Arena Football League on ESPN

Last updated
Arena Football League on ESPN
Presented by(see below)
Country of originUnited States
Production
Running time3 hours
Release
Original network ESPN (1987–2002, 2007–2008, 2014–2019)
ESPN2 (1995–1999, 2007–2008, 2014–2019)
ESPNEWS (2014–2019)
ESPN3 (2014–2019)
ABC (1998–2002, 2007–2008)
ESPN Deportes (2016–2019)
Original release1987 (1987) –
2019 (2019)

Arena Football League on ESPN was a presentation of the Arena Football League with games airing on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, ESPN3 and ESPN Deportes. As with all other sports broadcasting on the ESPN family of networks, all Arena Football games had aired on The WatchESPN App. It was previously aired from 1987 until 2002 and then again from 2007 until 2008. When the league folded in 2019, the contract was over.

Contents

History

1987–1988, 1992–2002

ESPN was the original broadcaster for Arena Football games, showing games live in the league's first two seasons, 1987 and 1988. ESPN signed a six-year contract with the AFL in 1987, but was given the option to opt out of the contract if they were not getting the rating they wanted. [1]

Partially because of turmoil within the league itself, ESPN did not broadcast Arena Football again until 1992, when they broadcast six games and the ArenaBowl on an overnight, tape delay basis. Starting in 1993, ESPN started showing games live or at least not during overnight hours.

When ESPN2 was formed, the telecasts began to air more frequently on the new network. ESPN2 began televising a more standard schedule of Arena Football League regular season and playoff games from 1995–1999.

ESPN subsequently began televising AFL playoff games from 2000-02.

It originally had aired the inaugural ArenaBowl live in 1987, while ABC (under the Wide World of Sports umbrella) aired the ArenaBowl five consecutive years from 1998 – 02.

2007-2008 agreement

On December 19, 2006, ESPN and the Arena Football League agreed to a five-year agreement that includes extensive multimedia rights and a minimum of 26 televised games per season, beginning in 2007 and lasting until 2011. As part of the deal, ESPN purchased a minority stake, reportedly ten percent, in the AFL. The network will gain privileged financial information, but insists that it will not give the AFL more favorable coverage on shows like SportsCenter as a result. [2] ESPN televised a minimum of 17 regular-season games and nine playoff games—including a minimum of three Wild Card games, three Divisional Playoff games, both Conference Championships and the ArenaBowl on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC. ESPN had an exclusive window for weekly Monday night prime time games on ESPN2. Both the season opener and ArenaBowl were on ABC, where three wild card games, two divisional games and one conference championship were on ESPN and the seventeen regular season Monday night games, one wild card game, two divisional games and one conference championship game was all on ESPN2.

2007 schedule

  • (All times Eastern)
WeekDateTimeGameScoreNetwork
Week 1Sunday, March 4, 200712:30pm Chicago Rush at Kansas City Brigade KC 54, CHI 41 ABC
Sunday, March 4, 200712:30pm Dallas Desperados at New York Dragons DAL 60, NY 7 ABC
Week 2Monday, March 12, 20077pm Los Angeles Avengers at Orlando Predators LA 44, ORL 37 ESPN2
Week 4Thursday, March 22, 20077pm Colorado Crush at Philadelphia Soul PHI 71, COL 47 ESPN2
Monday, March 26, 20077pm Dallas Desperados at Orlando Predators DAL 70, ORL 42 ESPN2
Week 5Sunday, April 1, 20071:30pm Los Angeles Avengers at Chicago Rush CHI 66, LA 31 ESPN2
Week 6Monday, April 9, 20077:30pm Georgia Force at Philadelphia Soul GA 57, PHI 49 ESPN2
Week 7Monday, April 16, 20078pm Philadelphia Soul at Dallas Desperados PHI 41, DAL 51 ESPN2
Week 8Monday, April 23, 20077:30pm Philadelphia Soul at Columbus Destroyers PHI 21, CLB 44 ESPN2
Week 9Monday, April 30, 20078pm Philadelphia Soul at Chicago Rush PHI 43, CHI 54 ESPN2
Week 10Monday, May 7, 20078pm Colorado Crush at Chicago Rush COL 48, CHI 59 ESPN2
Week 11Monday, May 14, 20078:30pm Chicago Rush at Dallas Desperados* CHI 48, DAL 52 ESPN2
Week 12Monday, May 21, 20077:30pm New Orleans VooDoo at Philadelphia Soul NO 34, PHI 78 ESPN2
Week 13Monday, May 28, 20078pm New York Dragons at New Orleans VooDoo NY 69, NO 63 ESPN2
Week 14Monday, June 4, 200710:30pm Colorado Crush at Utah Blaze COL 14, UTA 51 ESPN2
Week 15Monday, June 11, 200710pm Los Angeles Avengers at Arizona Rattlers LA 55, ARI 52 ESPN2
Week 16Monday, June 18, 200710pm Chicago Rush at Colorado Crush CHI 66, COL 57 ESPN2
Week 17Monday, June 25, 200710pm Dallas Desperados at Colorado Crush DAL 77 COL 58 ESPN2
WildcardFriday, June 29, 20077pm Orlando Predators at Philadelphia Soul ORL 26, PHI 41 ESPN
Saturday, June 30, 200712pm Columbus Destroyers at Tampa Bay Storm CLB 56 TB 55 ESPN
Saturday, June 30, 20073pm Colorado Crush at Kansas City Brigade COL 49, KC 42 ESPN
Monday, July 2, 200710pm Utah Blaze at Los Angeles Avengers UTA 42, LA 64 ESPN2
DivisionalSaturday, July 7, 20073pm Colorado Crush at San Jose Sabercats COL 67 SJ 76 ESPN
Saturday, July 7, 20078pm Columbus Destroyers at Dallas Desperados CLB 66 DAL 59 ESPN
Sunday, July 8, 20077pm Philadelphia Soul at Georgia Force PHI 39 GEO 65 ESPN2
Monday, July 9, 20078:30pm Los Angeles Avengers at Chicago Rush LA 20 CHI 52 ESPN2
Conference ChampionshipSaturday, July 14, 20071pm Columbus Destroyers at Georgia Force CLB 66 GEO 56 ESPN*
Saturday, July 14, 20074pm Chicago Rush at San Jose SaberCats CHI 49 SJ 61 ESPN*
ArenaBowl XXI Sunday, July 29, 20073pm Columbus Destroyers at San Jose SaberCats CLB 33 SJ 55 ABC

*Schedule change

Controversy

Some AFL fans complained that the TV schedule “inequitably favored teams” such as the Philadelphia Soul, Chicago Rush, and Colorado Crush, teams whose ownerships include, respectively, Jon Bon Jovi, Mike Ditka and John Elway. 14 of the 17 ESPN games had at least Chicago, Philadelphia or Colorado playing. The Soul (whose part-owner and team president is former AFL on ESPN analyst Ron Jaworski) have appeared in seven of the 17 regular season games on ESPN platforms, more than any other team in the league. [3] This criticism was also present when NBC went out of their way to not let some teams appear on their schedule. In 2008, the Chicago Rush have nine regular season games on ESPN and ABC, while the 2007 Arena Bowl Champion San Jose SaberCats have just one, week one against the Chicago Rush, and the New York Dragons had 1, a 10:30 game versus the Colorado Crush. Other criticism includes the scheduling of games on various days and times, as opposed to a weekly AFL gameday.[ citation needed ]

2015–2019

ESPN returned to the AFL (in 2014) as broadcast partners, with weekly games shown on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, and all other games available live and free on ESPN3. [4] ESPN Deportes and ESPN Latin America had broadcast AFL games in Spanish from 2016 to 2019, when the league folded.[ citation needed ]

Personalities

Former broadcasters of the AFL on ESPN and ABC included Mike Gleason, Gary Danielson, Brent Musburger, Merril Hoge, and Holly Rowe.

2007

Early on, ESPN said they would use "some prominent faces in the broadcast booth" and ended up going with the duo of Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic from ESPN Radio and ESPN2's Mike and Mike in the Morning for their number one team. The second team will consist of NFL Live's Trey Wingo and Mark Schlereth with the third being Ron Jaworski and Merril Hoge. On May 2007, Mark Jones replaced Jaworski, who focuses on his new Monday Night Football role. Jay Rothman, producer of Monday Night Football, and Bryan Ryder will also produce the Monday night Arena Football games on ESPN2. The announcements were made on January 16, 2007. [5] [6]

TeamPlay-by-playAnalyst(s)Field reporterProducer(s)
1 Mike Greenberg Mike Golic Jay Rothman
Bryan Ryder
2 Trey Wingo Mark Schlereth
3 Mark Jones Merril Hoge
4 Dave Pasch Ray Bentley

The other play-by-play announcer used on playoff games is Bob Wischusen.

2008

Pasch, Wischusen, and Bentley returned to their respective roles while Marcellus Wiley and Shaun King joined as color commentators. The tandems of Greenberg-Golic and Wingo-Schlereth would not reprise their roles as play-by-play men in 2008.

The replays of classic Arena Football games that had aired on ESPN Classic in 2007 would also be dropped in 2008. [7]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Linda Young (July 10, 1987). "Espn Holding The Line On Arenaball". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved February 11, 2013.
  2. ↑ ESPN Buys Stake in the Arena Football League - 19 December 2006 11:35:00 AM - Broadcasting & Cable
  3. ↑ CableFAX
  4. ↑ Vaughn Johnson (2013-12-03). "Leaked document reveals ESPN as new national television partner for Arena Football League". www.philly.com. Interstate General Media, LLC. Retrieved 2013-12-04.
  5. ↑ Topic Galleries - OrlandoSentinel.com [ permanent dead link ]
  6. ↑ ESPN MediaZone - A Resource for Media Professionals
  7. ↑ ESPN announces 2008 AFL talent [ dead link ]. Arena Football League. 26 February 2008.
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