Hey ESPN: Keep It National, Because Local Ain’t Your Thing

Posted by Seth in INTERNET, TELEVISION on 09-01-10    No Comments


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ESPN bashing has become a participatory sport in many circles, and it seems the “Worldwide Leader in Sports” isn’t doing much to win friends and influence people. OK, that’s not entirely true. They influence people without a problem, but in their recent forays into televising high school football, their manners haven’t exactly been Emily Post.

Now, before we go any further, let’s take a moment to question the entire idea of nationally televised high school sports. Coming from the network that brings you wall-to-wall Little League World Series coverage every August (we’re talking 12-year-olds here!) it should be no surprise they’ve got a season-long prep football package, and have for several years. Last Friday, ESPN was in northern California for a game at Folsom High, and from the sounds of a report in the Sacramento Bee, they won’t be asked back anytime soon.

The four-letter network strode in and started organizing early-morning pep rallies, pulling players out of classes for interviews and dictating where and when other media outlets would have access to the field on game night. The frustrating part for the area media who cover Folsom on a regular basis is that they really had no avenue of appeal. Under normal circumstances, if they had a problem with access, they would go to the athletic director or the principal of the school. But with those folks bending over backward because they’re gaga over the chance to be on national TV, whatever ESPN wanted, ESPN got. Every second of air time is a chance to do some marketing, so ESPN even had branded water buckets and bottles that they forced the teams to use. It was no longer just a Friday night football game, it was a made-for-TV production.

At a certain point, it must have gotten to be a bit much for everyone. One of the coaches told the Bee:

“The national exposure is great for the kids and the fans, but being told exactly what you could have on your sideline, like water buckets, is new to me. During a game, I’m in a tunnel vision of thought and anger, but this was (different). I agree with the local media and (limited TV access). It’s the local paper and the local TV that put high school football in this town on the map, not ESPN.”

James Rainey, a media critic at the Los Angeles Times, caught wind of what happened at Folsom and used it as a jumping off point to question ESPN’s move into more local content, particularly their locally branded websites. His reporting hinted that ESPN may be souring on its plans to roll out more local sites. It seems the boys in Bristol can do the big stuff well, but getting out there and rubbing elbows with the local-yokels isn’t exactly their thing. And while they have attracted some decent talent to their local web portals for New York, Chicago, Boston, Dallas and Los Angeles, their ability to really drill down deeply into these markets — and cover high schools and smaller colleges — has always been suspect at best.

ESPN: The Worldwide Leader in pro and college sports. Let ‘em be happy with that.

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