My latest Chicago Tribune column is on ESPN’s invasion of Brazil for unprecedented coverage of the World Cup.
You also can access the column at my Twitter at @Sherman_Report.
From the column:
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Progress can be measured by the offside rule when it comes to soccer in the United States.
Back in 1994, when ESPN aired the first World Cup held in the U.S., play-by-play man Ian Darke was required to give viewers a lesson in what constituted offside in soccer. Imagine Joe Buck says a double play counts as two outs during a World Series.
“I understood at that time,” Darke said. “But I think the sophistication of the American audience has grown, and I would almost regard it as an insult, really, to their intelligence now to be asked to explain the basics of the game.”
Twenty years later, the anticipation and awareness for the World Cup is at an all-time high in the U.S. ESPN is going all out with unprecedented coverage beginning with the opening match Thursday. All 64 matches will be shown live on either ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC, along with nearly 24/7 analysis on all of its platforms.
The network’s invasion of Brazil will consist of hundreds of ESPN staffers scattered throughout the country to cover every aspect of the Cup. It will be as close to NBC’s armada for the Olympics as it gets for a major sporting event.
The World Cup always has been huge everywhere but here. Now after all these years, the U.S. is starting to catch on.
The reason is twofold: Soccer continues to grow in popularity in the states. Darke cited the growing participation numbers that not only expose kids to the game, but also their parents.
“I think they understand the rhythms of it, and everybody’s got the general idea now that the World Cup is a very, very big deal,” Darke said.
The other factor, though, clearly is ESPN. The network’s blanket coverage of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa sucked in many non-traditional soccer viewers. ESPN then fired up its massive blowtorch with a relentless marketing campaign to promote this year’s World Cup.
In short: Don’t underestimate the power of ESPN.
“I think what we did in 2010 is rather remarkable in that you could make the argument that the United States was really the last holdout, if you will, for somewhat of a level of indifference in the World Cup,” Jed Drake, ESPN’s executive producer for the World Cup. “We fundamentally changed that in 2010. We did so through a production and marketing approach that made people understand how important this event is to the rest of the planet.”