New level of Coverage

This summer Americans will be seeing soccer in a new light - given the upgraded and unprecedented coverage it will receive by the mainstream media.

Thanks to a significant commitment by ESPN and ABC, the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa, there will be no shortage of coverage and attention devoted to the biggest tournament in the game of soccer. As long time fans of the beautiful game know, ancillary television coverage of the World Cup. was hard to come by in the U.S in tournaments past. That won't be the case this year.

ESPN and ABC will provide expanded coverage of the entire tournament, including:

• Sending crews to all sixty-four games at each of the ten stadiums;
• Creating 250 hours of original soccer programming;
• Airing a 24-hour all-soccer countdown on ESPN2 leading up to the kickoff;
• Showing the opening concert in it's entirety;
• And, more.

Soccer is coming of age here in the United States. Fans have known that the game is in us for a while and now some larger players are starting to take notice!

John Skipper, Executive Vice President of Content for ESPN - and member of the USA Bid Committee Board of Directors - puts the Cup in perspective:

At some point you've got to treat it like the significant sporting event that is. I understand it has not traditionally stopped work and stopped the country to watch it in past years. But we're going to treat it like it should.

Read more about ESPN's announcement of their 2010 World Cup schedule.