Sports on Earth creators speak!

http://www.shermanreport.com/sports-earth-notes/

I disagree that "We only do SPORTS!!!!" is a selling point.

 

It is for me. One of the reasons I don't frequent Grantland is that it is filled with way too much of that pop culture crapola that I could not care less about. I haven't checked out SOE yet, but knowing this, there's a good chance I will start. As this clip put it, I would much rather read about the game than the experience of getting there. And it doesn't hurt that Pos>>>>>>>>>>>Simmons (big fan of Kindred, too).

 

The only column I read with any regularity at SOE is Leitch, because he's not just "Sports! And nothing else!" It reminds me of the Sporting News' arrogance with their "Football! Baseball! Basketball! Hockey! NASCAR!!!!! and nothing else!!!!!!!!" crap.

With the lack of space limitations, it's OK, even preferable, to seek to be many things to many people.

 

Why is that arrogance? Perhaps it is knowing and/or defining their audience.

I think the pop culture stuff is crap and I'd rather go to a site that is about what I want to ready about, not all things to all people. To each his/her own.

Perhaps I am in the vast minority and SOE will fail. Maybe you're right in that its sports-only focus will not be a selling point to enough people to make it work. All I know is that it is indeed a selling point to me.

 

The idea that Grantland is about "the experience of going to a game" is silly. Every week, Grantland sends Weinreb or Pierce somewhere and has them write about "games" at a level I've yet to see from 90 percent of SOE. That might have been true the week Grantland debuted, but it's hardly true now.

 

This reminds me of the joint venture from CNN and Sports Illustrated. It was going to challenge ESPN... but don't worry... It wouldn't get into the business of televising games... just the sports-news, ma'am, nothing else.

I still have my t-shirt that says, "I helped launch CNN/SI, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt."

Is it a good idea to start a venture by painting a box around it?

 

I still have a t-shirt that has "CNN/SI" with a line through it, and on the back has a covered wagon and says "Still on the General's Bandwagon." The shirts were sold ($10 a pop!) at a rally in front of Assembly Hall.

The nod, of course, was to the most noteworthy thing CNN/SI did during its brief flash across the sky:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia_central/news/2000/03/15/knight_mmc/

After that, the e-mail addresses of producer Robert Abbott and others were all over the message boards. All I remember thinking was "Well, at least they waited until I was ready to graduate." But never thought he'd actually get fired.

CNN/SI helped make that happen. That's pretty noteworthy. But it did little else.

Agree that it is foolish to start a venture by loudly proclaiming the restrictions of it. It's why SOE will never be Grantland.

Aside from the "Old Newspaper Guy!" feel among much of the writing staff.