Three days without my laptop were harder than imagined. I even had to resort to reading things actually printed on that primitive, papyrus thingamajig the ancient Egyptians called paper.
Floating around my office was a copy of 'Sports Business Journal.' Why it was there remains a mystery.
Anyways, it was jam packed with soccer. An interview with Liverpool's Chief Executive Rick Parry (no didn't divulge Tom Hick's favorite 10-gallon hat); a profile on Spain (wow, they like soccer there, who knew?) and on page seven, "Flat MLS rating not what ESPN expected."
Get the hell out of town. MLS ratings low? What's next, saying Mike Vick ran a dog fighting ring or something?
Despite what's been a pretty good on-field year for the 12th-year league, with or without that Beckham fellow, the league's rating continue to hover along NHL on Versus levels. Pre-Beckham the ESPN Thursday night games were averaging a paltry 0.2 rating which translates into about 200,000 households, in a nation of over 300 million. (Let's not debate how dubious television rating systems are. Rob Styles might be involved.)
Beckham has helped double the ratings, but still, nothing to write home about. Put it this way, the Holly Hunter TNT drama "Saving Grace" is netting a 3.2, about 3.5 million viewers...about 20 times MLS on ESPN. (C'mon some of those watchers have to be "soccer moms.")
Depressingly the article concludes that according to co-ordinating producer Tim Scalan, the ESPN MLS telecasts will continue to emphasize player personalities and statistics. (It does note the blogger backlash of the Beckham-cam, yippee!)
So, let's just call a spade a spade. Beckham or not, people aren't compelled to watch MLS games on a Thursday night, and the start of NCAA Football likely won't help matters. To me, the MLS seems like the new kid at school desperate to get accepted by the popular clique. Of course in this case it doesn't mean donning Dockers slacks, cardigan sweaters and getting into the whole "Yale Thing." Whatever.
What's telling is on the opening page of the Journal there is a poll that 69 percent vs. 31 percent prefer to watch the Premier League over MLS. Not all of this is due to the fact the Prem isn't produced by ESPN, but it doesn't hurt.
Let me offer a few humble suggestions for MLS to improve it's ESPN ratings and overall ratings in general.
* Get the proverbial fannies in the seats -- Most American television watchers aren't smart. FACT. In a lot of ways they're crosses between lemmings and sheep. They follow the herd. So if Joe Television is flipping through the channels and see all the fans at the Meadowlands disguised as empty seats, he's likely not going to watch. Nothing detracts from the game that the glaring empty seats that dominate oh so many MLS games. Ditto for a lot of Serie A, etc. (Amazingly, MLS rates 19th or so in average attendance worldwide.)
This of course, says nothing of the atmosphere of a live soccer game. In theory, the singing and shouting and overall revelry trumps whatever is beamed through the idiot box.
If the league has to 'paper' the arena with free tickets and the like so be it, people in the stands are people in the stands and it makes for a more appealing television product, at least aesthetically. You want to be a part of something people took the time to drive to the stadium and watch...not a bunch of empty seats.
* This is futbol, not football -- If you were to chart the 60 minutes of an NFL game between action and inaction it'd probably rate close to 90 inaction. That leaves lots of gaps in time for the color man to inject his candor on a three-yard inside trap run from scrimmage and for the play-by-play man to promo that night's episode of 'Cold Case.'
In soccer, the game is free-flowing. The action doesn't stop. The color man doesn't need to yammer about each and every bounce of the ball. (Cough, cough Marcelo Balboa, Eric Wynalda)
This is pretty simple. Otherwise it suffocates the game. Let the damn thing breath.
And please, we don't need to know what color tuxedo Taylor Twellman wore to his high school prom in St. Louis.
* A lesson from Monday Night -- This is ESPN specific. You ruined Monday Night Football with silly cross promotions. Don't try it with MLS. People are wary enough with soccer to begin with. It's bad enough the MLS All Star Game and Cup usually feature some inane alt-rockers at halftime. Don't ruin the broadcast with this sort of crap. It's not like enough people are actually watching that it's worth the effort anyway.
* Side out -- Ok, unless it's the rack-tacular Erin Andrews, no need to sideline reporters during MLS games and even the former Gator Dazzler likely wouldn't do much to enhance the telecast (insert joke here). Didn't we learn anything from the embarrassment that was Brandi Chastain interviewing coaches during the game. (Not her fault.) If the Premier League, the most successful league on the planet, doesn't need it -- MLS doesn't either. Sorry Allen Hopkins.
* Not just the facts -- In America, we love stats. Fifty-one percent of all people could tell you that. The game of baseball is built on statistical analysis with a dash or two of pinetar. Yet, soccer, stats are legitimately an afterthought. Really all that matters is wins and losses...ok, AND draws. Goals and goals against carry some weight, but the way some MLS telecasts go you'd never know it. By contrast, watch a Premier League telecast and you hear a stat as often as the Beastie Boys "drop" an album.
"Did you know that the Houston Dynamo have the most goal kicks in the league?
* Fresher yer drink, guv'nor -- Make up your mind ESPN, is an English accent a good thing or a bad thing? Apparently the scuttlebutt ahead of the 2006 World Cup was they couldn't dare have Scot Derek Rae as the lead voice for ABC/ESPN because he was British. This lead to the hiring of Dave O'Brien for the Cup, which was about as good a decision as Napoleon (or Hitler) deciding to invade Russia.
Yet a few months later, some genius at ESPN decided to add wee Irishman Tommy Smyth to the MLS telecasts. Three-men booths rarely, if ever work, especially for soccer. There's not enough room for anyone to speak, especially if part of the trio is baseball-stat obessed O'Brien and the ego-driven Eric Wynalda. On top of it all, despite his Leperchaunish appearance doesn't add much to the telecast for MLS or UEFA Champions League. (Plus a good source says he in fact smells like onions.)
So, ESPN, since you have US rights to next summer's European Championship is an accent a good thing or a bad thing? Make up your mind.
* Carve out some time -- Does ESPN really need all that poker? Couldn't it carve out 30 minutes a week for an MLS/soccer highlights show? This way they don't need to cram all the comings-and-goings in the league and the world into the game broadcasts. If you're only devoting, say, three hours per week to the sport across the bevy of ESPN networks, naturally people aren't really going to know what's going on Thursday night.
And yeah, getting the halftime 'Sportscenter' anchors to pronounce names correctly wouldn't hurt, either.
* IT'S IN THE NET -- Objectivity is out the window here. Sorry. Whenever I hear O'Brien's baritone my body starts seizuring like Kramer when he heard Mary Hart. Ok, that's over stating things, but I do turn away if I hear him. I'm sure I'm not alone.
The bottom line in all this is simple...it's a simple game. And it can be an exciting game to that doesn't need the hard sell either.
Soccer, be it MLS or otherwise doesn't need a million fancy bells and whistles to jazz it up, ESPN. Sell the steak, not whatever residual sizzle you can concoct in a Bristol board room.
In the current day-and-age we 'smart marks' (a wrestling term) know what's going on. We can access games from around the globe at the click of a button.
It's hard to ESPN, but follow the model set around the globe, not your own wretched network that makes watching any and everything sporting event a chore. It's a shame too, because somewhere MLS signed a deal with the Bundeliga to help it's television product. Naturally the Worldwide Leader runs by its own rules.
You don't want to lose the few diehards left and end up with a rating lower than Bluto Blutarski's grade point average, no?
Floating around my office was a copy of 'Sports Business Journal.' Why it was there remains a mystery.
Anyways, it was jam packed with soccer. An interview with Liverpool's Chief Executive Rick Parry (no didn't divulge Tom Hick's favorite 10-gallon hat); a profile on Spain (wow, they like soccer there, who knew?) and on page seven, "Flat MLS rating not what ESPN expected."
Get the hell out of town. MLS ratings low? What's next, saying Mike Vick ran a dog fighting ring or something?
Despite what's been a pretty good on-field year for the 12th-year league, with or without that Beckham fellow, the league's rating continue to hover along NHL on Versus levels. Pre-Beckham the ESPN Thursday night games were averaging a paltry 0.2 rating which translates into about 200,000 households, in a nation of over 300 million. (Let's not debate how dubious television rating systems are. Rob Styles might be involved.)
Beckham has helped double the ratings, but still, nothing to write home about. Put it this way, the Holly Hunter TNT drama "Saving Grace" is netting a 3.2, about 3.5 million viewers...about 20 times MLS on ESPN. (C'mon some of those watchers have to be "soccer moms.")
Depressingly the article concludes that according to co-ordinating producer Tim Scalan, the ESPN MLS telecasts will continue to emphasize player personalities and statistics. (It does note the blogger backlash of the Beckham-cam, yippee!)
So, let's just call a spade a spade. Beckham or not, people aren't compelled to watch MLS games on a Thursday night, and the start of NCAA Football likely won't help matters. To me, the MLS seems like the new kid at school desperate to get accepted by the popular clique. Of course in this case it doesn't mean donning Dockers slacks, cardigan sweaters and getting into the whole "Yale Thing." Whatever.
What's telling is on the opening page of the Journal there is a poll that 69 percent vs. 31 percent prefer to watch the Premier League over MLS. Not all of this is due to the fact the Prem isn't produced by ESPN, but it doesn't hurt.
Let me offer a few humble suggestions for MLS to improve it's ESPN ratings and overall ratings in general.
* Get the proverbial fannies in the seats -- Most American television watchers aren't smart. FACT. In a lot of ways they're crosses between lemmings and sheep. They follow the herd. So if Joe Television is flipping through the channels and see all the fans at the Meadowlands disguised as empty seats, he's likely not going to watch. Nothing detracts from the game that the glaring empty seats that dominate oh so many MLS games. Ditto for a lot of Serie A, etc. (Amazingly, MLS rates 19th or so in average attendance worldwide.)
This of course, says nothing of the atmosphere of a live soccer game. In theory, the singing and shouting and overall revelry trumps whatever is beamed through the idiot box.
If the league has to 'paper' the arena with free tickets and the like so be it, people in the stands are people in the stands and it makes for a more appealing television product, at least aesthetically. You want to be a part of something people took the time to drive to the stadium and watch...not a bunch of empty seats.
* This is futbol, not football -- If you were to chart the 60 minutes of an NFL game between action and inaction it'd probably rate close to 90 inaction. That leaves lots of gaps in time for the color man to inject his candor on a three-yard inside trap run from scrimmage and for the play-by-play man to promo that night's episode of 'Cold Case.'
In soccer, the game is free-flowing. The action doesn't stop. The color man doesn't need to yammer about each and every bounce of the ball. (Cough, cough Marcelo Balboa, Eric Wynalda)
This is pretty simple. Otherwise it suffocates the game. Let the damn thing breath.
And please, we don't need to know what color tuxedo Taylor Twellman wore to his high school prom in St. Louis.
* A lesson from Monday Night -- This is ESPN specific. You ruined Monday Night Football with silly cross promotions. Don't try it with MLS. People are wary enough with soccer to begin with. It's bad enough the MLS All Star Game and Cup usually feature some inane alt-rockers at halftime. Don't ruin the broadcast with this sort of crap. It's not like enough people are actually watching that it's worth the effort anyway.
* Side out -- Ok, unless it's the rack-tacular Erin Andrews, no need to sideline reporters during MLS games and even the former Gator Dazzler likely wouldn't do much to enhance the telecast (insert joke here). Didn't we learn anything from the embarrassment that was Brandi Chastain interviewing coaches during the game. (Not her fault.) If the Premier League, the most successful league on the planet, doesn't need it -- MLS doesn't either. Sorry Allen Hopkins.
* Not just the facts -- In America, we love stats. Fifty-one percent of all people could tell you that. The game of baseball is built on statistical analysis with a dash or two of pinetar. Yet, soccer, stats are legitimately an afterthought. Really all that matters is wins and losses...ok, AND draws. Goals and goals against carry some weight, but the way some MLS telecasts go you'd never know it. By contrast, watch a Premier League telecast and you hear a stat as often as the Beastie Boys "drop" an album.
"Did you know that the Houston Dynamo have the most goal kicks in the league?
* Fresher yer drink, guv'nor -- Make up your mind ESPN, is an English accent a good thing or a bad thing? Apparently the scuttlebutt ahead of the 2006 World Cup was they couldn't dare have Scot Derek Rae as the lead voice for ABC/ESPN because he was British. This lead to the hiring of Dave O'Brien for the Cup, which was about as good a decision as Napoleon (or Hitler) deciding to invade Russia.
Yet a few months later, some genius at ESPN decided to add wee Irishman Tommy Smyth to the MLS telecasts. Three-men booths rarely, if ever work, especially for soccer. There's not enough room for anyone to speak, especially if part of the trio is baseball-stat obessed O'Brien and the ego-driven Eric Wynalda. On top of it all, despite his Leperchaunish appearance doesn't add much to the telecast for MLS or UEFA Champions League. (Plus a good source says he in fact smells like onions.)
So, ESPN, since you have US rights to next summer's European Championship is an accent a good thing or a bad thing? Make up your mind.
* Carve out some time -- Does ESPN really need all that poker? Couldn't it carve out 30 minutes a week for an MLS/soccer highlights show? This way they don't need to cram all the comings-and-goings in the league and the world into the game broadcasts. If you're only devoting, say, three hours per week to the sport across the bevy of ESPN networks, naturally people aren't really going to know what's going on Thursday night.
And yeah, getting the halftime 'Sportscenter' anchors to pronounce names correctly wouldn't hurt, either.
* IT'S IN THE NET -- Objectivity is out the window here. Sorry. Whenever I hear O'Brien's baritone my body starts seizuring like Kramer when he heard Mary Hart. Ok, that's over stating things, but I do turn away if I hear him. I'm sure I'm not alone.
The bottom line in all this is simple...it's a simple game. And it can be an exciting game to that doesn't need the hard sell either.
Soccer, be it MLS or otherwise doesn't need a million fancy bells and whistles to jazz it up, ESPN. Sell the steak, not whatever residual sizzle you can concoct in a Bristol board room.
In the current day-and-age we 'smart marks' (a wrestling term) know what's going on. We can access games from around the globe at the click of a button.
It's hard to ESPN, but follow the model set around the globe, not your own wretched network that makes watching any and everything sporting event a chore. It's a shame too, because somewhere MLS signed a deal with the Bundeliga to help it's television product. Naturally the Worldwide Leader runs by its own rules.
You don't want to lose the few diehards left and end up with a rating lower than Bluto Blutarski's grade point average, no?
Labels: ESPN sucks, MLS, Soccer
I dislike ESPN's coverage of virtually everything as much as you do, but I think that ESPN needs to go after at least some EPL broadcast rights (one/two games a week) to broadcast on Saturday and/or Sunday mornings after NFL season. ESPN shapes opinion in sports in this country, for better or worse (usually worse.)
If, as you say, 70 percent of people prefer EPL to MLS, at least it could get people used to watching soccer. When the summer comes around, flipping around, these same people could run into an MLS game and might stick around because at the very least, they've watched some non-World Cup soccer at a higher level and realize that it's not all diving like they see every four years. It will never be baseball or football, but it can be bigger than hockey, at least.
Welcome back Cardillo. Great post regarding the MLS on the WWL.
I just got into futbol about 6 years ago. While Championship Manager was a big reason for that, it was the EPL Review Show that was a huge reason I ended up an EPL fan.
Now, I'd prefer to watch FSC's nightly Soccer Report than even watch Sportscenter. While St. Louis, Machado et al occasionally drop some SC-style bombast in their highlights, the sobering Bobby McMahon is a delight. He's like the anti-Salisbury.
It's a shame that ESPN feels like they have to cater to the newb.
In theory I agree with Frasier...in reality, I'd rather stab myself in the face repeatedly than watch ESPN handle a Premiership match.
But, yeah, it does work -- the only reason I've tuned into some MLS matches this season is the residual effect of the EPL.
C'mon Ace, it's the BPL, right?
As for Mr. McMahon...a post is in the works. Stay tuned.
SCORE!!!!
I agree, ESPN should buy up some EPL broadcast rights. It wouldn't even compete directly with NFL or College football with the time difference.
I think there is room for more stats in soccer. Sabremetrics could apply in some areas. How good is Beckham? If he takes 100 free kicks and scores on 4 of them is that a good percentage? We should be able to track where the kick was taken and where it was kicked not just the end result.
excellent post. I agree with almost everything you wrote.
The fundamental problem for both MLS and ESPN is that both of them are trying to pander to American sports fans instead of soccer fans who happen to live in America. There are MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS of soccer fans (native born and immigrants) who are already fans of the sport but need convincing that MLS is any good.
MLS itself should focus on going after SOCCER fans first because way, way, way too many of them are not convinced that MLS is for them.
I like all the suggestions. but unless you're a 16-year-old, ESPN and most cable companies don't care what you think. Here's wishing FSC picks up La Liga or Time Warner picks up Setanta and Gol.
I watch the EPL every weekend and to hear Martin Tyler shout "ROONEY" or describe the skill of Dimitri Berbatov or the drive and power of Stevie Gerrard is an absolute pleasure.
The same can be said for Alan Parry and the entire stable of the FSC announcers and color commentators. They focus on the game and touch on the personalities.
I watch and listen to Serie A in Italian and Argentine or Mexican football in Spanish. I do not speak either language but understand key terms after years of listening.
Whenever I watch the MLS on ESPN I turn down the sound.
ESPN focuses on the personalities and touch on the game. And this is true of whichever sport they broadcast.
I guess you soccer/futbol dudes learned nothing from the bitchslap that was the relationship betweeen the NHL and ESPN. Get used to it soccer/futbol fans; ESPN cares nada about you because you are already sucked in.
When the contract is over, MSL is gone unless it bends (not like Beckham) over and takes it it in the rear.
The only thing ESPN is missing in its coverage something as lame as Scooter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scooter_%28talking_baseball%29
-Suppe-
This are the times I'm glad I live in Canada and end up missing the side show that is ESPN.
As much as TSN has all the flash of ESPN, it doesn't get all the rights to everything and it doesn't usually screw things up by taking guys that don't know anything about soccer and force them to announce. English broadcasters are perfect, they know the game and it sounds more natural when they speak about it.
So Cardillo just move to Canada and your soccer watching will improve, and then there is always Toronto FC to watch, at least the fans are rabid even when Beckham isn't around.
Free Tickets...Not until every single team plays in it's own stadium and is not paying rent to places like the Meadowlands, Arrowhead, and Robertson Stadium...Paying for tickets will have a long term effect with the perception of the product and continue to get MLS Clubs closer to getting out of the red and into the black...When a business is profitable, it is successful. Fixing the TV ratings is ESPN's job, not each clubs job. They do need to cater to soccer fans and not worry about converting thier viewers...Fox Soccer Report is the only show I can watch and if ESPN could create that I would be saved from that annoying beeping that sounds like a telephone?!! What is that. I agree with less Americanism in the broadcasts...Let it flow...
But going back to Free Tickets to MLS games...as important as getting fans to get to the games so they can be seen on TV makes sense, those Free Tickets do not get redeemed/used. Ask any club how they track their COMP tickets and ask what thier redemption rate is for COMP Tickets? MLS Clubs have to continue to come up with creative ways and packages that gets people to come to games, enjoy them, and VALUE them...
ESPN goes after the casual fan, because the hardcore soccer fan never has watched, and still doesn't watch MLS. They've been trying to hook the hardcore soccer fan for a decade and it hasn't worked - not because of the announcers, or the stats, etc - but because we just don't watch. Seriously, do you really expect the MLS to survive if it caters to the extremely low number of hardcore fans? A casual fan (someone who only watches USMNT, or EPL) will NEVER watch an MLS game. ESPN tries to tell "stories" about players, because there's hardly anyone that can name an MLS player that is not named Beckham or Donovan. If I am an EPL fan randomly watching an MLS game, do you honestly think I'm going to watch a bunch of people I've never heard of, play second rate soccer. But maybe if I give a crap about Josh Gros (or whoever), just maybe I'll watch a little more.... You can cry about Martin Tyler all you want, but he's talking about players you know, in stadiums that are packed (and loud), with a high quality of play. And you'll watch it no matter what. That's why ESPN covers the MLS games the way they do.
I agree with a great deal of what you say, but let's not miss a HUGE problem: Eurosnobs.
There are millions upon millions of people who love soccer in the US but since "MLS isn't as good as Prem/La Liga/Serie A/Bundesliga I won't watch it"
It's a ridiculous attitude. Can you imagine someone in Portugal not following the bwin liga just because it's not Spain?
If folks who love soccer actually supported their local teams, stadiums would be FULL.
Even though at least 25% of the Beckham roadshow is gawkers, there have been TONS of people who are interviewed who start "I don't normally support MLS, but I wanted to see how he'd do" essentially hoping he'd carve up everyone and prove their suspicions correct and abandon the league again.
I'm sorry. It's pathetic.
The broadcasts need to be cleaned up as well. However, I think they need to stick with American announces. As I said, the Eurosnobs just can't bring themselves to give and 'F' so ESPN & MLS have to try to get the casual fans and gawkers interested in coming back.
I dunno, I just think it's sad that we FINALLY have another league in this country and people who claim to love futbol/soccer/football can't bring themselves to support it and help it grow (which helps out national team) a pathetic pathetic lot of people.