In short
The episode argues that ESPN’s founding (1979) helped grow soccer in the U.S., especially by creating “highlight culture” via SportsCenter and by giving airtime to major indoor soccer (MISL), which resembled hockey in speed and scoring.
Guest backgrounds
J.P. De La Camera is a Boston native and broadcaster for Fox Sports. He began in minor-league hockey, then transitioned to indoor soccer in Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh Spirit) and later covered MISL and World Cups (he says he’s called 17). He also discusses working on the 1995 Women’s World Cup for ESPN.
Key claims
ESPN didn’t foresee becoming a “global monster,” but its 24/7 model and SportsCenter nationalized highlights that helped smaller sports like soccer gain attention. Indoor soccer’s TV-friendly, high-scoring format and star players made it a fit for ESPN.
Notable examples
MISL’s ESPN partnership (mid-1980s), Steve “Jungle” Jungle’s scoring/celebrity, the 1995 Women’s World Cup coverage limits (ESPN broadcast six games, including the U.S. third-place match but not the final), and the shift to broader soccer coverage later (MLS, Champions League, Premier League).
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOThe Evolution of ESPN
0:00 to 0:17
Explore how ESPN transformed sports broadcasting.
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The Evolution of ESPN
0:24 to 1:06
Explore how ESPN transformed sports broadcasting.
“C-A-U-S-E-M-E-T-I-C-S dot com slash shine26.”
Growing Up with SportsCenter
1:06 to 4:30
Reflect on the influence of SportsCenter in youth sports culture.
“There are a few things I've known better in life than the SportsCenter theme music.”
The Impact of Soccer on American Sports
4:30 to 6:41
Understand the role of soccer in the growth of sports in America.
“ESPN stands for the Entertainment Sports Programming Network.”
The Founding of ESPN and Soccer's Role
6:41 to 12:06
Delve into the origins of ESPN and its connection to soccer.
“There was oral history from parents and grandparents, and they painted extended pictures of sports and kids would reproduce them with their imagination and friends out in the yard.”
Indoor Soccer and Its Popularity
12:06 to 14:00
Learn about the rise of indoor soccer in the U.S. and its significance.
“Professional indoor soccer is recognized as having started in 1971, when the North American Soccer League organized a series of indoor exhibition tournaments.”
The Rise of the MISL
14:00 to 17:00
Explore the initial success and growth of the Major Indoor Soccer League.
“be more successful, and so he helped form a leap to prove it.”
Television and the MISL
17:00 to 21:00
Learn how TV deals with networks like ESPN impacted indoor soccer.
“hopefully to sell tickets rather than wait for the ideal financial situation.”
Influence of ESPN on Soccer
21:00 to 24:18
Understand the role of ESPN in shaping modern soccer in America.
“Bob Lee, a longtime staple of ESPN's roster of all-star talent, he was also part of the major indoor soccer league product.”
Guest Introduction: J.P. De La Camera
24:18 to 28:00
Meet J.P. De La Camera and his journey in broadcasting soccer.
“to Americans, was critical to its growth.”
Show all 24 chapters
Introduction to J.P. De La Camera
28:00 to 28:49
Learn about J.P. De La Camera's background in broadcasting hockey and soccer.
“De La Camera, broadcaster for Fox Sports.”
Transition from Hockey to Soccer
28:49 to 31:30
Discover J.P.'s transition from hockey broadcasting to soccer.
“I mean, I could probably name all of their players from when I watched them as a kid, right?”
The Indoor Soccer Experience
31:31 to 33:52
Discover the similarities between hockey and indoor soccer that shaped J.P.'s broadcasting style.
“And the group that owned the rights to the St.”
The Rise of Indoor Soccer
33:53 to 37:55
Understand the factors contributing to the popularity of indoor soccer in the past.
“And I asked a lot of questions back then.”
The Evolution of Sports Broadcasting
37:56 to 42:00
Learn about the changes in sports broadcasting and the rise of ESPN during the era of indoor soccer.
“I had that when I eventually got to the NHL, and there were certain players like an Ilya Kovalchuk who played for my Atlanta Thrashers team.”
The Evolution of Soccer Broadcasting
42:00 to 43:36
Discussion on how broadcasting has changed the landscape of soccer in the U.S.
“I don't know what ESPN spent, but they did give us the time.”
Perception of Soccer in America
43:36 to 46:08
Exploration of the perception of soccer's popularity and its growth in the U.S.
“I think cable sports is one inflection point.”
The Women's World Cup Journey
46:08 to 48:35
Comparison of the coverage of women's soccer from 1995 to 2023.
“You mentioned something I think is important.”
Soccer's Place in American Sports
48:35 to 50:53
Discussion on the challenges of soccer in the American sports landscape.
“So I'm thinking about this and I'm thinking now what, now what do we do?”
The Future of Soccer in the U.S.
50:53 to 56:01
Insights into the future growth and potential of soccer in America.
“So tough to compare us as a soccer nation with Argentina when Argentina really just has soccer.”
The Growth of Soccer in America
56:01 to 58:18
Explore the evolution of soccer's popularity in the U.S. and its potential growth trajectory.
“But you make a great point because going forward, we have the opportunity and option to continue growing the game through broadcast media, streaming media.”
Insights from J.P. De La Camera
58:19 to 1:00:08
Reflect on the contributions of J.P. De La Camera to American soccer and broadcasting.
“I appreciate the contributions we made to the game and the 17 World Cups you covered.”
ESPN's Impact on Soccer
1:00:09 to 1:04:01
Understand how ESPN's development and highlight culture transformed soccer's presence in America.
“How they were a perfect fit for each other at the right time.”
ESPN's Impact on Soccer
1:04:55 to 1:05:57
Understand how ESPN's development and highlight culture transformed soccer's presence in America.
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Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00From lashes for days with the Viral Liquid Lash Extensions Mascara, to lift and color from their brilliant eye brightener, Thrive Cosmetics is the go-to for amplifying everyday looks. Plus, every product is 100 % vegan, cruelty-free, and made with clean, skin-loving ingredients that work with your skin. Amplify your everyday. Go to thrivecosmetics.com slash shine26 for an exclusive offer of 20 % off your first order. That's Thrive Cosmetics. C-A-U-S-E-M-E-T-I-C-S dot com slash shine26.
0:36I wish I could tell you that I knew ESPN would become the global monster, you know, that it's become. And I mean monster in a good way. I don't think anybody, you know, when the Rasmussen started ESPN, envisioned this. And back then people were saying, 24 hours of sports, what are they talking about.
0:59That was JP De La Camera, and this is Founding Football. There are a few things I've known better in life than the SportsCenter theme music. Growing up as a sports fanatic, it was the soundtrack of my childhood. Before I liked any band, and for me that first band was the Sammy Hagar vintage of Van Halen, before they captured my imagination, the music that I loved the most was the da-da-da, da-da-da, at the top of the SportsCenter broadcast. It wasn't just the music either. It was everything about the show, the format, the speed, the creativity, and the personalities. Definitely the personalities.
1:41In so many ways, it was an extension of how I watched sports. I tried to catch like Gary Carter or mimic the swing of Mike Schmidt on the baseball field, watch your idols, emulate them. And weirdly, but very naturally, I did the same thing with the people talking about those players. I would listen to and try to mimic Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann. My cousin and I grew up very close geographically, so we spent tons of time together. Time and shared experiences forged something more resembling a brotherhood between us. And even though Barrett and I were very different people, like so many brothers, we fought and had our differences as much as we got along.
2:24But one thing we aligned on very easily was our passion for sports and our addiction to SportsCenter. Even more naturally, our consumption of the show led us down a path of play acting, and we cast ourselves almost always without conflict. I was Dan Patrick. Barrett was Keith Olbermann. On a given morning, we'd both watch the show and then talk about it. On a given Saturday morning, we'd both watch it repeatedly. Three, four, five times in a row. This was at a time when ESPN and replayed the last airing from the night before, early the next morning, before broadcasting the new live show at its assigned time slot a bit later.
3:08We relished those reruns. The show rundown, the replays, they felt fresh to us every time. And the wit and sophistication of the writing, the catchphrases, the delivery, they all had us hooked. If we got together on a Saturday afternoon, we would reproduce our favorite segments of the show, jousting back and forth the way Patrick and Olbermann did. I remember hearing those two in the likes of Stuart Scott, Craig Kilbourne, Kenny Mayne, Bob Lee, and others call soccer highlights on the top 10 plays. Not often, but it was there. Even as a soccer-naive sports fan, I appreciated the beauty of those highlights.
3:51Whether it was a Landon Donovan goal, or earlier a major indoor soccer league highlight, a league that ESPN featured as part of its non-sports center programming, the network gave soccer an opportunity to shine and be seen in ways it had not before in America. Those highlights kept me engaged in a game that wasn't otherwise in the forefront of my consciousness. And that was true for my cousin as well. If it had that impact on us, it had that impact on millions of other kids. It seeded soccer into their sports garden and over time helped it blossom. That's why we've chosen the founding of ESPN, Indoor Soccer and the Highlight Culture as chapter six in the founding football story.
4:41ESPN stands for the Entertainment Sports Programming Network. The programming included soccer. The entertainment, well, that's what SportsCenter was all about. The combination of access to sports and a shift in how we consumed those sports are critical reasons soccer has become popular in this country. Even if Barrett and I didn't know it 35 years ago, with every recital of a Patrick and Olbermann exchange, with every call on the top 10 list, we were part of the sports culture priming that paved the way for soccer to gain traction in America. The availability of soccer on TV in this country is undoubtedly a key to soccer's growth.
5:23Historically, it was hard to watch the game because it wasn't widely televised. And when three primary broadcast networks were the gatekeepers for all decisions, the consuming public was subject to the decisions of a bunch of suits in New York. And if they liked football, baseball, and golf and thought those were the sports that would make the money, they weren't going to put much effort into soccer. So when more airtime dedicated to sports became available, more opportunities to watch sports also became available. ESPN, of course, when it launched in 1979, seeking an abundance of programming for a new concept, televising sports 24 hours a day, seven days a week, they chose sports that they hoped would be at the intersection of cost effective to broadcast and interesting enough to garner viewers.
6:14Soccer, in varying forms, was a choice they made relatively early in the network's journey, most notably indoor soccer, which had its differences and similarities from the traditional outdoor game. But it gave a voice to a flavor of the sport in America. The founding of ESPN and its early airtime for soccer was a starting point. Then there's the sports consumption culture that ESPN crafted in America. That's what ESPN created, a lifestyle, a Bible, a voice, a new way to consume sports for a generation that had previously poured through box scores and printed newspapers, waited patiently for just four minutes on the nightly news, and made appointments to watch any game of the week available on broadcast networks.
7:01There was oral history from parents and grandparents, and they painted extended pictures of sports and kids would reproduce them with their imagination and friends out in the yard. But that was it. ESPN then gave us actual pictures of things that we hadn't seen before in a packaging that exposed new sports and their personalities and made them more compelling to us. Soccer was part of those new pictures. In multiple ways, ESPN gave soccer a new lease on life in America.
7:42So the story goes, the network that made global, full-time broadcasting of all sports a thing was conceived on August 16, 1978 to broadcast New England Whalers hockey games and University of Connecticut sporting events. It doesn't get more specific and regional than that, but it was the germ of an idea that prompted Bill Rasmussen and his son Scott to imagine an around-the-clock global sports network via satellite. It made sense in some regards. Bill and Scott had previously worked for the Whalers, so they were trying to reorient their professional orbit around the same sun. They did just that and then expanded the universe.
8:28It didn't take the Rasmussen family and their co-founder Ed Egan long to spring into action. Initially, they rented office space in Plainville, Connecticut, but it was intended to be a satellite television station, and there was a local ordinance prohibiting buildings from bearing rooftop satellite dishes. That was going to be a problem, so they quickly pivoted, finding a property in Bristol, Connecticut, where they believed a base of operations could be built. But they were right, because if you know anything about ESPN, you know that Bristol is still the home of their campus and the network.
9:02Before the family could even execute on their plan, they had a financial backer, Getty Oil, agreed to finance the infrastructure behind the operation, and ultimately acquired 85 % of the company as a result. Before the network even found the airwaves, Getty had been looking to diversify its holdings, and by February of 1979, that effort was clearly very successful. Even with doubts about the new entity, the Getty alignment was enough to help ESPN secure an advertising agreement with Anheuser Bush just a few months later. By the spring of 1979, a$1 million deal to become the exclusive beer advertised on the network was in place.
9:45So as the Rasmussen's were building a financial base, The brains behind ESPN were busy getting the rest of the model in place. March brought them exclusive rights to televise some NCAA athletic events, both live and on tape delay. And then they found their first source of eyeballs the same month when United Cable TV signed an affiliate agreement. They had headquarters. They had money to operate. They had content to broadcast. They had distribution partners. And so by the fall of that year, they were ready to flip the switch and they began broadcasting on September 7th. By December of that year, the Rasmussens had essentially achieved their initial goal.
10:25ESPN televised its first NHL game, a Whalers game at that, as Washington played at Hartford. The milestones would build quickly from there as this novel idea gained incredible market momentum. In 1980, the network added programming such as Australian Rules Football, the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament opening round, and the NFL Draft, something that is still a staple of the network's broadcast coverage. All of those events elevated the profile of ESPN nationally, and it continued from there. 1983 brought international programming. 1984 marked the network's divestiture by Getty and a complete acquisition by ABC.
11:06Still its parent company, though, part of ESPN was sold to other stakeholders later. In 1987, there was an NFL affiliation. In 1989, Major League Baseball broadcast rights. It just kept growing and growing. Nestled in between some of those key events, however, was a less celebrated but still important starting point. ESPN began carrying soccer games. Specifically, they picked up major indoor soccer league games and gave it an audience that could connect with the sport. As ESPN was creating a highlight culture, one conceived through the eyes of hockey fans, MISL was maybe the closest sport to hockey in the U.S., but still a derivative of the most popular game in the world, a sport that couldn't find an audience in the U.S.
11:53previously. Soccer.
12:01indoor soccer and standard full-sided 11 v 11 soccer are different forms of the same game some people would say they're entirely different but that's an overstatement the indoor variety is played on a smaller turf field and surrounded by boards and plexiglass to help keep the ball in play basically as we referenced before it's soccer on a hockey rink and fast and physical kind of like hockey in its own right. Professional indoor soccer is recognized as having started in 1971, when the North American Soccer League organized a series of indoor exhibition tournaments. But it was truly legitimized in 1974, when a game between the North American Soccer League and the Soviet Red Army aired on ABC's Wide World of Sports.
12:45Then the entire trajectory of the sport changed in October of 1977. Two businessmen, Ed Tepper and Earl Foreman, formed the major indoor soccer league. Tepper was a real estate mogul who had dabbled in professional lacrosse and realized the NASL was wobbling. That was the year that Pele's stint with the Cosmos was ending, and despite the NASL's large crowds over the previous three years, he questioned whether America would continue its love affair with full-sided outdoor soccer, betting that instead the American sporting appetites would move away from a play-less league and towards a faster indoor game.
13:26Foreman was the right person to validate this thought process for Tepper because he had been on the opposite side of it. The man who would later become the first MISL commissioner was also part owner of the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles, and Foreman had been instrumental in the formation of the NASL. He knew American sports, had tried to bring soccer into the American pantheon of athletics, and still shared Tepper's vision, his reservation really, about the future of the traditional game. He believed an American flavor layered on top of the best parts of soccer would be more successful, and so he helped form a leap to prove it.
14:05The two men sold six initial franchises for$25 ,000 each. The league then kicked off its inaugural season with those teams, the Cincinnati Kids, the Cleveland Force, Houston Summit, New York Arrows, Philadelphia Fever, and Pittsburgh Spirit. The first game was played on December 22nd. People noticed, regular people, famous people, lots of people. One of the famous people was Major League Baseball star Pete Rose. He joined the Cincinnati Kids ownership group. And then the regular people, the lots of people, showed up in attendance figures. The MISL averaged 4 ,282 fans per game its first season, over 72 total games played.
14:46That year, the New York Arrows were the league's first champion, defeating Philadelphia in a best-of-three series, two games to none. The league grew quickly thereafter. Five more clubs were added with a 32-match season. Just a year later, Buffalo, Hartford, St. Louis, Detroit, and Wichita all became part of the league. Average attendance increased from that 4282 number to 6 ,009 fans over 160 games played in 1979 and 80. The figures continued to rise to 8 ,735 per game for 286 total games in 1981-82. That was the same season the St. Louis Steamers drew over 17 ,000 fans per game. That was an average, the second highest average, in fact, for any professional indoor sport in North America.
15:38The top average attendance, that was garnered by the Edmonton Oilers who featured a guy you might have heard of, Wayne Gretzky. TV networks started to notice, and that was the year that the league inked a deal with the USA Network. And after that, with television covering major indoor soccer league games, attendance continued to climb again, peaking at 8 ,868 fans per game during the 1983-84 season. That got CBS interested, and then ESPN partnered with the league in 1985.
16:17ESPN would televise 15 regular season games as part of the deal on Sunday afternoons. They also had the All-Star game and assorted playoff games beginning in the 1985-86 season. The MISL received no broadcast revenues from ESPN as part of the deal. Said differently, the agreement with ESPN meant the league actually had to pay the cable network to televise its games. And this was controversial. Bill Kentling, director and general manager of the Wichita Wings, was vehemently against the ESPN deal. He thought the MISL had no shot going against the National Football League without having any time to set up sponsorship and generate revenue.
16:59Commissioner Frank Dale, however, disagreed with Kentling's assessment and felt it was really just better to get the on-air exposure, hopefully to sell tickets rather than wait for the ideal financial situation. And the gamble made sense. In many ways, it was a match made in heaven, not just because Hartford had a team, though I'm sure that helped get the Rasmussen family interested. But most importantly, the way the MISL was innovating mirrored the way that ESPN was innovating and vice versa. In addition to turf and boards and speed, the game featured a high viz orange ball. They had high-scoring affairs.
17:37Each match featured 10 to 20 goals instead of the one or two in a traditional 11 v. 11 game. One 1980 match, in fact, tallied 165 total shots. That's insane. The league also initiated many of the in-game entertainment practices we now know and love, even if they were condemned as juvenile at the time. This includes things like dramatic lineup introductions and in-game music, flashing lights, giant mascots, frisbees thrown by those giant mascots, a focus on appealing to female fans. These elements all worked for entertainment sports programming. That's what ESPN was after all, the Entertainment Sports Programming Network.
18:1924 hours of sports TV also meant a craving for more sports storylines. lines. We love heroes in particular in this country, individual accolades, and the MISL gave all of that too. The New York Arrows were largely the best team in the league early on, and they had the best player. Steve Jungle, a former Yugoslavian international, turned communist defector. He came to the U.S. with a story and built an even bigger narrative from there. Jungle was granted permission to travel initially to New York with his Playboy model girlfriend, Moni Kovacic, and they never went back. That caused a scandal. He was branded a traitor, and Yugoslavia pressured FIFA to ban him from its sanctioned leagues.
19:04That meant the MISL would become his landing spot. Accidental or otherwise, it absolutely worked. Off the field, he drove a Rolls Royce and wore a cowboy hat. On the field, jungle was magic. His outstanding control made him the league's best player, a six-time MVP playing for the Tacoma Stars and San Diego Soccers. He would ultimately become the top scorer of all time with 652 goals. He also registered 471 assists and gave the MISL a star, which was ideal for it and a network like ESPN. And while the biggest star was an international player, the MISL did something for American soccer that the NASL had not.
19:48It gave American players a path to professionalism in huge numbers. 16-man MISL squads had to include 12 homegrown players. This was essentially the reverse ratio of NASL roster makeups. Many talented players who couldn't get rostered in the NASL found their way to indoor soccer and got paid really well to do so. Consider then that you have a brand of soccer that fits the American mindset emerging at the time. There was more sports airspace to fill, and it featured American players. ESPN saw the formula working, and they put resources into the initiative. For the 1986-87 season, the network actually paid the MISL a fee instead of the league paying the network as it had done the previous season.
20:36This time, ESPN broadcast 18 games, the All-Star game from Los Angeles, and four playoff games. The Soccers were scheduled to be on four delayed telecasts during the regular season as well. And ESPN put talent into the sport, jumpstarting the on-air soccer careers of what are now considered some of the preeminent voices of soccer in America. At the top of that list is today's guest, J.P. De La Camera. The Boston native grew up a hockey fan and started his career calling minor league hockey games, but he was introduced to soccer through the MISL and has become, frankly, a feature in the American sports landscape, having called 17 World Cups in his illustrious career.
21:18Bob Lee, a longtime staple of ESPN's roster of all-star talent, he was also part of the major indoor soccer league product. And on the color side of the booth, Ty Keough, son of legend Harry Keough, and himself a member of the U.S. men's national team, he broadcasts the games. Seamus Mellon, a future soccer hall of fame inductee for his broadcast work, that included World Cup coverage. He was part of ESPN's coverage as well. Tepper believed his league was perfect for TV, and his instincts proved to be good at its peak in the mid 80s with 14 teams, the league had a decent cable contract and reached 5 million viewers in 47 states.
21:58But there were cracks in the foundation of the league. That was a story we'll hear so often in the top flight of American professional soccer. Games weren't primetime TV affairs and the revenue couldn't support the high wages the league was paying. The combination meant that few franchises actually turned a profit. A bigger TV contract could have pulled the league through, potentially at least, and the most likely source of that was ESPN, who appeared ready to invest heavily in the league after its success. But instead, ESPN took the gains from its MISL investment and reallocated them to a more traditional American sports stronghold, American football, investing in the ill-fated NFL rival, the USFL.
22:41So by 1989, the league was hemorrhaging franchises and the MISL would later change its name to the MSL, ceased operations following the 91-92 season. The MISL, even though ESPN moved away from it, trying to diversify that portfolio, gave the network data to later add soccer back to its roster. ESPN and certainly ABC aired FIFA World Cup matches and many additional U.S. men's national and U.S. women's national team matches as well. They had UEFA Champions League that came in 1995 and lasted until 2009. Premier League matches came to ESPN in 1996 and ran through 1998. ESPN was critical to the growth of MLS and started airing the league in 1996, and that ran all the way through 2022.
23:32Sariah entered ESPN's world in 2018 and tucked in between all of those broadcast rights is the acquisition of a website called SoccerNet in 1999. That became ESPN SC, which later turned into a studio show by the same name that still runs today. Streaming, which we'll discuss in a later episode, has revolutionized soccer coverage overall and ESPN has taken that to a completely different level. ESPN took a chance on MISL, had success, and added soccer back to its roster ever since. It's a marriage made in American sports history.
24:17ESPN giving airtime to soccer, and specifically a brand of soccer that appealed to Americans, was critical to its growth. But there's a more subtle way that ESPN's founding influenced the growth of the game in this country, SportsCenter. From the first day ESPN hit the airwaves on September 7th, 1979, SportsCenter was part of its broadcast coverage. Actually, it was more than that. In a world where the startup full-time satellite sports network was unsure of the actual sporting events it would carry, SportsCenter was essentially the anchor of the new network concept. It made sense. For sports fans, the best part of the evening news was always the four-minute highlight packages at the end of the half-hour show that distilled all of the local and regional sporting events into a tidy little fast-moving segment.
25:11So why not just do that for all sports nationally for a full half hour or longer. And that's exactly why it worked. Without SportsCenter, sports highlights would largely have remained a local or regional exercise. And maybe if the viewer is lucky, the local ABC affiliate would have found room for another two minute extended story every now and then. But with SportsCenter, we expanded that model into national and even global distillations of all of our favorite sports, moving our knowledge of opposing teams and entire leagues out of a newspaper box score and into well-produced clip packages that gave us access to Roger Clemens or Larry Bird or Bo Jackson or Fred Couples or Andre Agassi or Zinedine Zidane, all in one show, all at the same time, all with smart, witty commentary, and many extended features on those or other athletes.
26:08It gave every athlete at every level the dream of making the SportsCenter top 10. It made the highlight culture, quite frankly, the sports culture. And that meant a few very, very important things for soccer. One, it meant that even with an ambitious desire to cover everything, there was still room for the smaller things. Soccer, as a smaller sport in America, wasn't going to get eight of the top ten plays on a given night the way a crowded NBA slate might. But if a bicycle kick goal lived next to nine dunks, it was still elevating the profile of the game. There's a second factor, though, that I believe was also at play here.
26:54ESPN and indoor soccer were a good match because of the frenetic high-speed, high-scoring nature of games. It was the converse of outdoor soccer and its lower-scoring outcomes that so often got chastised by Americans. But within that 1-0 final, wrapped in a 90-minute package, there are dozens and dozens of moments of brilliance. And maybe they only last 5 or 10 seconds long in their entirety. But if you put them together and include a goal in a 90-second highlight package, the most exciting parts of the game are drawn onto an index card and then layered with highlighter. When you expose the very best parts of something to an audience in a consumable way, if they are good enough, the entire package becomes more attractive in your eyes.
27:45And that's what I believe the highlight culture, as begun by ESPN, did for soccer. Here to talk about the impact of ESPN's founding on soccer in America. This week's guest on the Founding Football Podcast is J.P. De La Camera, broadcaster for Fox Sports. He'll be working some of the National Women's Soccer League games moving forward as well. A long and storied career broadcasting soccer and hockey, which not many people necessarily in the soccer world realize, but we'll talk a bit about that. J.P., thank you so much for joining me. Grateful to have you. Kent, my pleasure. Always great to talk about the beautiful game.
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28:24Well, let's start with hockey, though, because that's really how you got into broadcasting. And I would love to explore a little bit about the transition, how you went from hockey to soccer. But really, your entry point into broadcasting wasn't hockey, correct? Hockey was what I always wanted to do. I grew up in Boston in the days of the big bad Bruins, Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Derek Sanderson. I mean, I could probably name all of their players from when I watched them as a kid, right? In Boston at that time, I mean, today, New England Patriots are number one. But back then, Patriots were the Boston Patriots.
29:02They couldn't fill their stadium. They couldn't have filled their stadium. They were always looking for ownership. Celtics were winning, but they couldn't draw. Red Sox were the Red Sox back then before the impossible dream. And then you had the Bruins, you know, winning Stanley Cups, selling out all of their games, televising all of their games, including those on the West Coast. So you couldn't grow up in Boston at that at that point and not be a hockey fan. So I always wanted to be a hockey announcer. That was my favorite sport at that time. Soccer was nowhere even in my mind then because we didn't really have an outdoor soccer or indoor soccer, for that matter, presence back then.
29:41So I spent, I want to say, 10 years or so, minor league hockey, countless bus rides, thousands of miles. And then just one day thinking to myself, you know what? NHL is not that big. A lot of my friends, and if I was name dropping, like Doc Emmerich is one of them, we all started together in the minor leagues. You have Nick Nixon, Rick Peckham, Randy Hahn. I'm just thinking of so many of the names that are out there and they all got a chance, you know, in the NHL. And I didn't I didn't get my chance. And I thought, you know, it's 10 years. Not going to give up. But there's this indoor soccer team two hours away from where I was in Erie, Pennsylvania.
30:25And indoor soccer to me was like hockey on grass. I saw so many similarities in changing lines, movement of the ball versus movement of the puck, high scoring games. Pittsburgh was a major market. I could fly instead of getting on another minor league hockey bus. And so it was a natural transition when I moved to Pittsburgh. And when I took that job with the Pittsburgh spirit of the major indoor soccer league, I had no aspirations of hockey at that point. Mike Lang, who has helped me a lot in my career, one of the all-time great voices in hockey history, actually, worked for the Penguins, and I had never even a thought that I could ever replace him.
31:15So I never went there with any hockey aspirations. It was just for soccer. And then got to have luck in this business. One break leads to another. Mike Lang actually helped me with a group in St. Louis. So I ended up filling in on St. Louis Steamers games as well as my Pittsburgh Spirit games. And the group that owned the rights to the St. Louis Steamers was Bud Sports. They had the rights to the World Cup in 1986. Bob Carpenter, another great name in broadcasting, voice of the Washington Nationals, had that job. He left in the middle of the year to take a, I think it was a college basketball football job.
31:55I want to say it was with Raycom, something like that. And the job opened up right place, right time for me. And that's where my indoor soccer career started, where it led to outdoor. And then the rest I would say is history. I think that's fair. I want to get back to that transition. Timing, as you say, is so important in life. I really believe that, but you mentioned a couple of things that I think are worth getting into just a bit more. Did you pursue the indoor soccer job or was there an opportunity that you were made aware of? Because you said, I had this realization about kind of where maybe hockey was going, that it would be hard to break through.
32:31How did you come to the indoor soccer gig? Was it something that found you or did you find it being opportunistic? I'm trying to remember back then, but I watched it on TV and I was fascinated by it because at that point, I used to watch New York Cosmos games. This is long before DirecTV and Dish Network and all of this stuff. I think the Cosmos were, I want to say on Channel 9, which was called a Superstation back then. So, you know, started watching Cosmos games, loved the outdoor game, and then saw indoor soccer. And I thought, this is fascinating. You know, this is so much like hockey and so different from outdoor soccer.
33:09But I think what led me to it was the ownership group was the DeBartolo Corporation. They own the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Pittsburgh Spirit. And they also own the minor league hockey team that I was working for, the Erie Blades, or they managed it. They were in partnership with the local owner there. So there was a connection with the DeBartolos that I had thought about too. and you know Pittsburgh was only like two hours away uh I went to a game in person I did an audition tape for them they liked it and I got the gig and that's where that's where I really cut my teeth even though it was indoor soccer compared to outdoor soccer I learned so much because that was the only sport really back then outdoor wasn't really happening we didn't have MLS.
33:58I got close to players. I got close to coaches, to referees. And I asked a lot of questions back then. I really studied it. And so even though indoor really doesn't have a connection right now to outdoor, that's really where I cut my teeth as a soccer broadcaster. You answered the second question I was planning to ask, which is for someone that didn't grow up as a soccer fan, how did you really grow into and understand the game quickly? And it sounds like you studied. You mentioned that there wasn't a huge presence with outdoor soccer. North American Soccer League had gone through quite a rise with Pele in the Cosmos and then was certainly on the downside.
34:39And indoor soccer, as you mentioned, wasn't the same game, but it certainly seemed to capture the attention of American fans because of some of the similarities you mentioned to, for example, hockey. What was it like in terms of the different speed of the game, the intensity of the game, the fan reaction to the game? What would you compare it to? Because I can certainly tell you I didn't experience it that I was too young. Love to hear it from your perspective. I compared it a lot to hockey. High scoring, a lot of shots, you know, end to end action. It was hockey minus the fighting. I was never a fan of fighting and hockey.
35:17Even to this day, I'm not a fan of fighting and hockey. So that was it, you know, but, but the ball moved quickly, players changing on the fly, goalkeeper saves. Back then, the indoor soccer coaches learned a lot about indoor from the hockey coaches. So in Pittsburgh, for example, you know, our coach would talk to the NHL's coach about the power play or penalty kill because it was so similar. And any place that we had an NHL team that also had an MISL team, you would see the same kind of thing. So the early strategy of indoor soccer was definitely surrounded by all of the coaching techniques and tactics of the NHL back in those days.
36:08I can't tell you if it's if it's the same now or if the game has evolved to a point where, you know, the indoor guys are on their own or if they still watch it. But the games are so similar that I would think if you're a fan of the indoor game and you're a coach, I'd be watching NHL games to see how they do things, how they change the momentum of a game, the tempo of a game. You know, when the ball goes behind a net in indoor soccer, there is nothing behind the net. But in the corners, how you use the boards, the glass, you know, if you have glass in some of our indoor arenas, we do some we don't.
36:47So there's a lot to be learned. And probably if I was an NHL coach, I'd watch indoor soccer too, because you might be able to find something in that game that could help you. But, you know, back then too, Kent, we had the best players. The best players were playing in our league. So you can imagine today, Major League Soccer gets all of the best players that are coming over to this country. Well, MISL got them before. So guys like Steve Jungle, Tattoo, Stan Terlecki, Bronco Segoda were all terrific outdoor players, but there was no real outdoor opportunity for them to play here. So they became indoor players and not only indoor players, but indoor greats and indoor legends.
37:31We had the best. And I think that that helped draw fans to the game. they knew that they were watching the best players. And guys like Jungle and Tattoo getting three goals in one night was nothing. Four, five, they could get three goals in a period within 10 minutes. You know, those guys could score at any moment. And any time the ball was at Jungle's feet, you know, as a broadcaster, you knew there was an anticipation. I had that when I eventually got to the NHL, and there were certain players like an Ilya Kovalchuk who played for my Atlanta Thrashers team. Even if our team was not good, when the puck was on his stick, I knew.
38:15Not much time for storytelling there. You know, something big could happen at any moment. And we had those players, many of those players, on all of our teams in that league. So that was big then too. And I think, you know, when I go back, think about all the great crowds we had. We outdrew the Penguins until they signed Mario Lemieux. When they signed Mario Lemieux the next year, you know, we were second to them in attendance. But before Mario came at one point, we had outdrawn the Penguins because the Penguins were not winning. And people were tired of the high ticket prices and watching a team always lose.
38:49They saw indoor soccer as something new, something refreshing. We made a connection with the fans. Our guys did so many clinics. In the NHL, you're playing 82 games and it's hard and you don't have ice to do the clinics. So indoor soccer was really helped by the players' willingness to sell the game and the fact that you could have a clinic at a mall, in a shopping center, outdoors on concrete, whereas in the NHL, you couldn't really do that. And our guys were more than willing to sell the game and that helped. A few minutes ago, you said the rest is history, but you're talking about now a convergence of variables that really started that trajectory for you, right?
39:30So major indoor soccer had the best players, they were making more money, media coverage was certainly noticing that. And then you as a broadcaster are there at that time. And all of a sudden, cable sports is born, ESPN is born, and they see that there's popularity around MISL, they pick up the league and the games. And that's where you really start working in cable sports as a broadcaster for soccer. What was that time like? Were you aware that something different was happening with how television sports coverage would work, therefore, in the future? I wish I could tell you that I knew ESPN would become the global monster that it's becoming.
40:13I mean monster in a good way. I don't think anybody, when the Rasmussen started ESPN, envisioned this. And back then people were saying 24 hours of sports. What are they what are they talking about? They're crazy. And now, you know, it's easy to fill up, you know, 24 hours of sports. We have so many others, you know, besides ESPN, you know, Fox and CBS. And now you've got all these streamers and Peacock and Paramount Plus and ESPN. I mean, there's so many outlets today compared to back then. So for better and worse. What's that? For better and worse. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And ESPN did well with that.
40:50But I never saw this empire back then. I don't think anybody did. I'll bet you the Rasmussen's didn't either when they first started this, right? Because it was so strange to think about a 24-hour sports network. Today, you can have just, well, you already have it, the NFL network, right? I mean, you could just do NFL and have a network. So it's altogether different. But back then, people forget we were the only game. We didn't have the Premier League on TV. It wasn't even the Premier League back then, right? But the game of the week was indoor soccer back then. And ESPN wasn't as big as they are today.
41:34And if I remember correctly, I mean, they didn't give us a rights fee. There's no way that they were paying the league money. What I don't remember, and I think it probably changed during the course of several contracts, either the league paid for the airtime to get games on or they paid the production cost. But there was an investment in the indoor soccer game from an MISL standpoint. I don't know what ESPN spent, but they did give us the time. And they promoted it back then. If this was today, they probably wouldn't because there's too many other things that are going on. But back then, they did a good job in selling indoor soccer.
42:19That's all that we had. And you fast forward to today, to all of the apps, to the fact that you could watch any game pretty much in any country on some app. Right? Yeah. Wasn't like that back then. MISL game of the week, that was it. And that's the reason why I ended up doing college basketball and returned to hockey because I thought if I'm on the game of the week and there's one game a week and something happens and ESPN or the league says they don't want me anymore or the contract runs out or the league folds, I have nothing. So I thought I should, to protect myself, get some other interest.
43:04And I already had the hockey background, but college basketball opportunity came and I probably did that for several years. And that helped me. You go forward to today and it's like so many people are making a full-time living on soccer. You don't have to do other sports now. You can if you want, but you don't have to. If you enjoy it, right? I think that's a key. So there's two elements of the emergence of ESPN that I'd like to explore with you because I think they both contribute to how we start thinking about consuming, enjoying soccer. The first is just availability. And you made the point.
43:37It's so different today. I think cable sports is one inflection point. Streaming is a completely different one. They're almost two separate events, but a continuum of the same thing. So let's start there. Did you, as the game of the week began getting airtime, have a sense that new eyeballs were picking up soccer? I'm sure you get stopped. People would recognize you or hear your voice. I enjoyed the game. Did you have a sense that it was helping amplify the popularity even of indoor soccer as a different type of soccer? Did you feel that? Yeah, I think that we had a sense in the good days of the league, you know, probably when I left maybe 89 or 90 or somewhere in there, you know, crowds were not the same, you know, as they were before.
44:24You know, the league had lost some franchises. They kept cutting the salary cap. There was so many things that that were hurting. And then, you know, you started to be able to watch other games on other outlets. Still nowhere like it is today. But I did have a sense that it was it was growing in popularity. I probably thought soccer would catch on before it did. Now I'm insulted when people foolishly say we're not a soccer nation. No, they're not paying attention. Of course we are. That's ridiculous. That's so off target when somebody says the U.S. is not a soccer nation. We are, but we're also a basketball nation, a football nation, a baseball nation, a hockey nation, and all these other countries.
45:13can't say that, but we are 100 % a soccer nation. MLS is thriving. The NWSL is thriving. There are other leagues, whether it's USL or our league, our indoor soccer league that I'm working with now in the major arena soccer league. There's so many leagues out there. There's so many things. And if you look at any World Cup and you look at where most of the tickets are sold, USA. They're number one or number two all the time in all of these World Cups, wherever they are, whether it's Qatar, whether it's New Zealand, whether it's Brazil, wherever it is, Americans buy the tickets. And in 2026, if you thought the 1994 World Cup was big in this country, or the 1999 Women's World Cup was big, wait till 2026.
46:05You have no idea what's coming. I can't wait. You mentioned something I think is important. People still think that because soccer fandom in this country looks different than other sports fandom does. And I think people are still struggling to get their head around why this is different, how we can call ourselves a soccer nation if we're not the best to be really direct. We consume the best leagues in mass. We have the most insane fans of the Premier League or the Bundesliga, as well as MLS or the NWSL. And by the way, like me or you, you can be fans of all of those things. Sure. I think the second thing that ESPN and the sports cable revolution really brought about was the highlight culture.
46:47And I'm curious what you think of this. I really think it was critical to showing people the beauty of soccer, the great moments of soccer, packaging it in a different way so that they could then work backwards and open up to appreciating a full 90 minute game, for example. Yeah. Did you see that as being critical to how Americans started to understand the game differently, better with more appreciation? I think the highlights help. I think that shows that talk about soccer help. I applaud NBC for the way they've covered the Premier League. They have been fantastic since they got that contract.
47:30And it's no surprise that they get the viewership that they have. It's no surprise that the EPL renewed with NBC rather than going somewhere else. A lot of people are spending a lot more time on soccer. Let me go back to something with ESPN. Yeah, please. 1995, I did the Women's World Cup in Sweden. They played those games in what I would call high school or college stadiums. There was only one venue that housed a professional team in Sweden where you would say, yeah, that's like an MLS type stadium. Only one. It was a big secret that the games were there. The Sweden people were great. They were very friendly.
48:18But the stands, not full. If you look at a newspaper, there was no awareness that the World Cup was coming. And then you go forward four years and you saw what it was like in the U.S. So it was like night and day. But back to ESPN. Sure. So I'm working for them. they for the 1995 women's world cup did a total of six games six those were the games involving the u.s so back then there was no round of 16 game so they expected the u.s to get to the final which was six games instead of now seven and everything was going great i guess until the u.s lost to Norway. So I'm thinking about this and I'm thinking now what, now what do we do?
49:13We've only got, you know, six games. So I said to our production group at the time, are we not going to do the final? Can we do both games? Can we do the U S third place game in the final? And they said, ESPN only gave us six games. This is it, you know, And we've decided we came with the U.S. We're staying with the U.S. So we broadcast like the third place game and did not do the final. Six games in the 1995 Women's World Cup. Now, 2023, Fox, fantastic coverage. Every game, every single game, pregame, halftime, postgame, six games in 1995. That's how far we've come. And not even then, 1999 is really when it changed.
50:08In 1999, we did all the games. But in 1995, I would call that progress, right? I mean, imagine now doing any, even if you did a youth tournament, if you said you were going to do six games and not the final, people would be outraged. But back then, that's what it was. But, you know, we are a soccer nation. We've grown. We're still growing. But again, however you want to look at it, we're number five right now. You know, we're trying to get to like number four. But NFL, how are you going to beat that? Right? Whereas in these other countries, there is no NFL. You know, it's soccer is the number one sport, number two, and probably number three.
50:53So tough to compare us as a soccer nation with Argentina when Argentina really just has soccer. Soccer. We're a more global society now. We understand because of technology, right? We've talked about that with both broadcast television and streaming. But we have access to people in other countries. At the tip of our fingers, I can message someone in England right now or message someone in Spain. and I think our appreciation of other cultures has opened our mind a bit to thinking about why other countries appreciate soccer. You've been really thoughtful about the impact of broadcast cable networks on soccer.
51:34I think we covered that. But I would love to ask you a final question and really appreciate your time. What's your perspective on the growth of the game over the last 40 years, just at a high level? You've shared lots of thoughts. Where do you think we are right now and where do you think it's going? You already said you don't think we'll surpass. Well, you didn't say this directly. You suggested it'll be hard to surpass the NFL, and I would agree with that. But we are a soccer nation. What do you think is going to happen in the next 10 or 20 years in terms of the growth of the game? Well, I think MLS will continue to grow.
52:07The question will be, you know, how big do they want to be? You know, you always hear these rumors about them merging with Mexico and creating this one big, you know, Super League. You know, will somebody else challenge them as a major league? Right. Because that's always a fear. You have so many cities on the outside looking in that don't have an MLS team where you're saying, really? You know, Detroit doesn't doesn't have a team in there. You know, Phoenix, you know, name a name a city. and they're a major league city, but they're not in MLS. So does somebody else start this? We're already seeing the NWSL.
52:47They've been very successful, but there's going to be another league, USL women, they're going to play in the European calendar starting next year. Will they succeed? Will there be another women's league? Where does it go? So I think that's going to be part of the growth to see where it goes, but I think the future is very bright for soccer. Hopefully it's bright on the indoor game as well, because I think that indoor soccer kind of lost its way after the growth of, of MLS, you know, at one time, as we mentioned on this podcast, it was, you know, it was the game of the week. It was the only game to watch.
53:24And I still feel badly. I saw Steve jungle last year, got into the national soccer hall of fame, but there were so many others that should be in there in the national soccer Hall of Fame. And that's one of my, one of my goals, I guess, is to try to keep raising the bar to get some of these guys in there because National Soccer Hall of Fame is a, is a great place. If you've never been there, you should go. It's, it's our history. And, and the one part of history, I think that's not there like it should be is the indoor game. Back in the old days, indoor soccer players were on our U.S. national team.
54:08Kevin Crow, Fernando Clavijo, Hugo Perez, Brian Quinn, you know, they were indoor soccer stars and they made it on the national team and it would have been more, but back then I think there was a bias towards the indoor game and so some of those players never really got a look and so I think that in our soccer history, If there was one group that didn't get the attention that they deserved, it was the indoor players. And I liked what the National Soccer Hall of Fame has done, especially over the last few years. And getting jungle that recognition is the first step. I'd like to see the indoor game get bigger.
54:49I don't ever think it could ever get back to the old days because in the old days, that's all we had. and now it's tough to compete. I mean, Messi's playing in MLS. How would you compete against that? If you had an indoor team in Miami, what's the point? If you've got Messi, you know what I mean? So I'm a realist. The indoor game has a future still in this country. It just won't be what it was in those glory days because in the glory days, you got the best players and you weren't competing not only with MLS, But now you're competing with all these other leagues that you can watch every week. La Liga, Serie A, games from Germany, games from everywhere, right?
55:38We didn't have that before. So now you don't have to leave your house. If you want, if you wanted to be a shut in for 24 hours a day, you could watch all soccer if you wanted. Now we can do that. We couldn't do that before. I'm not advocating that, by the way. No, that's fine. I think you should have a life as well outside of sports. But realistically, you can do it now. But you make a great point because going forward, we have the opportunity and option to continue growing the game through broadcast media, streaming media. But there is also room with the availability and immediacy of information to have a greater appreciation for the past and how we got here, really.
56:17And that's what this project is all about. So I love you highlighting Major Indoor Soccer League. I love hearing you talk about the importance in that time and how it helped grow the game and how we should highlight it even more. Something for us to think about moving forward, JP. Yeah, I think you have to appreciate the past before you can think about not only the present, but also the future, right? And where do you go? And realistically, if you're doing a podcast in 10 years from now or 20 years from now, you might still be saying soccer is number five in this country, but the numbers will be staggering.
56:56I mean, it'll be a great number five. And the only reason we'll still be five in 10 years, if we are, because we may not be. I think we can overtake probably the NHL. It probably pains you to say. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I grew up as a hockey guy, but I'm more of a soccer guy now. But I'm being realistic, you know, like football. Look at the history we've had. Baseball, the history, you know, NBA is global. Hey, if you're number five, like in Philadelphia, Philadelphia Union, to be in the conversation with the 76ers and the Phillies. And, you know, if you're number five in Philadelphia, when they started in 2010, they weren't number five.
57:42And now they're they're very strong in Philadelphia and they sell out their games and, you know, their TV ratings were good. Everything is great with with soccer in Philadelphia. And if you're number five and you've only been in existence since 2010, that's a positive. That's not a negative. That's right. To your point, even if we stay number five or soccer stays number five or moves to number four, we are a soccer nation now. We are. It's indisputable. JP Delicamera, thank you so much for your time. People can find you on Fox Sports. They can find you as the voice of the NWSL. For me, you will always be the voice of the U.S.
58:18women's national team. I appreciate the contributions we made to the game and the 17 World Cups you covered. Thank you for being here. Ken, thank you for having me. I enjoyed it very much.
58:33I love story between soccer and America and the connections I get to watch others make as they graciously agree to speak with me for this podcast. Letting you behind the scenes a bit, that happened with this episode as I was recording an interview for a future episode. Spoiler alert, that episode is on the 1980 men's soccer team that boycotted the Olympics. That will be interesting on a few levels, but that's not why I mention it. My guest for that show is Ty Keough, former U.S. men's soccer player, son of legend Harry Keough, and we mentioned him just a few minutes ago. Ty played in the NASL.
59:13He also played in the MISL and ultimately retired from soccer to broadcast major indoor soccer league games for ESPN next to today's guest, J.P. De La Camera. The soccer world is small. That part is becoming increasingly clear. But the perspective from those that live through it is sharp. And the expansiveness of their thinking is incredible. Particularly when you get them looking at the game and how various moments and inflection points around soccer in America have built upon each other. That's what makes this project so fun, talking to people who lived through it and asking them, hey, did you know then and do you think now that this specific moment really mattered?
1:00:01I spoke to Ty two days before I was scheduled to interview JP. He shared how close they are from their time in the booth together and also told me just how symbiotic he believed the major indoor soccer league was with ESPN. How they were a perfect fit for each other at the right time. M-I-S-L was a soccer product, but the right type of soccer product for ESPN and its viewership. Hockey-like, but still soccer. It fit the highlight culture, and that helped it be successful, with Americans playing on those teams. The success of soccer and Soccer with an American Flavor helped ESPN and its parent company, ABC, realize that soccer could get eyeballs, that it could make them money, that with extra airtime previously unavailable on the big three networks, soccer was one of the fringe sports worth reinvesting in.
1:00:55And that conversation with Ty changed the way I looked at the significance of ESPN. Without those MISL data points, it's hard to know if and how much they would have invested in Champions League, Premier League, and World Cup coverage. It's hard to know if they would have felt confident in America's latest incarnation of a top-tier professional league when Major League Soccer was founded. So giving airtime to soccer, even the MISL version, at the right time is the first reason the founding of ESPN was an important moment in American soccer. The second reason we haven't really even discussed, but it's somewhat implied here as well.
1:01:38ESPN, as you know, succeeded. That sparked a race for other sports cable networks. With even more airtime to fill and incrementally increasing interest in soccer, there was a race to add content. And content that had proven successful. That opened the door to other top flight professional leagues. La Liga, Ligue 1, Bundesliga. There was great soccer all over the world, and now there was a reason to broadcast it. ESPN started a paradigm, others followed it, and needed that content. Soccer, and its global draw, was there to fill it. The third reason this moment matters is the creation of the highlight culture via SportsCenter and the ideal fit of soccer within that production concept.
1:02:29Soccer is a beautiful game full of technical mastery and elite athleticism. Packaging the best moments of a 90-minute game into 90 seconds of riveting and fast-paced action makes a more methodical and cerebral game feel closer to the frenetic appeal of the indoor game. It overcomes the perception that a 1-0 or even a 0-0 game lacks action or competition. It brings fans into the game and gets them to reconsider something around which they had a clear perception. It gets them to stay and watch the entire movie for the plot twist or the action scenes. A trailer does that for a movie, and SportsCenter has done that for soccer.
1:03:15Ironically, the idea of specialized sports programming on a cable sports network and the highlight culture created by ESPN and SportsCenter has taken on a completely new life in the internet world and the streaming world. The distillation into moments and the ability to get them instantly has put a magnifying glass over a magnifying glass. But it's all continued this journey of access and understanding of soccer for Americans. And we'll talk more about that later this season. Without ESPN, I feel confident that our relationship with soccer would be in a different place. With ESPN and voices like JP De La Camera, we have pictures and soundtracks of that game that pervade, in my case, an entire childhood, even if I didn't realize it, even if they were hidden in a show about sports that hooked me because of other teams and heroes, but kept me for the show itself, even if I couldn't connect the dots until now.
1:04:18Thank you for listening to Chapter 6 of Founding Football, ESPN Indoor Soccer, and the highlight culture. I'm your host, Kent Malmros. This episode features original music by Hayden Malmros. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review Founding Football. For more information or show notes, visit our website at foundingfootball.com. We'll be back next week with Chapter 7, Anson Dorrance.
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From the publisher
The CEO of Save the Children Jordan, Dana Erekat, gives her perspective on the situation in Za'atari camp and the impact of the Coaching for Life program on the refugee children living there.
If you want to give, please visit the Fundraiser Website ❤️
(We are giving away VIP tickets to Arsenal v Fulham in May!)
Every episode, at the end of the show, I say "we love you." Obviously we love you for supporting the pod, for becoming a community that brings so much joy and connection into our lives, and for the friendships that we've built together over the years. But in recent years, that expression of love has been the least I can offer to thank you for your remarkable generosity. The way you've supported the Arsenal Foundation's work through the Coaching for Life program has obviously surpassed any possible expectation we had when we first started supporting this cause. It is a true expression of love and selflessness, that has not only made a meaningful impact for thousands of children who would be so much worse off without what you've done, but it's also reverberated through the halls of Highbury House as well.
I realize we've asked so much of you in the past, but the need in the camp is greater than ever. You'll hear the reasons for that in this episode with the CEO of Save the Children Jordan, Dana Erekat. I want to thank Andrew who has already given generously. We will be adding our donation shortly. And I'm hoping that if you're in a position to give, you'll consider supporting the fundraiser again this year. We'll have more updates out in the coming days, some interviews with players as well, and some interviews with people behind the scenes at the club. As always, there are tickets to win, or to bid on at the auctions site. So whatever you feel is the best way to get involved, we are hugely appreciative for your efforts.
I've seen first-hand what this work does for children who have so little. It's something that should give us all immense pride in the club, and in one another.
So once again, with all my heart, I want to say that we love you!
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