-100

It seems I've mostly been posting about ESPN lately but it's hard not to when they offer up so much material. Today, a big one: ESPN fired 100 people today and some of them are names you'd recognize. Some of the more familiar names: Ed Werder, Roger Cossack, Jay Crawford, Trent Dilfer (one of the best NFL analysts out there), Jayson Stark, and the one that hits me the hardest, Danny Kanell. Russillo and Kanell is just about the only thing on ESPN worth watching (or listening to) so losing half the team hurts. Russillo is reportedly still going to be on the radio but will be cut back on the TV side but it still leaves me concerned. Maybe I'll get to dump the ESPN app the same way I dumped ESPN.

Political

ESPN has released new guidelines for discussing politics on the network, though you won't find them on the front page and they waited until just after a NCAA Championship game to do it. As near as I can tell they're giving commentators the green light to discuss politics as long as it's related to sports in some fashion. They're supposed to offer "balance" to opposing views but note that idea is subjective, so you can read probably assume they won't feel the need to talk about conservative views unless they're mocking them. I find this especially interesting given the last story I posted. ESPN again seems determined to double-down on the things people are complaining about. I'm going to enjoy laughing at them when they can't pay their bills any longer.

Falling Off a Cliff

Bloomberg Business Week has an interesting article on ESPN and cord cutting, something I've posted about before. It includes a graph that shows the subscriber numbers falling off a cliff. ESPN though appears to be doubling-down on protecting the cable bundle. Their main problem? Cost. According to that article Game of Thrones costs HBO about $100 million for a season. ESPN pays that just for one MNF game. It's hard to believe that's going to go well for ESPN in the end. They probably can't afford to give people a lower-cost option for consuming ESPN content, but ESPN is a pretty awful deal compared to... well, pretty much everything.

621,000

That's how many subscribers ESPN lost in October. Outkick The Coverage has a fantastic article about this and it's well worth reading the whole thing. The short version is ESPN is bleeding subscribers at an alarming rate and within five years they could be facing some serious financial issues. That's really interesting as ESPN is the heart of the current cable system and distribution of most sports. If ESPN fails or has to make major changes we're going to be living in a dramatically different world when it comes to sports.

The other interesting question is: Why? A few thoughts:

1. The most obvious answer is people are cutting the cord in record numbers. Some don't care about sports anyway, others (like me) do care but just can't justify the extra cost. This isn't changing anytime soon.

2. Another issue is ESPN has become more openly political and specifically left-wing in their coverage, though most ESPN personalities would deny that. I think this matters but I'm not sure how much.

3. Protests by players in various sports doesn't help. Any one thing may not matter a lot but I think all of it taken together and added to these other factors can definitely push people over the edge.

4. I haven't watched the network very often lately but my impression is just about everything that's not an actual sports broadcast is worse than it used to be, though possibly I'm just old or thinking the past was better than it was. I've been particularly unimpressed with SportsCenter, aside from the SVP version. Most of these shows must be cheap to produce but if they're not keeping people interested, or even driving them away, it's an issue.

5. In trying to wring every drop of revenue from sporting events the commercials have gotten ridiculous. An NFL game can barely keep my interest anymore because of all the commercial interruptions.

?

Is ESPN going to be a social advocacy group or a sports network? They're pretty good at one and insufferable as the other and they're taking a big step towards the latter by running "The State of the NFL" on ESPN Radio tonight. It's sure to be a balanced piece with NOW president Terry O'Neill and ESPN-W contributor Kay Fagan (who thinks we should be “reprogramming how we raise men.”) involved. It's this kind of thing that would make me think about dumping ESPN, if I was a cable customer in the first place.

QB Stock Game

Today on SVP & Russillo the guys unveiled their QB Stock Game. The rules are as follows:

Each QB has been assigned a price based upon their record and QBR (it's QBR divided by 10 plus win differential divided by four). You get $1,000 to spend and must select one QB from every tier. QB prices will be adjusted after the first four weeks of the season. Please note that any QB who isn't listed below is a $3 IPO.

The list of prices is at the link. I thought this sounded fun so I'm going to play along. My picks:

QB	Price	Shares	$
Tom Brady	8.11	20	162.20
Jay Cutler	6.39	35	223.65
Matthew Stafford	4.75	98	465.50
Robert Griffin III	2.26	65	146.90
		Total	$998.25

If you're interested feel free to play along and post your picks.

!

I'm not watching the World Cup but I was okay with all this soccer nonsense until today. ESPN decided that since they're airing games on ESPN Radio they would cut SVP & Russillo down to only two hours. I'm not pleased at all. Also, the US team's uniforms (kit?) are bad, I look at them and think "Team France."

Embarrassing

You know, it's funny that Desmond Howard says he's "embarrassed" for Michigan State and William Gholston after Gholston's play last week because I feel embarrassed for the University of Michigan and ESPN every time I see Desmond Howard on College GameDay attempting to be an analyst.

Decisions, Decisions

So, LeBron James' future plans are going to be announced tomorrow night. On ESPN. This is everything I hate about the NBA. Okay, not quite everything: Apparently the money raised from the advertising during the 60-min (!) special is going to charity. But still, here's lots of ego, hype, and, uh, no basketball. I understand why people are interested since this is a relatively rare event in the sports business, but it seems to me like a line is being crossed that we're going to regret later. And ESPN is complicit, as they have been all along with LeBron. Remember his high school game on ESPN? Maybe they should get his official sponsorship?

Soccer Sucks

I was going to avoid writing anything about the World Cup entirely, but I just can't hold out any longer. For one thing, even though it's Game 6 of the NBA Finals tonight (which I also don't care about), ESPN has World Cup coverage all over the front page. I'm often willing to side with ESPN against its critics, but they are absolutely trying to push soccer on viewers and it's pretty ridiculous. I'm glad I don't watch SportsCenter any more, because I'd probably throw something at the TV.

The second thing is that Andy McCarthy at The Corner shared a link to this article in The Washington Times. The conclusion:

There were a few enjoyable things about watching soccer. No commercials, it looks good in HD and I was able to get some things done around the house since there was no real danger of missing anything.

If it ain't broke...

Not a fan of ESPN's new scoreboard that is being used in the New Mexico Bowl. They need to go back to the one they've used all season. Right away, like for the second half of this game.

Frustrating

Definitely annoyed that ESPN says they have the Twins-Tigers game on, but instead they're running ESPNews. Good thing I can watch it online.

?

Does anyone watch SportsCenter anymore? I certainly don't. I can't even get through the intro after PTI is over. It's so sensational and hyperbolic I just can't stomach it. For example, yesterday the anchor mentioned Kobe's "transcendant" abilities in one of the teasers. Really? Transcendant? I don't think that word means what he thinks it means. Was it always this bad? Was I just insulated because I usually watched the morning version? Has ESPN become MTV for the sports crowd?

Adios

Dan Patrick announced yesterday on his radio show that he is leaving to pursue new interests outside of ESPN. His last day on air will be August 17th. Patrick is great at what he does, but do you think he can be a real success in another field? Let's just hope he doesn't go the Keith Olbermann moonbat route.

UPDATE: Sorry, didn't mean to use lingo not everyone understands. According to Wikipedia, moonbat "is a term often used currently in U.S. politics as a political epithet referring to anyone that is liberal or on the left." Personally I associate the term with the far-left fringe: Kos kids, Moveon.org, and others from the liberal fever swamps. From what I've read, Olbermann's work for MSNBC matches up fairly well with that description.