ABC/ESPN have bought exclusive US, English language rights to the next two World Cups for $100 million. The deal also includes 2009 and 2013 Confederations Cup, 2007 and 2011 Women's World Cup and the rights to U-17 and U-20 World Championships. This comes on the heels of ABC's annoucement that ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 will show every 2006 World Cup match. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/soccer/11/02/bc.soc.wcup.ustvrights.ap/index.html
That's it -- if the US does well (they will) ABC will make an absolute fortune. Bigtexxx the US is a top 5 team in the world right now (i'm pretty sure someone correct me if wrong).
Yeah, the article says that Univision paid $325 million for the U.S. Spanish language rights to the same package. Most soccer fans don't out any faith into the FIFA rankings (I think we were 7th in the latest rankings). We're currenty ranked higher than teams like England, Spain, and Portugal, all of which are clearly better squads than us, IMO. Anyway, barring injury, I think we should have a pretty solid tournament. I think our first XI can hang with almost anyone in the world, the other major soccer nations just have huge depth advantage over us.
I guess most of you guys don't keep up with world soccer. Anyway, the US has been outright dominant lately. THey've been on a roll during the World Cup Qualifying stages and are ranked 7th in the world in the FIFA Rankings. The US should get to the elimination phase of the World Cup and improve on our performance in 2002. As for RocketFan007, the US has easily kept up with the Europeans lately. Just because Europe has owned international soccer for years doesn't mean much now. Portugal is way too inconsistent, England had some bad losses in its World Cup Qualifying that dropped it and Spain hasn't been amazing either. People predicted that a successful MLS would boost US international soccer and its finally paying off. Also now that US players regularly play in European leagues indicates the rising level of competitiveness in the US.
I think at the very least this is the best team the US has produced heading into the tourney. Depth is a problem, but it might not be a huge issue. Very exciting WC upcoming for US fans.
Dish Network sucks, they don't even offer that channel. But they do offer a $299 season package for the Premiership or $29.99 just for the weekend.
You have to look at the competition we're playing, and then the competition they play, there's is MUCH stronger, it's not even close. In the two matches I can remember that we've faced European competition in the last year or so we've lost both matches. The Dutch dominated us about a year ago in Holland and England's C team beat our B team rather easily this summer on our home turf. I'm not trying to hate on the US National team, I'm a huge fan, I just don't buy into the #7 ranking. Soccer fans everywhere except for the US laugh at the FIFA rankings. For example, Mexico is still ranked ahead of us, yet we've dominated them over the last few years. The rankings simply don't make much sense. As I said earlier, I think our first XI can compete with just about anyone, but an injury to Reyna, Donovan or Beasley would cripple our chances. Anything less than the knockout round is a disappointment as far as I'm concerned.
The U.S. does have a talented team but next month's WC draw will help determine what kind of a chance the team has in going to the 2nd round. Remember the U.S. has a terrible track record in WC's that are held in Europe. FIFA rankings don't mean s***! They don't mean anything when it comes to big tournaments and there is no real prestige associated with them at all. I really think defense will be the main priority for the U.S. in Germany. Freidl,Sanneh,Pope and to an extent Mastroeni all played exceptional in 2002, but will it happen again? I hope ABC has better coverage and announcer's for the WC's than ESPN. I can't believe that ESPN didn't use Rae or Tommy Smith as it is. Univision did have the best coverage and commentary by far for 2002. In a way it doesn't matter, because it will take another Maracanazo for Brasil not to win the whole thing. There isn't a country that could beat their second team. This team is scary.
I can't laugh enough at you Americans thinking watching soccer narrated in English could be any better than watching in Spanish. BORING. Change it to any network in SPANISH. You will get into the game more. Ooops... don't understand Spanish? I forgot... sorry... jk about that... I am no OSAMA BIN LADIN hatin' on AMERICA... Don't get me wrong, I was waiting for this deal from one of the bigger networks for a long time, but I was hoping to have some MLS games televised regularly as a weekend game or a regular midweek game. I can't believe ABC still hasn't struck a deal with MLS yet. Pathetic how we only get to watch a few playoff games or the stupid ALL-STAR game against a sorry EPL team. There isn't enough interest from American people because there isn't enough soccer on TV (in ENGLISH, mind you) to watch. Change to 57 Azteca America (5 games per weekend from Mexico), 45 Univision or 67 Telefutura (up to 3 games per weekend), or 47 Telemundo (2 games minimum from Europe) for some LIVE soccer coverage. I hope ABC doesn't do that stupid IN-GAME advertising where they split the screen to keep us in the game while they show SNICKERS, ADIDAS, or MASTERCARD during the '06 Cup. I agree, RocketFan007 and KingCheetah, the US this Cup coming up has the best team it has had EVER. Fock the FIFA Rankings. (If you care... U.S. is 7th.) I disagree. Sincerely, OUCH. oooouuuuuuuuch... damn, it still hurts. ouch... hurts to laugh at myself, too... ow ow ow...
This is crazy...$100MM for English and $325MM for Spanish...Good for us as I think the English rights are a steal...Great news...
Are you being sarcastic? If you are, bless you, my child. You have seen the light. Why is the SPANISH one so big? Because we "Latinos" or "Hispanics" or Spanish-Speakers in general will watch MORE soccer than the regular U.S. Soccer Fan, and to top it off, it's FREE (no need to have cable to watch ALL the games).
At the end of the article it says a new MLS deal wth be reached within a few weeks. I think that in the upcoming years, you'll see more and more MLS on network TV.
