I used to think the guys who ran ESPN were fairly bright. They had to be, right? They were in a charge of a large, influential network. This meant they had to be smart. At least that was the conventional wisdom. After they decided that running the Lebron James, “I want to be a billionaire” special, it became clear that allowing the current management to run the network is sort of like letting Justin Beiber run Microsoft. The Lebron special was not their only mistake of the summer, the folks at ESPN (and those at the World Series of Poker) keep ignoring the fact that they could own their little piece of the summer if they did the right things with the WSOP coverage.
The WSOP poker tournaments are held in the late spring and early summer. A time when hockey is done, basketball is over, and not even the major league baseball players look like they care about hitting a little white ball around a big park. In short, there is no sport of note on television. At least nothing anybody is really emotionally involved in. So when does the coverage for the World Series of Poker hit the airwaves? Months later.
The problem with airing the WSOP after the fact is that by that point, everyone with a computer knows who won. Poker is not visual enough to be exciting without the drama of not knowing the outcome. The only people who are in the dark about the end result of a World Series of Poker tournament are those still running Windows 95 or Dos. Even more baffling is the decision that we are all familiar with, the one to do the Main Event in November. Yes, I am aware that this is a decision that is not going to change, but that doesn’t make it any less nonsensical.
The World Series of Poker Main Event could be filmed and aired in July, and own its time slot. In November it is competing with the new fall lineup of network shows, the National Hockey League, pro basketball and the mighty NFL. This is not a battle that ESPN is going to win. The sports network often touts the ratings after the Main Event (or any time they air new WSOP coverage), but they don’t measure their “success” against the yardstick of what could have been if they knew what do with this product. To their discredit, Harrah’s allows ESPN to push them around and in the end everyone loses.
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