ESPN Friday Night Fights at U.S. Cellular tonight

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This looks cool. The last fight at old Comiskey Park was Sonny Liston-Floyd Patterson on Sept. 25, 1962, my third birthday. It also was a good night for Liston, who won in a knockout.

The rundown from ESPN:

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ESPN’s Friday Night Fights adds another chapter to Chicago’s rich boxing history with a show tonight at U.S. Cellular Field, home of the White Sox.

In the first major pro boxing card at a Chicago ballpark in more than 50 years, hometown favorite, Light Heavyweight contender, Andrzej Fonfara (23-2, 13 KOs) meets Gabriel Campillo (22-5-1, 8 KOs) in the FNF main event (9 p.m. ET, ESPN2/WatchESPN/ESPN Deportes+).

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The telecast also will feature White Sox favorite Ron Kittle.

“I started following boxing years ago when Howard Cosell was doing all the big heavyweight bouts – Ali, Frazier, Foreman, and even Jerry Quarry,” said Kittle, who is looking forward to serving as the “sparring partner” in the weekly “Teddy Atlas Fight Plan” segment, “I’m just glad they didn’t ask me to fight!”

 

 

 

Jason Whitlock on BS Report with Bill Simmons

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That didn’t take long.

Here’s the rundown:

Jason Whitlock discusses his unexpected return to ESPN, his TV/print future, ESPN vs. Fox, the dearth of African American sportswriters, and ‘Breaking Bad’ vs. ‘The Wire.’

For your listening pleasure, here’s the link. Can’t wait to listen myself. I’m sure Jason has a much different view of ESPN than he did a few months ago.

 

 

 

 

It all begins tomorrow for Fox Sports 1; new channel will be in 90 million homes

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Hey, just discovered a new sports cable channel. It’s call Speed.

It features all things auto racing. Lots of cars going really fast. I highly recommend it.

Wait a minute…You say what?…The channel is being shut down…Really?…

Good-bye, Speed. Hello, Fox Sports 1.

The new sports network makes its official debut tomorrow morning on what had been the Speed channel. Here’s a link where to find the channel on your system.

The good news for Fox Sports 1 is that it will be fully distributed in 90 million homes. The bad news is that they had to do some deep discounting with distributors to get it done.

Reports John Ourand in Sports Business Daily:

The frenzied rush that saw several of the country’s biggest distributors agree to carry FS1 at launch occurred only after Fox surprisingly backed off its asking price of $0.80 per subscriber per month, according to multiple high-level sources. Cablevision, Cox, DirecTV, Dish Network and Time Warner Cable agreed to carry the new, heavily promoted all-sports channel, but only at the same rate they were paying for the previous channel, Speed, which cost $0.23 per subscriber per month. Fox told the distributors that it would convert Speed into FS1 and allow distributors with existing Speed deals to carry it at Speed’s rate, or at least close to it, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the talks.

That is Fox’s problem, not yours. It will become your problem when Fox Sports 1 demands bigger fees, which should occur sooner than later. Some distributors will balk, and then more fun will begin when the network is taken off those systems.

However, for now, executives for Fox Sports 1 know the new network has to be fully distributed at launch. They need to build as much early momentum as possible in the effort to eventually reach the same peak as Mt. ESPN.

Day 1 actually will resemble Speed with a full slate of NASCAR followed by an evening of UFC. Fox Sports Live then makes it premiere at 11 p.m. ET.

Then Monday, Fox Sports 1’s other big shows, Crowd Goes Wild, and Fox Football Daily, make their debuts.

Here’s a rundown of the early highlights for Fox Sports 1.

Tune in. Or not.

We’ll be keeping score here.

 

 

 

 

Premier League on NBC: Who should I root for? Fans will need to make connections to grow ratings

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NBC’s wall-to-wall coverage of the Premier League, which starts tomorrow, is terrific for soccer fans. However, if the network is going to get a bang for its big investment ($250 million over 3 years), it has to bring in people like me.

Despite several attempts, I never have bought into soccer. I watch the World Cup and perhaps a big game or two, but not much more.

Yet I am intrigued by the Premier League. After covering the British Open all these years, I have become a fan of most things British (notable exception: some of the food). So given all the hype, I might be willing to give the Premier League a try.

However, I started thinking about it. The initial reason why people become fans of a sport is that they develop a certain connection to a team. I grew up in Chicago. Thanks to my father, I became a White Sox first before becoming a baseball fan. A Bears fan before football; Bulls before basketball. The resurgence of the Blackhawks has made me a hockey fan again.

I likely won’t watch the Premier League much if I don’t have a rooting interest. Otherwise, it will seem like random players running around on a pitch.

I went for advice to an old friend, Mike Mulligan. The Mully of The Mully and Hanley Show on WSCR-AM 670 in Chicago is a long-time soccer fan.

I told Mully I want to follow a team. Since I grew up in Chicago, I have an underdog mentality when it comes to my favorite teams. I can’t see myself rooting for Manchester United, aka, the Yankees.

I asked Mully for his recommendations. In an email, he replied:

I am something of a Premier League fan, but much more a Manchester United supporter.

You are out of your mind, i.e. a Cubs fan, if you are looking for a team to support, but dismissing United because of their success. Nothing except my family has brought me consistent joy and pleasure like the Red Devils. I could weep thinking about it.

The League is a three team race between United, City and Chelsea. Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs are in the next level.  Couldn’t make an argument for anyone but United, the world’s greatest football team.

I don’t know Mike. Following ManU seems too easy. I need other options.

Dan Levy in Bleacher Report did a post: “Five Big Teams a First Time Fan Should Root for in the Premier League.”

He writes:

If a new fan wants to follow a team in the EPL and has no preconceived allegiance to any club, wouldn’t it be prudent to suggest a team that might actually win something?

If you follow that logic, the choices are slim. There are really only four, maybe five, clubs with a chance to win the EPL this—or any—season.

Since the inception of the Premier League, there has been only one league champion from any club other than Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal or Manchester City. When Blackburn won the EPL in 1994-95, it marked the last season one of the current top four clubs didn’t win. That’s nearly 20 years ago!

Really? For as much as the Yankees, Red Sox win a lot of games because of their wealth, the World Series bounty really gets spread around in baseball. It even included my White Sox in 2005. For the most part, the same is true in the other American sports.

Sorry, Dan, I’m not a frontrunner guy. Can you provide another option?

Levy writes:

The club outside of those four with the best chance is Tottenham, surely. Spurs will either benefit from Gareth Bale on the field or the money from Bale in the cupboards to reload with talent to get them into Champions League position. As currently constructed, Spurs may have the talent to compete for the EPL crown this year, lacking only a bit of depth to sustain the rigors of a long campaign.

Tottenham? Don’t they have a new coach from the states? A fellow by the name of Ted Lasso (aka Jason Sudeikis).

Seems like he knows what he is doing.

Plus, I like the sound of Tottenham. Seems so very British.

OK, it’s Tottenham for me. Go Spurs!

 

 

Chicago news: Robert Feder partners with Tribune on new site

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This is great news if you are a fan of Robert Feder, the highly esteemed media writer in Chicago. And I guess since I’m a contributor to the Tribune, writing a sports media column, it finally makes us sort of teammates after all these years.

Welcome aboard, Sir Robert.

Robert Channick in the Tribune has the details:

Longtime Chicago media columnist Robert Feder is launching a standalone media blog next month through a partnership with the Chicago Tribune. 

The editorially independent Web site, RobertFeder.com, will be owned by Feder, but licensed and marketed by the Chicago Tribune Media Group, an agreement based on generating online traffic and advertising revenue. Terms were not disclosed. 

“It really is an experiment in setting up a site like that and somebody who is an expert in a field and can generate his own audience,” said Bill Adee, senior vice president of digital development and operations at the Chicago Tribune. “Rob is going to be responsible for what he writes, we’ll have our advertising on there, but editorially speaking, he’ll do whatever he wants.”

And..

“I see this as a great opportunity to cover Chicago media in all its forms, expanding on the work I’ve been doing since I started at the Sun-Times in 1980 and later adapted to digital platforms at Vocalo and Time Out Chicago,” Feder said. “This new venture with the Tribune guarantees that my blog will be editorially independent.”

The Chicago Tribune Media Group includes the Chicago Tribune, RedEye, Chicago Magazine, Hoy and TribLocal, among other media properties.  While Feder’s site will be promoted on chicagotribune.com, there are no plans to share content with the newspaper – in print or online, according to Adee.

“We’ll have ways of promoting his blog on our site, but there’s no expectation that his work would have to appear in the newspaper, ” Adee said.

 

Chicago news: Jay Cutler back on board for weekly WMVP show

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For my Chicago readers:

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Jay Cutler doesn’t exactly light it up during press conference situations. He appears uncomfortable and a bit put out.

However, Cutler comes off much looser during his weekly radio gig on WMVP-AM 1000. He must enjoy it because he just signed up for another season.

According to WMVP program director Adam Delevitt, Cutler is “the only QB in the NFL that does a live one-hour show one person on site.

“Other QB’s have call in deals with stations, but no other QB shows up on site for one hour.”

Here are the details:

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Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler, who spent last year as a regular on ESPN 1000’s “Waddle & Silvy Show” is back for a second exclusive year on ESPN Chicago ((1000)).

Bears fans will hear their quarterback live between 5-6 p.m. CT every Monday during the regular season, pending the team’s schedule, beginning Monday, Sept. 9. The show is presented by Miller Lite, which is the official beer of the Chicago Bears.

“With the regular season right around the corner, I’m looking forward to re-joining Waddle & Silvy and everyone at ESPN 1000 for the second season of our radio show,” Cutler said. “It’s a great opportunity to talk football with the guys, share some insight on our season and to interact with the great fans we have here in Chicago and beyond.”

The long-standing relationship between Cutler and co-hosts Tom Waddle, a former Bears player, and Marc Silverman led to their show becoming the only place to hear the Bears’ quarterback for a full hour on a weekly basis.

“ESPN Chicago is excited for the return of Jay Cutler for a second season,” John Cravens, VP and General Manager, ESPN Chicago said.  “Jay provides an inside perspective that gives every Chicago sports fan something they have never seen or heard before. It is always a great listen when he joins Waddle and Silvy”.

Fans will be able to read stories, reactions and converse with each other about “The Jay Cutler Show” on ESPNChicago.com, where there will also be videos, podcasts and more.

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Also, catching up here, but want to note that John “Jurko” Jurkovic has re-upped at WMVP.

 

Scouting report: Will All-Pros be TV stars as analysts for Fox Football Daily?

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With Fox Sports 1 launching Saturday, here is a scouting report for one of its signature shows.

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Fox Football Daily

When: Weeknights at 6 p.m. ET.  Fox NFL Kickoff premieres Sunday, Sept. 8, and airs from 11:00 AM-12:00 PM ET every Sunday morning during the NFL season.

Cast: Host Curt Menefee, NFL insider Jay Glazer, Brian Urlacher, Randy Moss, Ronde Barber, Scott Fujita, Mike Pereira, Joel Klatt. Also, Fox’s big guns, Terry Bradshaw, etc., will make appearances.

Competition: The myriad of NFL daily shows elsewhere.

Concept: This line from Fox says it all: “Fox Football Daily covers the NFL and college football in a live, fast-paced show combining up-to-the-minute news, highlights, features and analysis presented in Fox NFL Sunday’s signature “info-tainment” style.”

Info-tainment? In other words, Fox’s version is likely to be looser and more free-wheeling than the other football shows. Check out the video.

Fox also is banking on its high-profile analysts to attract viewers.

“Great players step off the playing field every year, but I’m confident in saying that no network has ever been able to add four former players of this caliber at one time as Fox Sports 1 has,” said Fox Sports 1 executive producer John Entz. “Add the names Urlacher, Moss, Barber and Fujita to Bradshaw, Long, Johnson, Strahan, Aikman, Lynch and our many other top-flight football analysts and it’s easy to see our quality and depth.”

Wildcard: Randy Moss. He’s outspoken, and there is a lot of potential for him to be good here. However, as he was as a player, there’s always an element of uncertainty with Moss. Will he make the necessary commitment to make this work? You can’t just show up and expect to be good on TV too.

What could possibly go wrong? Besides Moss, you have other first-timers as analysts in Barber, Urlacher, and Fujita. Will they be any good? Will they be able to critique players who were their teammates? More importantly, will they have something to say?

TV is littered with many big name stars who came up woefully short as analysts. The goal is for these guys to avoid adding their names to the list.

Prognosis: Of all of Fox Sports 1’s new shows, this one appears to have the most potential to work. Menefee is a pro, and the analysts will have appeal. A key guy is Glazer. Given his relationships with the former players turned analysts (especially Urlacher), he could be a glue to the show, bringing out the best in them.

 

 

Think 2023, not 2013: Big picture view needed to assess total impact of Fox Sports 1

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My latest column for the National Sports Journalism Center site at Indiana looks at the long-range prospects for the new Fox Sports 1.

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You know this is coming.

The new Fox Sports 1 launches Saturday. Within weeks, maybe even days, there will be stories evaluating ratings from the new sports network compared to the industry giant, ESPN. In some circles, there will be a daily tick-tock, much like following the scoreboard at a basketball game.

Barring some huge upset, Fox Sports 1′s rating will be miniscule. Or at the very least, not even register when put side-by-side with ESPN. Then, boom, there will be the inevitable headlines proclaiming Fox’s new network a complete failure. Maybe even an epic disaster, given all the hype for the launch.

And that would be a mistake.

You need to be looking through a big picture when you evaluate the new Fox Sports 1. As in the biggest window you can imagine.

For all the talk about 2013, the larger view for the new Fox Sports 1 is more about 2023. Make no mistake, despite all the programming that is launching now, the new sports network is a long-term play for Fox.

“I’ve always said our success is going to be judged by years, not days and months,” said Bill Wanger, the executive vice-president for programming for Fox and Fox Sports 1. “Quite frankly, our ratings are going to be pretty small in the beginning. All new networks start out small. It takes a while for people to get used to the channel. So we have no illusions of coming out of the gate and being a behemoth. We’re in for the long haul.”

Wanger noted that it took Fox 13 years to become number one among the networks. But this is the point: Fox got to the top in network television.

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Fox Sports 1, though, snapped up one of those nice houses last week. It paid big money (a reported $1.2 billion over 12 years) to secure the rights to the U.S. Open and other United States Golf Association events, beginning in 2015.

Wanger said the move wasn’t meant as an opening statement, although you could have fooled people in the industry.  It seems like a pretty good indicator that Fox Sports 1 is going to be a major player.

Fox doesn’t get those rights if it doesn’t have a Fox Sports 1. Hence the need to create the new network.

“We realized that to be competitive in future rights negotiations for premiere packages, we needed a fully distributed and highly rated national cable sports channel to be successful,” said Eric Shanks, Fox Sports’ co-president and COO, told investors this week.

Next up are the rights to the NBA, with the league’s TV deals expiring in 2016. I’d be surprised if Fox Sports 1 doesn’t land part of that package. NBA games would elevate the new network to another level.

“The NBA is a big fish,” Wanger said. “We’re going to be aggressive for those rights.”

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And there’s more.

 

 

PGA of America president on U.S. Open announcement: Don’t think it happens during Masters

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PGA of America president Ted Bishop still is a bit steamed about the U.S. Open to Fox announcement coming on the eve of the first round of the PGA Championship last week.

Appearing with Matt Adams on Fairways of Life on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio today, Bishop took a few shots at the United States Golf Association. In fact, he, not Adams, brings it up first.

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Ted Bishop:  “There was nothing from outside the PGA Championship that happened last week that disrupted what we felt like was an important week in major golf.  We survived something there in the middle of the week that had no impact on our championship whatsoever and we were proud of everything that happened at Oak Hill.”

Matt Adams:  “You’re talking about the USGA’s announcement of the television rights going to Fox?”

Bishop:  “Yeah, I think that’s what I was probably referring to.  This is the week of the U.S. Amateur, right? … Let me just say this: So this being the week of the U.S. Amateur, there’s no way the PGA of America would make an announcement on where a future Ryder Cup and PGA Championship site [would be] that would be as big as Bethpage, we wouldn’t want to be a distraction to any of our allied associations.”

Adams:  “How upset were you when the USGA had that announcement last week in the middle of your PGA Championship?”

Bishop:  “You know what?  I tell you what, I think I speak for everybody at the PGA of America in saying that we knew we were going to have a great championship, we were so happy to be at Oak Hill, and we were not going to let anything whatsoever distract or disturb the week that we were going to have.”

Adams:  “Did you deliberately allow the information on New York to come out this week in the middle of the U.S. Amateur as a result?”

Bishop:  “No!  Are you kidding?  I mean, first of all, as I said there is no announcement today.  That article is strictly, at this point in time, total rumor.  No, and I’m saying this in the right vein, I’m absolutely insulted that anybody would think that.  Because, obviously, today in New York is all about our champion, Jason Dufner, and we cannot be responsible [for] or control what the media writes.”

Adams:  “Is there an unspoken rule among golf governing bodies that when they have an event going on that is so important that you kind of leave it alone?”

Bishop:  “Well obviously there’s not. (laughs)  There’s not at least within the circles of one of golf’s governing bodies.  But I don’t think that anybody would have made that announcement during the Masters.  I don’t think the USGA would have made that announcement during the Open Championship, and I can unequivocally tell you that the PGA of America would not make any kind of a major announcement that would upstage any one of our major championship partners, nor the PGA TOUR.  It’s just not the right way to do things.”

Adams:  “Why did it happen then?  Is there some bad blood still festering?”

Bishop:  “You know what, there’s none on our end.  You’d have to talk to somebody in Far Hills about that.”

Has Jason Whitlock changed his tune about ESPN? Set to return to network

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First Keith Olbermann. Now Jason Whitlock.

Jason McIntyre broke the bombshell that Whitlock is leaving Fox Sports to rejoin ESPN.

Now Whitlock didn’t exactly do the “napalm” thing like Olbermann, but he carried some bitter feeling towards the network after his break-up in 2006.

Whitlock repeatedly has slammed ESPN and its personalities. During a podcast with the New York Times’ Richard Sandomir last fall, he implored Sandomir and the Times to do a takedown, er, in-depth analysis of ESPN.

“Deadspin has done a good job,” Whitlock said. “Some adults could get at the bigger issues at play here.”

During the same podcast, he accused First Take of gearing its show to unemployed African-Americans.

“It’s not by accident that they’ve added the rap music, added the black women eye candy,” Whitlock said. “Skip Bayless picks on certain black targets. Then they brought in Stephen A. Smith to smooth it out.”

Later, Whitlock said, “Their ratings among black viewers is off the charts and it drives their decision-making. I’ve heard that from people I know.”

And one more sound bite. “There are a group of people who have time to watch this. They don’t have jobs. They like to talk sports and like the barbershop style of sports talk.”

It was pretty remarkable stuff. Whitlock declined an interview request from me to talk about those comments. He said my questions weren’t “sophisticated enough” for him.

Hmm, wonder if Whitlock still wants Sandomir and the Times to explore all those issues at ESPN? Methinks, no.