June 21, 2010
by Stephen M. Lepore

It has been fascinating to watch the World Cup coverage on ESPN the past week I’ve been off. While some of the football being played has left something to be desired, the sheer amount of coverage ESPN is blanketing its’ schedule with is almost mindboggling. You flip one minute and there’s a game on ESPN, another and they’re talking strategy and context in the studio on ESPN2, or the lovable Irishman Tommy Smythe breaking down the action on ESPN News. It is likely what ESPN will be using to pitch to the NHL as their ability to cover a niche-y sport in the next contract, but that’s another story for another day.
What has been noticeable has been the number of foreign voices in the studio and the booth for ESPN’s American-centric coverage. Only three studio hosts (Bob Ley, Mike Tirico and Chris Fowler) and two analysts (Alexi Lalas and Kearny, New Jersey’s John Harkes) are American on ESPN’s airwaves in South Africa, and not all of the European voices have been English or Scottish. Dutch legend Ruud Gullit and longtime German staple Juergen Klinsmann, as well as current Spanish player Roberto Martinez.
They’ve been pretty good, and gotten me to thinking about a subject I’ve wanted to breach on this blog for awhile: Why haven’t European players been able to crack the market as far as analysis during, before and after NHL games? I know there’s the time honored logic that Americans just want to hear Americans, or at least people who sound like Americans. But frankly, that’s made hockey coverage dull as dirt. Why not try something new?
This isn’t just an American thing either. Why, in the tens of hundreds of Canadian hockey programs around that nation, do none of the voices stray further than America? I mean, is it possible that Russian/Czech/Finnish/Swedish/Whatever hockey players are just as dull as Canadians and Americans, though in words we can’t understand? Or can someone like Bobby Holik, who’s always been entertaining as hell on NHL Live, eventually find himself a gig discussing puck with lame old dudes wearing mullets and cheap suits.
What’s the readership take on this? Where do you stand on European analysts?
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