ESPN joins AFL family
Jason Lucas
Tuesday December 19, 2006
The new agreement between the AFL and ESPN has the network televising no fewer than 17 regular season games and nine playoff games. ESPN will also carry a minimum of three Wild Card and Divisional playoff games as well as both of the Conference Final games. The season will culminate July 29 at 3 p.m. with Arenabowl XXI on ABC live from New Orleans, LA.
The first game televised by ESPN will be in their "ESPN on ABC" package that they began using for college football this season. No surprise to me is that the game has immediate NFL ties. Neil Smith’s Kansas City Brigade will host Mike Ditka’s World Champion Chicago Rush at 12:30 p.m on March 4. The other regional game pits the Dallas Desperados at the New York Dragons. My guess would be about 70% of the nation gets the Rush @ Brigade.
The first Monday Night Football game will be televised by ESPN2 on March 12 at 7 p.m. when the Orlando Predators host the Los Angeles Avengers. It will be an honor to be at the first Preds home game on a Monday night since 2003. All of the Monday night AFL games will be televised by ESPN2.
Many concerns by AFL fans here on our message boards include the very limited acknowledgment by ESPN.com of the AFL. Skipper said that ESPN has many ideas for the AFL including an ESPN/AFL fantasy league. The network also promises to put forth all of their marketing assets into promoting the league and innovating the ways it is covered. For the AFL, that should mean more viewers and hopefully more fans in the stands. The commissioner expressed that this is a five year "marriage" to grow the AFL. As we all know, our commissioner is always interested in what grows this league.
Other news of significance is the caliber of the production ESPN will use for its AFL telecasts. Skipper said that the current producer of ESPN’s Monday Night Football will also be producing the Monday Night games on ESPN2. I wonder if former AFL kicker Mike Black is going to be the spotter for these games as well.
My only complaint here is that the teams scheduled to play on these Monday nights are going to appear very frequently, and in some cases,in consecutive weeks. Between April 9 and May 21 the Philadelphia Soul will appear on Monday night six times in those seven weeks. Do you think Bon Jovi and "Jaws" had anything to do with this? Oh, but it does not stop there. John Elway’s Colorado Crush appears on Monday nights five times including a three out of four week stretch to finish the season.
This is not my complaint here but I am sure we will hear this one. Only 13 of the 19 AFL teams will appear during the 2007 Monday Night schedule. The six teams left out of the party? Tampa Bay Storm, Austin Wranglers, Nashville Kats, San Jose SaberCats, Las Vegas Gladiators, and Grand Rapids Rampage. I guess the obvious statement here would be to say when the schedule was made ESPN wanted to televise to the biggest television markets across the league. I would venture to guess the schedule was made on a couple different premises. The first would be to have Elway and Bon Jovi on there as much as possible to appease them. You can check that one off because they are on there 11 of 17 broadcasts including seven weeks in a row in the middle of the season.
The second is the obvious-- to keep the smaller market teams off television. I’m not terribly surprised that Grand Rapids and Las Vegas were left off the schedule. However, the five time world champion Tampa Bay Storm? Last year’s surprise team the Austin Wranglers? The perennial ArenaBowl contender San Jose SaberCats? I guess we will take what we can get, right?
From a Predators fan's prospective I have to be pretty satisfied with the Monday night schedule the Preds have received. Two of the first three home games are Monday nights and that is quickly out of the way. The rest of the home season will be spent on Friday and Saturday nights which is just fine with me, and I’m sure the rest of the Preds faithful feel the same way.
The announcers for ESPN’s coverage of the AFL have yet to be announced. Skipper reminded everyone that only the deal has been signed, many of the specifics have yet to be worked out. Baker mentioned "Jaws" and Ditka as possible color analysts because they had been religiously calling him every Tuesday on their flights back from Monday Night Football to see how the deal was developing. Skipper quickly shot down the notion of either "Jaws" or Ditka being a color analyst due to conflicts of interest, but would be happy to have them visit the booth.
Overall as an AFL fan you can not be too disappointed with the outcome of this deal. The AFL will get maximum exposure from ESPN and it’s sister networks ESPN2, ABC, ESPN Classic, and ESPN Deportes as well as ESPN.com and ESPN Radio. As fans all we can do is show up to support our teams and hope this five year marriage works out for the best for both ESPN and the Arena Football League.
Jason Lucas is a part-time freelance writer based in the Orlando, Florida area. A former director of media relations with the Orlando Predators, Jason is making his return to Arenafan.com after a short stint as a public relations assistant with the UFL‘s Florida Tuskers in 2010. Lucas has followed the AFL since 1992 and began covering the Predators for Arenafan during the 2004 season. He held that position until being picked up by the Preds front office after the 2007 season. Jason‘s knowledge of arena football and love of the game is what drives him to continue covering the sport.
