Soccer to Get Its Month on the Tube
When TNT televised 24 World Cup games in 1990, the average rating was a dismal 1.2.
Now with the World Cup in the United States, the question is: Will more people watch?
ABC, which will televise 11 games, including the July 17 final at the Rose Bowl, and ESPN, which will televise the other 41 games, are counting on it.
But neither network seems to be doing much in the way of promotion.
And nine of the 32 first-round games on ESPN (ABC will carry four) won’t even be shown live because baseball, golf or whatever takes precedence.
ESPN2 will carry seven of those delayed telecasts live, but ESPN2 reaches only 14 million homes, compared with ESPN’s 60.7 million.
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One problem the World Cup organizers have in generating interest in this country is the lack of U.S. soccer stars.
Maybe they should have talked Michael Jordan into trying the sport instead of baseball.
ABC, in its press material, calls Rick Davis, who will work as one of its commentators, “the most famous American soccer player ever.”
Bet you didn’t know that.
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Another problem with the World Cup seems to be that American television doesn’t know quite how to cover it. Since soccer is practically an unknown sport to a large portion of the general public, announcers sometimes insult the intelligence of the soccer purists by trying to explain the basic principles, and other times they talk over the heads of many of the viewers.
Ron Newman, the coach of the San Diego Sockers who will work for ESPN during the World Cup, recently told The Times’ Bill Plaschke: “I went back to England to watch the World Cup last time. I couldn’t stand it on TV here. I didn’t need someone to tell me what a corner kick is.
“I know a lot of Americans who switched to Spanish TV even though they don’t understand a word of Spanish.”
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For the American sports fan, watching the Super Bowl on British television would seem to be comparable to watching the World Cup on American television. We don’t need to have offside explained in detail.
Europeans are put to sleep by American football and baseball because of all the breaks in the action. But Americans have grown accustomed to such breaks, and actually like them.
“Soccer, with its continuous action, does not lend itself well to American television,” said a producer involved in previous World Cups.
“Another thing--and this is very important--is you can’t shoot soccer tight like you can football, baseball and basketball. You have to shoot it wide or you will miss something.
“When you attend a soccer game in person and you can see the entire field, it is a very exciting sport. But it’s not the same on television.
“To Europeans, who love the sport and fully understand it, it doesn’t matter.”
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ABC and ESPN, aware of previous viewer complaints, promise higher-quality announcing.
“We will not be conducting elementary school on soccer,” said Dennis Deninger, coordinating producer of ESPN’s coverage.
He said the nuances of the game will be dealt with outside game telecasts or only when needed to explain game situations as they develop.
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One nice thing will be no commercials during live action. But ESPN and ABC will cram in plenty during pregame and halftime shows.
The format calls for four minutes of commercials during the 10-minute pregame shows, 8 1/2 minutes during the 15-minute halftime breaks.
Another beef about the way American television covers soccer concerns the lack of full-blown pregame shows. Ten-minute pregame shows with four minutes of commercials do little to generate interest and promote discussion.
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ESPN opens its World Cup coverage with Germany vs. Bolivia live at noon on Friday, June 17. The other game that day, Spain-Korea, will be shown at 9:30 p.m., a delay of six hours. But it will be live on ESPN2.
ESPN isn’t showing Spain-Korea live because it has the second round of the U.S. Open golf tournament that day.
ABC’s first weekend World Cup telecast will be the U.S. vs. Switzerland on Saturday, June 18, live at 8:30 a.m. All other games that weekend will be on ESPN.
The late game on Sunday, June 19, is Cameroon playing Sweden at the Rose Bowl at 4:30 p.m. The game will be on ESPN2 live, but delayed on ESPN until 9 p.m. because of Sunday night baseball.
The Times plans to publish a complete television schedule on Sunday, June 12.
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Soccer may not be captivating the American public, but golf seems to be. The sport is suddenly bringing in big bucks.
Sources say NBC this week agreed to pay $13 million a year for the U.S. Open, the U.S. Senior Open and the U.S. Women’s Open.
ABC, which was paying $7 million a year for that package, bid $11.5 million in an attempt to retain it. NBC was willing to pay even more.
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The NBA, which has experienced tremendous growth in the last decade, appears now to be going in the other direction.
Game 5 of the Eastern Conference final a year ago between the New York Knicks and the Chicago Bulls got a 15.6 national Nielsen rating. Game 5 Wednesday night between the Knicks and the Indiana Pacers got a 9.8. Overall, playoff ratings are down considerably, although an NBC spokesman said that was anticipated.
With NBC facing the prospect of an Indiana-Houston final, the ratings outlook doesn’t appear bright.
What’s missing this year, of course, is Michael Jordan.
However, if Reggie Miller comes through with some more 25-point fourth quarters, the NBA may find itself with the superstar it has been seeking.
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When Larry Brown quit as the Clippers’ coach last year, he did an interview with XTRA’s “Loose Cannons,” Steve Hartman and Chet Forte, before he talked with KMPC, the Clippers’ flagship station.
And Thursday morning, when, other than Miller, he was probably the most sought-after talk-show guest in the country, he went on the air with Hartman and Forte again.
Earlier, Al Trautwig, who works Knick games as a reporter for the Madison Square Garden network, was on the show and made a good point about this Knick team being a hard one to like, even for New Yorkers.
Brown seemed to agree, complaining in particular about how the Knick players react whenever a foul is called against them.
“It’s an unusual group,” was how Brown tactfully put it.
Brown, of course, had nice things to say about Miller but added that it was the Pacers’ defense that kept them in the game, setting the stage for Miller’s heroics.
