ESPN Is Actually Going To South Africa For The 2010 World Cup

Many soccer fans both diehard and even casual fans have expressed their disappointment in ESPN's broadcast of soccer over the years, raning from the cast of characters that they have to the fact that they only had 2 announce teams live at the 06 World Cup, and none at UEFA Euro 08 and the 09 Confederations Cup. And while the 2010 World Cup is still nearly a whole year in advance, it looks like that ESPN is already starting thinks out on the right foot by announcing that they will be live in South Africa for the World Cup. In fact, they are going to have multiple studios set up there with 3 damn good studio hosts in the process. From ESPN PR via Awful Announcing

ESPN will present all of its 2010 FIFA World Cup television studio programming from site in South Africa, offering U.S. sports fans the most comprehensive news and information coverage throughout the month-long soccer showcase (June 11 – July 11, 2010). Coverage of the quadrennial global event will include SportsCenter segments, nightly World Cup Live, and pre-, halftime and post-match shows, with additional studio programming and World Cup-branded segments, totaling more than 65 hours of coverage, originating from two sets in and around Johannesburg.

A trio of top-tier ESPN hosts, Chris Fowler (college football, Grand Slam tennis), Bob Ley (SportsCenter, Outside the Lines), and Mike Tirico (Super Bowl, NBA Finals, Final Four, major golf championships), will serve as on-site FIFA World Cup studio hosts. ESPN’s “game around the game” approach to South Africa 2010 will include live and taped segments that will air on ESPN International’s 13 localized versions of SportsCenter in eight different languages across the world.

South Africa 2010 will mark the first time in ESPN’s 30-year history that the entirety of its FIFA World Cup studio programming will originate on location from the site of the host country. Highlights of planned programs and 2010 FIFA World Cup-branded segments:

- SportsCenter at the FIFA World Cup;
- World Cup Live – the daily, 30-minute news, highlights and analysis program (30 episodes) aired each night of the tournament on ESPN or ESPN2;
- Live 30-minute pre-match, halftime (15 min.) and post-match shows on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2;
- World Cup segments on ESPNEWS, First Take on ESPN2, and Outside the Lines.

Wow.....I must say that I am impressed. Not only is ESPN going to be more live for this World Cup than ever before, but look at the cast of characters they have at the helm: Fowler, Tirico, and Ley. Can you say, winner??? The only gripe I have is the lack of experience covering soccer for ESPN in recent years. But hopefully the professionalism and the hard work that all 3 men exhibit in a daily basis will shine through and we'll get some great broadcasts. As far as the booths go, hopefull that all of them (or at the very worst, most of them) are live. While Derek Rae has pretty much mastered the art of calling from a monitor in Bristol, JP Dellacamera struggled mightily with player identification and both him and Harkes appeared lost at times. In my opinion, they are so much when they are live.

What makes this all the more surprising and impressive is the state of the U.S. economy and the fact that South Africa is not exactly a short distance from Bristol. It's way longer than Germany was, that's for sure (although not as long as South Korea/Japan). I will definitley be watching and hopefully ESPN can deliver on all of the hype and promise this World Cup has broadcast wise.