Media and the MLS, a Match Best Made in Hell
By: David | April 6th, 2007I was going to save this for another week; however, I could not stay away. This will be the first post of many detailing the relationships between the media and the MLS. With the season beginning tomorrow, it is necessary to look at how the future of the MLS will be dictated by the representation (or lack of rep.) in America’s media.
Today’s subject deals with the debacle that has transpired over comments made by Eric Wynalda.
I stumbled upon this issue on Big Soccer and began to read further into what had happened. Mr. Wynalda had participated in an interview with FullhamUSA.com where he spoke his mind about the state of Soccer in America. During the course of the interview, Mr. Wynalda made comments about a fellow ESPN employee (Jim Rome) that have been deemed crude and inappropriate, leading to his suspension from MLS broadcasts. He has now been replaced with Julie Foudy.
Yet, this issue is deeper then just the Wynalda incident. As has been evidenced by the reaction on the internet, ESPN’s broadcast of the MLS (and the World Cup) has been less then satisfactory. In fact, it has been abysmal and quite damaging. The problem is ESPN’s monopolistic control on American sports. Although, Fox Sports Net is a “competitor” they do not have the same clout as ESPN does. As such, for a sport to succeed, they must be able to gain the support of ESPN. Even though the MLS has signed a contract with ESPN there has been very little advertisement and very little acknowledgement on their various shows. In fact the World Series of Poker has been gaining more ad time then the MLS and they are just re-runs.
Now I know this might seem like I am just complaining, however, this is an issue that must be addressed. How does the MLS expect to survive? What do you think can be done? Is this an issue that will dictate the league’s future?
With that out of the way, I will return to my other duties. Like I was saying, I am planning on going deeper into the relationship between media and the MLS in the near future.
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Comments
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Small steps. ESPN is showing a match of the week on Thursday nights. FSC has improved their coverage. More and more newspapers are paying to the league. There are more blogs about MLS than ever before. The coverage is not where most of us would want it but it is getting better after all these years.
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I partially agree as small steps are being made. However, I would have to say it really depends on what market you are in. LA for example is quite poor in its representation. Take the LA Times and Long Beach Press Telegram. The day before the season starting there is one are article at the bottom of the front page detailing about the MLS and its current state. For the most part there has been very little else, save for the article a month or so ago on Becks. The Long Beach Press Telegram has an article on Chivas which can be found on page two.
As it stands this is the same representation that existed last year.
I will agree that there has been some improvement on broadcast as FSC has increased its exposure. The same can be said for the Blogs.
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