jcookc6

Who ever sets the policy at ESPN knows nothing about sports.
1. The announcers TALK to much. It is almost like watching IMUS on MSNBC, a radio show on television.
2. They keep putting scores from tennis matches and shit like that at the bottom of the screen.
3. The shows are geared to morons, all they do is yell at each other.

People who watch sports generally know what is going on. They do not show that many European Sports, where an explanation of rules would be necessary.

fearofmear

I like the scrolling scores across the bottom. It is a quick way to find out if your team won without having to sit through Sportscenter to find out. I don't know what you mean by the announcers talking too much. That is what they get paid to do. i agree with you about your third point. Shows like Around the Horn, Baseball Tonight, and their NBA coverage have confrontations just to seem interesting (and it isn't). The only place that works is PTI.

Glory's Sun

PTI is a great show. ESPN can suck at times..mainly when they have a "marathon" of World's Strongest Man comps or some crap like that. Sportcenter is still great. At least the announcers make it funny. As far as in game announcing, the hockey commentators are good. The rest..umm I don't really watch so I don't know.

darkure

My biggest gripe with them is when there are perfectly good live Champions League soccer matches going on and they decide to show the greatest moments from the NFL in the 1970's for the third or fourth time in as many weeks or the World Strongest Man's competition. They are the only american station to carry CL so it is not as if there is competition that they have to split the schedule with. Also I think the matches would draw more views and thus more advertising bucks than anything else especially since the matches are during the middle of the day on a weekday.

__________________
COYW

BulletBob

This is America, who cares about Soccer? As long as ESPN continues to show plenty of basketball, baseball, football, and hockey, I'll continue to watch.

Glory's Sun

Umm I care about soccer Alot of Americans are starting to care about soccer. It's growing in popularity pretty quickly. It's a good thing. I'm tired of being the laughing stock of the World's Game.

The only time I get to watch a good game is on Fox Sports Network. They usually have the Premier league and such. Sucks if you don't have digital cable or sat. I guess.

gov135

I think that the difference is in what you expect. ESPN sometimes dumbs down their broadcasts for the "average" sports fan. Then they risk losing the guy who doesn't want to see the dumbed down broadcast.

I think they cover the games well, with nice camera angles, etc.

gov135

Good point about the world stage. This is the reason I try to include a soccer game in the Tilted Forum Sports contests.

I don't understand it, don't follow it, but I can respect it.

Glory's Sun

I think that's the main problem. People don't really understand it. Maybe it's easier if you've played the sport?? I played it and loved it. Even before then I loved it. It's sorta like hockey, alot of people don't understand it. What do the blue and red lines mean? How can they hit the shit out of him and it not be a penalty and then he can just "interfere" with someone and get 2 minutes. Hell my dad thought icing the puck was when they stopped and the ice shavings covered the puck guess the puck got too cold lol. I would for once like to see America as a powerhouse in soccer. It will take awhile and we should adapt to the english game but it will happen.

darkure

Sorry do divert the thread so much, but I was just expressing my main gripe with ESPN.

Getting back to the original post, I remember watching college football games and something would happen on the near sideline and several times the action would be blocked because of the bar. I don't usually mind the updating scores because most of the action takes place inthe center of the screen but once it starts to move toward the bottom they should turn it off. I really don't need to know what is happening elsewhere when something potentially big is being blocked by the scores.

__________________
COYW

Sensei

I honestly don't think ESPN is that bad--in fact I think it's quite good. Back when i had cable, I watched SportsCenter every day and thought it was well produced. As mentioned earlier, PTI totally rocks. Plus, what other station does sports better 24/7?

__________________
Slacking off with style since 1981.

jcookc6

The above reader is an example of the average ESPN viewer. Probably watches Sports Center for a Hour and a half and doesnt realize he watching a half hour show.

sabre1044

ESPN sucks because they cannot take 1 teams side over another. They must have a bias opinion. Thats why they suck

Sh0ckw4v3

Personally, I think ESPN is great. They could do wilth more actual sports coverage and fewer shows (I fear that ESPN will become like MTV.. all shows, and none of the actual content the network was founded to show) but overall they do a good job. Especially for things like college sports ESPN / ESPN2 / ESPN+ are wonderful.

if you dont like the announcers press the mute button

stroke9413

Personally I love ESPN. I get to see a lot of baseball teams that I would never usually get to see, in addition to lots of hockey and college football and basketball that you don't really get anywhere else. As for their non-primetime broadcasts, I agree, they can get rather boring (World's Strongest Man). Baseball Tonight's updates when a guy flies out bother me as well.

cliffxpro

ESPN's parent company: Disney....enough said.

bigoldalphamale

ESPN might as well be the only station i ever watch. PTI, Around the Horn, College Football GameDay, Monday Night Countdown, SportsCenter, Rome is Burning, Baseball Tonite, NHL Tonite, i could go on and on. They cover the great games that the major networks refuse to pick up. If you are busy as shit and just want a quick wrap up of what happened in sports on any given day, just tune in to the 6pm sportscenter while you are making dinner and you are caught up. I think ESPN is the greatest. ask me about ESPN.com and you'll get another answer entirely.

grayman

My biggest problem with SportsCenter is that they don't show all the results from one sport at the same time. They show two football results, then two basketball results, then 10 commercials, then 2 more football results. I just want to tune in, see the football results and tune out. I know they do it on purpose so people will watch the whole show, but it still sucks.

__________________
That's right - I'm a guy in a suit eating a Blizzard. F U.

cliffxpro

On a similar topic, does anyone think the Fox Sports regional channels are worth a damn? We have The Midwest Sports Report here, and it might as well be called the St. Louis sports report, because they never mention a damn thing about the Royals, Chiefs, or any other sport in KC. Hell, Anna K. was in town playing for the KC Explorers this past weekend, and they didn't even mention that. IF Anna K doesn't get their attention, I don't know what will.

tikki

I don't have a problem with ESPN for the most part. I am just glad that I have about five sports channels showing content all the time. I wish they would show more diversity in their afternoon programming (ie. NO MORE STRONG MAN!), but I can't complain that much.

Their original programming is pretty good as well. I watch PTI and Around the Horn every afternoon, I try to catch all of The Life, The Season, and Beg Borrow and Deal as well.

__________________
Take notice. Take interest. Take me with you.

FastShark85

I wish they'd get Craig Kilborn and Keith Olberman back. Those two were great together.

BigGov

Why doesn't ESPN carry soccer? Because Strongman marathons get better ratings.

Not putting down soccer or Strongman. That's the truth.

__________________
One day an Englishman, a Scotsman, and an Irishman walked into a pub together. They each bought a pint of Guinness. Just as they were about to enjoy their creamy beverage, three flies landed in each of their pints. The Englishman pushed his beer away in disgust. The Scotsman fished the fly out of his beer and continued drinking it, as if nothing had happened. The Irishman, too, picked the fly out of his drink but then held it out over the beer and yelled "SPIT IT OUT, SPIT IT OUT, YOU BASTARD!"

tikki

Olberman and Dan Patrick were the best. You've just given me an idea...

__________________
Take notice. Take interest. Take me with you.

Doh

Strongman gets old, but what on what other station can you watch the poker championship, billiards, and finish it off with a healthy helping of SUMO!!! Long live ESPN 2 ("the duece")

Hrothgar

Two words...Stuart Scott. That dude is a fuckin idiot. He tries to be friends with all the athletes he interviews. He's a Boo Yah spouting moron.

__________________
The fortunes of war favored Hrothgar.

Explosive

They have this thing called the "Hot Seat" and it's retarded, they ask players questions and half the time the players are so retarded they dont even answer it. It's sad.

jcookc6

Try watching a old game on ESPN Classic and see what TV coverage of games use to be. No pop ups, no scrolling bars, just an occasional flash of the score. The announcers didnt talk non stop about shit like how the pitcher is setting up the batter when the count is 0-1 to strike the batter out at 3-2. They just showed the runner stealing 2nd base, they didnt talk about how the runner was looking for the sign for a slider so that he could get a good jump.
These people that run these shows don't realize that the average fan just wants to watch the game.

Esco

GOD I HATE THAT "HOT SEAT" CRAP. I think so do the guest who are "on" it. It's simply retarded and a waste of time.

Blu2e354

I agree Stuart Scott is a big idiot. I remember him interviewing Dontrelle and he started calling something like D-train, shut the hell up Stuart. Baseball tonight is on at eleven on espn2 and then starts over and repeats the same shit on espn. PTI and around the horn are good. Their sunday night games suck miller and morgan don't know what the hell their talking about and they make the game hard to watch

Artermis

I love PTI and it seems like Tony and Michael have hardly been together for the last three weeks and it bugs the shit out of me.

I think Around the Horn could be a lot better but they get the same stiffs over and over. They really need to have about 20 different sports guys...maybe even some regular joes on there talking. Jay is an asshat and Woody is not much better. Ryan has not been on there and he is the best.

I also get pissed when they preempt Around and PTI. Why not switch the two shows to the Deuce instead of fly fishing or some crap that is on there.

I really like the sports reporters. Rome is alright but he gets annoying. I wish when he had his roundtable discussions he would get rid of the comedians because usually they try to butt into what people are saying to throw a one liner in that really is awful.

I want some Australian rules football or some other foreign sports to see instead of strongman and reruns of the NFL shows from 30 years ago.

The reason that Keith and Dan were so good was that they basically only did Sportscenter and did not branch out to actually covering sports and getting to friendly with the players aka Stuart. It seems like all of them are doing a ton more things then just sportscenter and it brings down the quality of the show.

I also hate the fact there is like 6 hours of sports center on in the morning. They might as well as show me some classic football games like Oklahoma vs Texas, Arkanasas vs Texas, Michigan vs Notre Dame, Michigan vs Iowa (mid 80's Chuck Long teams always gave Michigan problems), Auburn vs Alabama, Michigan vs OSU and the list keeps going because especially back in the 60's, 70's and 80's....the games were regionalized and we missed a lot of those games.

ESPN 10 years ago > ESPN today.


Art

iceman2032

They really need to do more soccer coverage