Why ESPN’s UK Football Coverage is Important to US Soccer Fans
By: Daryl | July 6th, 2009Remember this UK Budweiser advert from 2006? Soccertainment!
The basis for the good-natured self-mockery was that an American company couldn’t be trusted to “do” football coverage in the birthplace of the beautiful game. But now it’s 2009, and…
…as the New York Times pointed out yesterday, the events depicted in that Budweiser ad have now come to pass. Sort of.
There’s no Portsmouth Pirates (yet) but ESPN’s recent acquisition of 46 Premier League games for next season (and 23 for the two seasons after that) means that an American company will be “doing” the football in the UK from 2009/10 onwards.
As a result, ESPN will be at the forefront of helping shape UK attitudes to US soccer fans. I think it’s fair to say that UK based fans don’t always give US based fans the respect they deserve. And in many many ways that’s very very unfair.
I’ve lived on both side of the divide, and can confidently say that the real US footy fans are at least as knowledgeable as their UK counterparts. If anything they’re more open-minded, and not as myopically focused on just the English Premier League. Sure, they’re a smaller percentage of the population, but that just means they have have to work extra hard to find their information. They can’t just pick up a paper every morning and read the latest on the bus. They also have to do things like take long lunches/skip work in order to watch the Champions League.
So if ESPN can do a respectable, intelligent job with their Premier League coverage, they’ll not only get themselves a sturdy foothold on a sizeable mountain of money, they’ll be doing something approaching philanthropy by enhancing the reputation of football fans on the other side of the Atlantic.
But if not, then… Go Pirates!!!
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http://files.adme.ru/files/paedia/print/part_25/250094/preview_600_927.jpgA great advertising campaign, that’s for sure… And if only Bolton tried to play like Globe Trotters!
Posted from
Australia
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“I’ve lived on both side of the divide, and can confidently say that the real US footy fans are at least as knowledgeable as their UK counterparts. If anything they’re more open-minded, and not as myopically focused on just the English Premier League. Sure, they’re a smaller percentage of the population, but that just means they have have to work extra hard to find their information. They can’t just pick up a paper every morning and read the latest on the bus. They also have to do things like take long lunches/skip work in order to watch the Champions League.”
Thank you Daryl for this paragraph. It means a lot to us ^^
Posted from
United States -
Please let them not allow Tommy Smyth anywhere near the microphone, please let them not allow Tommy Smyth anywhere near the microphone, please let them…
Posted from
United States -
Was going to post a comment exactly like Tommy Wong’s, but he covered it. Thanks Daryl.
And Laurie, with you 100% on that one.
Posted from
United States -
i hope they send arsenal to beet country good riddance COYS!
Posted from
United States
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