Boycott ESPN

I just wanted to state for the record how shabby ESPN has become. And, yes, this has everything to do with the fact that they own the US rights to televise Champion's League games, but show only one and sell the rest to the Setanta Pub Channel (which charges way too much $$$$ for the privelege of watching a soccer game). ESPN showed none of the games today, even though there were some great matchups with Bayern Munich taking on Arsenal and Real Madrid v. Juventus. Instead they showed 4 consecutive World Strongest Man competitions. Are you kidding me? Why would they show such crap programming when there are several world class soccer matches to choose from? And tommorow they are only showing Manchester United v. AC Milan, when they could show what is the clear glamour matchup of the draw--Chelsea v. Barcelona, argurably the two best teams in the world right now. With the NHL dead, wouldn't this be a great opportunity to promote the world's most popular sport? Imagine if they showed Chelsea v. Barcelona in primetime on ESPN (rather than send it to the minor leagues on ESPN2). I gaurantee that if ESPN gave world class soccer (not the woeful MLS) this kind of exposure, it would become the fastest growing sport in America (and they would see the fastest growing profits). Instead, I have to feel lucky that they show a single game.

As a soccer fan, and as a sports fan, I am going to start a boycott of ESPN. This isn't a pure boycott, because they own so many of the games out there in every sport (even when they don't show them, they own them), and I can't do without sports--actual games. What I can do without is trash, low cost production, filler programming like World's Strongest Man and Poker, and any non live sports programming other than Sportscenter. From this day on, I am not watching anything on ESPN that is not a) an actual game, b) Sportscenter (or a similar news program). The nearly constant games on Fox Soccer Channel and GolTV stand as examples of what ESPN could be. Im obviously not saying they should focus on soccer, but they should go back to focus on showing games, rather than Around the Horn and the like. Remember when MTV used to show music videos? I don't want to get to the point where I have to think back to the days when ESPN actually showed live sports. So I'm not going to support any of their trash programming anymore. As much as I like PTI, it is part of the problem. I'm doing my small part to end the MTV-ization of ESPN and I hope you'll join me.