MLS recap show similar to Baseball Tonight, that would do a lot more to promote MLS than some ads for the game-of-the-week. It’s not always going to be a huge ratings winner, but league highlights and analysis will do more to get viewers to tune in than just telling them “hey, tune in at this time!”
Even more highlights on ole Sportscenter would be nice
by B-Lot tailgater on Jun 23, 2011 11:05 AM PDT up reply actions
MLS and USA have been on Best Plays
several times in the past week.
Hassli, Montero, Altidore, the AD&D goal
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
I find it hard to believe that they can't throw out a 20 second segment on each game
Hell, there is 6 games Saturday, they could literally just show a single goal and say “Portland loses 3-Nil”. The fact that they can’t spare even one measly minute on an hour long program to support the league they own TV rights to just baffles me.
by B Money on Jun 23, 2011 1:22 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
They definitely get love on top plays
But rarely do you get just highlights of a given game.
by B-Lot tailgater on Jun 23, 2011 2:55 PM PDT up reply actions
There's not enough games to support a nightly show like that
they could do something weekly, but getting scores on Saturday or Sunday that happened on Tuesday doesn’t reek of big ratings.
It wouldn't have to be daily...
…just weekly on a consistent day. A 30-minute recap of the week’s action, some highlights and analysis. Integrating MLS highlights into SportsCenter would reach more viewers, but SportsCenter gets congested considering all the sports they attempt to cover.
This year is different for sports coverage during summer
NFL Lockout, Pending NBA Lockout and College FB scandals are just a few things creating excessive headlines that the MLS has to fight with. Under normal circumstances MLB and an NFL Free Agent blurb are all the MLS would have to battle for time with.
ESPN also covers...
…to varying degrees golf, tennis, college World Series, auto racing, and probably some other stuff I am forgetting. I’d prioritize MLS over that stuff, but it’s not my call.
Thats all scheduled every year
The lockouts and CFB stuff commands extra extended headlines. Still, it only serves ESPN to get eyeballs on the exciting aspects of soccer.
Good call on the late start to the broadcast.
Good thing ESPN2 cut to the Sounders before Friberg’s brilliance.
I wasn't offended at all.
Disappointed? Sure. I would rather watch the game than not.
But for ESPN, it was an easy call. The first 10 minutes of a regular season MLS game vs. a Semi-Final College world series game? No brainer.
If anything, MLS should have delayed the start of their game. NFL teams do that (granted, for other NFL games that go over) because they want to get the full game in. They have ads to air, you know?
I don’t know much about ESPN and whether they even have the option (as a network like ABC has) to cut away in some areas and not in others. But assuming they would have had to cut the entire country over to the Sounders/Red Bulls, it’s probably a good thing for MLS that they didn’t. College baseball fans (especially Virginia fans) would have resented MLS for missing the rest of the game.
As it was, people watching that broadcast cut over to a game in progress, in a packed house, and saw two immediate goals. They probably didn’t even have time to change the channel before seeing Friberg’s goal. It happened within about 30 seconds.
It was a good thing all around. Except for us.
by Jack Brando on Jun 24, 2011 9:28 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs
It's nice to see
the ESPN broadcast team is at least consistent in falsely stating that an opponent goal has quieted the crowd.
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