ESPN and tennis

First up Maria Sharapova played and won her fast match since her 15 month suspension. The French Open is in May but there is confusion over her wild card status and she may have to qualify like a scrub. Her foes are clearly jealous of her and would like nothing more to see her play qualifying matches. Her drug case was sketchy but for some real perspective the Pirates Sterling Marte was suspended for 80 games which amounts to one half a season. Maria nearly served for a year and a half.
ESPN has their share of caste tennis announcers like Rick Fowler, yet others are not so caste but they send people over for the slams and give it some push. Meanwhile back at headquarters tennis at ESPN is nothing more than a minor side show. And by sealing up contracts for Wimbledon and The US Open and pulling them away from broadcast stations NBC and CBS, ESPN inadvertently (or perhaps by design) hurt the general tennis viewing audience since not everyone has cable. And with these layoffs which seemed designed to funnel most of ESPN's energy into football and basketball sports that are more white centric like tennis and hockey are getting the real short end of the stick and how. This is what happens when the caste haze dominates and gathers over sports.

Shadowlight said:

Her drug case was sketchy but for some real perspective the Pirates Sterling Marte was suspended for 80 games which amounts to one half a season. Maria nearly served for a year and a half.

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MLB is American whilst WTA is international. I wouldn't compare them.

I don't buy Maria's excuses for one moment. I suspect though that a lot of them are cheating including you-know-who but just haven't been caught.

Genie Bouchard actually said Maria should be banned from life. The last time I heard from the Canadian she was arranging a date with someone she chatted with on Twitter, and before that she was posing for some swimsuit ad. Maybe time to concentrate on her tennis rather than all these distractions.

ESPN has their share of caste tennis announcers like Rick Fowler, yet others are not so caste but they send people over for the slams and give it some push. Meanwhile back at headquarters tennis at ESPN is nothing more than a minor side show. And by sealing up contracts for Wimbledon and The US Open and pulling them away from broadcast stations NBC and CBS, ESPN inadvertently (or perhaps by design) hurt the general tennis viewing audience since not everyone has cable.

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Chris Fowler?

Yes, except for the big matches in the French Open, you have to have ESPN in order to watch tennis in the US. Cord-cutters are a significant percentage of the population but in the eyes of the baby boomers - and older - crowd who run pro-sports such people don't matter because they are perceived as being poor, or at least not well enough off to buy the sponsors' products and services. Though there is some truth in that they also should keep in mind that for many young people not having cable/satellite is normal; it is what they are used to. For them paying cable every month is like having a landline phone at home: a real head-scratcher.

Few people ever start following a sport later in life, when they have more money, when they haven't followed/played it during their youth. IOW tennis being on ESPN means millions of young people will never care about it.[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]