By L.E. Eisenmenger - BOSTON, MA (Dec 13, 2009) USSoccerPlayers -- As soccer fans around the world tick off the days to World Cup South Africa in June, ESPN is winding up their coverage to an unprecedented level.
ESPN will combine with ESPN2 and ABC to present HD coverage of all 64 matches. Beyond the US, ESPN is a World Cup rights-holder in Brazil, India, Pakistan, the Maldives, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, and the Middle East. In addition to pre-match, half-time, and post-game shows, ESPN will produce a 30-minute daily World Cup news show and highlight coverage in SportsCenter.
“People are really excited around here,” said Christopher Alexopoulos, ESPN’s producer for all its soccer programming, “It’s impossible to avoid the World Cup here at ESPN on the Bristol campus. As you walk towards the cafeteria outside there’s this huge ‘Countdown to the World Cup clock.’ We have shuttle buses with pictures of the World Cup covering the sides. There’s always reminders for all the staff that the World Cup is coming and it’s an important event that all of us, no matter what sport we’re on, need to pay attention to.”
“One of the three company priorities for this year is making the 2010 World Cup the biggest and best event that we can possibly put on - compared to any sport on ESPN, any event at ESPN,“ said Alexopoulos. “We’ll have more coverage than we’ve ever seen on soccer.”
Over the past three years, ESPN’s interest in soccer increased. This year, with the explosion of US soccer fans’ interest in live international competition, ESPN grabbed a bigger piece of the market share, including the purchase of new soccer properties and coverage of new leagues.Alexopoulos has been with ESPN for 14 years and has been ESPN’s soccer producer for the past three. In partnership with director Grant Best, they run every ESPN soccer production hands-on. Alexopoulos is in the truck, selecting replays, instructing the 25-30 man crew, and is the person in the ear of the announcers, giving instructions for story lines and promotions.
When Alexopoulos came to ESPN in 1995, he wanted to work on soccer, but the opportunities weren’t there. MLS produced its own programming and his first chance to assist in coverage was during the 1998 World Cup. Following that, there were four-year gaps between World Cups and comprehensive soccer coverage.
This year, ESPN produced 33 MLS games, US Men’s National Team games, the World Football Challenge, friendlies, and broadcast Serie A, Bundesliga, Spanish Primera Division, and EPL, as well as Spanish language games on ESPN Deportes. Soccer is now regularly included as part of SportsCenter.
In 2009, the sold-out stadiums for World Football Challenge, which featured Chelsea, Barcelona, AC Milan, and Inter Milan, changed the market dynamics for ESPN. The tournament was a healthy two-way relationship with American soccer and big overseas clubs and ESPN sees this relationship as a growing source of revenue. It’s not just about filling a stadium with 70-90,000 fans and exposing Americans to top-level European and South American teams, it’s positioning MLS teams alongside those clubs and having those fans watch them compete.
The second part of that relationship benefits big-name European teams trying to bring their brand to the United States.
“Barcelona and Chelsea could go anywhere,” said Alexopoulos, “but they choose to go to the United States because it’s a market they can build on.”
World Football Challenge was all about building relationships. When Jose Mourinho came to Boston last Spring to prepare for the tournament, he spoke at length about Inter Milan’s plans for globalization, including the possibility of an MLS franchise and his expansive vision for MLS.
“Coming to the US can open people’s minds,” said Mourinho. “To come here - we have nothing to learn from you about our game – we have nothing to learn. But we have a lot to learn from you about sports. Not about our sport, but about sports and about sports organizations, sports investments, sports marketing, sports merchandising. We have everything to learn from you.”
MLS has a lot to learn from ESPN as well. It’s not just a game, it’s an event and that's how ESPN covers the game. However, they also recognize that it's not necessarily the American version of a sports event. In world soccer, the crowd is a big part of the spectacle and sports fans gravitate towards big events.
“That’s a huge part of our broadcast,” said Alexopoulos. ”If there’s a massive crowd, you want to let the audience know that there’s 70,000 people in the stadium, that it’s a sell-out. Fans have been driving down the median strip, they’ve been in the parking lot for five hours now. You get a camera and show the long traffic line of people arriving to the stadium.”
Alexopoulos sees stars like Landon Donovan and David Beckham as key to the success of MLS and credits the League for retaining them.
“We were lucky to have them in MLS Cup and the ratings show that,” said Alexopoulos. “The ratings show that stars bring people to the television set. Stars are really important to selling the game on television.”
Filming a game is all about visual impact. ESPN wants to show the world what it can do in South Africa and hopefully help build interest towards an eventual World Cup in the United States. There’s a lot at stake.
“What ESPN is doing for this World Cup is targeting soccer fans,” said Alexopoulas. “We want to get every single soccer fan watching every single World Cup game.”
L.E. Eisenmenger writes for a variety of outlets including covering Boston soccer for The Examiner. Contact her at eisenmenger@soccerlens.com.
