Comments on: ESPN Insider Confirms UK Premier League TV Bid

By: AtlantaPompey

AtlantaPompey — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:25:23 +0000

Does ESPN have problems? Of course. Many problems. But the exposure of ESPN covering the sport, and therefore promoting the sport would be tremendous. I think they would hire the local announcers for the matches and make an honest effort to cover the sport. Would some people on ESPN still ridicule football? Of course. That will never end. They have people who ridicule hockey, yet they still cover it in Sportscenter and various other programs.

ESPN getting the broadcast rights to the EPL or Serie A or La Liga would immediately make those leagues and the sport of Football relevant and visible to everyone in this country. Would it turn us into a footy-crazy nation? No, but it would expose the sport to millions who don't get FSC or Setanta, and the fanbase would continue to grow and expand.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:23:25 +0000

I will lament losing our independence from ESPN if all of a sudden FSC and Setanta lose the rights or part of the package.
It is a badge of honor that us real football fans have our own channel that we know shows proper football and even though its not perfect, we can feel at home at....
but to now be sandwiched on ESPN's schedule would be a disaster for football in this country...can you see events like this happening
It's monday afternoon at 4:30 ET....15 mins to go of the monday night game...Newcastle 2 Liverpool 2 ....cracking game, packed house, fully committed teams....meanwhile...
Brett Farve is holding a press conference to announce that he is going to shave

WHAT WILL ESPN DO?

EXACTLY!

By: Jean-Christian

Jean-Christian — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 08:18:05 +0000

This is awful. ESPN obviously wants money, but they don't care whatsoever for soccer. Their personalities ridicule soccer at any opportunity. (Hell, they don't even know how to pronounce Juventus, “Juh-ven-tuhs,” I kid you not.) Jim Rome introduced a soccer story by explaining how a soccer player's actions have further shamed his “so-called sport.” Worst of all is the thought of egotistical ESPN using its own pathetic soccer announcers. I can't see the Premier League denying their bid, since ESPN is clearly larger than FSC and Setanta (combined), but it would mean the world to true soccer fans for ESPN to be denied the ability to ruin yet another sport.

By: Matteo

Matteo — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 03:46:49 +0000

They should just get rid of ESPNU or convert it into ESPN World or something of that sort..

ESPNU just shows nearly all the college sports not many people really care about and the broadcast team can be at times amateurish at best.

I would vote for one of their channels to change and also air the big match ups on ESPN2 so they can be viewed in HD..

By: AtlantaPompey

AtlantaPompey — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:45:34 +0000

Did anyone else notice that ESPNews is showing scores for England, Spain, and Italy in the scroll ticker on the weekend. I'm in the habit of recording games on DVR and watching later, but was at lunch Sunday where I saw the scores and it ruined the results for me. I also saw them discussing the EPL table at one point. I couldn't hear them, but they were displaying the table on the full screen. ESPN(the mother ship) also had a couple of items on their ticker on Wednesday that I read while at the gym.

I would welcome a third network covering world wide football. It would be great for exposure with ESPN cross-promoting the sport on SportsCenter.