FOX doesn't have the World Cup until 2018, but they need to turn around their soccer coverage starting today.
FOX is a mere four years away from broadcasting their first ever World Cup. They will be following in the footsteps of ESPN, who put on a masterclass in sports, event and TV production over the last two tournaments. As daunting as covering a World Cup is, being asked to reach the incredibly high bar set by ESPN is even more intimidating.
Making matters more difficult for FOX is how much ground they have to make up just to get to respectability, let alone excellence. People may disagree on where FOX's soccer coverage falters, but you would be hard-pressed to find a significant number of people who feel that, as a whole, FOX's work is up to par. They have a long ways to go, and the World Cup is putting a new spotlight on them.
And then there is this -- they don't have four years to get it right. They have to be good starting today.
The spotlight FOX will encounter in 2018 will be unlike anything they have ever experienced in soccer, but the growth of the sport in the United States has cut away a lot of their margin for error in the time leading up to the World Cup. People watch soccer too regularly to allow FOX to work out the kinks for three years and try to shine in the fourth. Networks have to be good day-to-day, and if they're not, any good work they do in a tournament will be obscured by their reputation, which spent the previous years being dragged through the mud.
By next year, FOX will be broadcasting MLS and the Bundesliga, to go along with the Champions League, for which they already have the rights. And they have a robust international slate. With the eyes that come along with that -- and they could add more rights before 2018, maybe even the Premier League in 2016 -- FOX has to shine. And they really have to shine next June.
Next summer, FOX will broadcast the Women's World Cup and Gold Cup back-to-back. And when they go on the air, it will be the biggest litmus test yet. It will be as close to a World Cup as they will get before 2018, and their biggest stretch before Russia. It will set the reputation of the network's soccer coverage for the remainder of the cycle.
ESPN showed the audience the Women's World Cup can bring three years ago, and as arguably the biggest sporting event in women's sports, it has to be treated as the showpiece it is. That it is being played in Canada, which means favorable time zones and start times, to go along with the U.S.'s expected challenge for the title, means that millions of people will be watching and judging.
And as soon as that is over, the U.S. men and Mexico will take center stage in the Gold Cup. FOX broadcast the tournament two years ago and tried to make it a major event, even putting some matches on the FOX network, but the quality was lacking. From the camerawork, to the direction, to the announcing and analysis, it left soccer fans wanting much, much more. Now the tournament is back, and after the World Cup's popularity, figures to be the most highly anticipated Gold Cup yet. It has to be well produced, and well done.
To this point, FOX has been a disappointment. They were the network that brought the U.S. its first comprehensive soccer coverage, beginning on Fox Sports World and then on Fox Soccer, but they were also the only network broadcasting the sport with any regularity at the time. Since, ESPN and NBC have gotten into the action and raised the bar. Whereas simply showing matches used to be enough, now fans demand a professional, educated and entertaining broadcast, things FOX has struggled with.
FOX isn't short on resources. They have the money, the studios, the technology and, most importantly, the live rights to do spectacular work. But doing so requires acknowledging that what they have done to this point hasn't been good enough. It requires a reevaluation of what they do and a commitment to turning things around.
FOX doesn't have an impossible task. In 2006, ESPN put forth a horrific World Cup, torturing viewers with the likes of John O'Brien and Marcelo Balboa, as well as half-baked studio coverage and a lack of commitment to regular soccer coverage. But they admitted as much and two years later, hired the best on-air and off-air talent from around the world to put on a great Euros. By 2010, they were producing the best World Cup ever seen and in 2014, their World Cup coverage may have been the best of any live sporting event the country has ever seen.
A turnaround for FOX isn't just possible, it's been proven as doable. They can be great and with MLS and the Bundesliga becoming a regular fixture, as well as the international matches they've acquired, they have to make a slew of soccer hires. They are in prime position to hire new, fantastic talent on air, as well as more off air. They can change their approach and broadcast soccer the way everyone has always hoped.
If anyone is primed to pull a 180, it is FOX. They have everything necessary to do a tremendous job and the timing is right. Everyone wants to see them do it, but they can't do it for the World cup. They don't have four years. FOX has to be good at covering soccer every day, and that begins now.
Tonight, Fox Sports 1 will televise Manchester United and the LA Galaxy, live from the Rose Bowl. It is their first soccer broadcast since the end of the World Cup and, effectively, the start of their 2018 World Cup cycle. Like the teams they will cover in Russia, they need to be good for four years, or they will be dismissed come the World Cup. That means being good tonight, next week, especially next summer, and every day through 2018.
The spotlight is on FOX, and its burning bright already.
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