Editor’s note: This story is revised from the print edition.
When it comes to multisport festivals, nothing can touch the Olympics as a commercial property and cultural phenomenon. But ESPN is convinced the Pan American Games can at least register on the American sports landscape with the right nurturing.
ESPN will put that theory to test in July, tripling its English-language coverage over the 2011 Pan Am Games to 60 hours, doubling programming hours on ESPN Deportes to 200 hours and promising prime-time coverage during all 17 days of the event, slated to begin July 10 in Toronto.
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ESPN will triple its coverage to 60 hours over what it showed from Guadalajara in 2011.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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Originated in 1951, the Pan Am Games are a quadrennial event featuring Summer Olympic sports for North and South American countries. This year’s competition includes competitors from 41 countries across 36 sports.
The Pan Am Games enjoyed prominent coverage on CBS and ABC at times during the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, but English-language broadcast rights in the U.S. went unsold in 2003 and 2007. ESPN Deportes general manager Lino Garcia blames the Games’ struggles in the U.S. on prior last-minute, one-off approaches to media rights sales, which prevented broadcasters from long-term promotion and planning. ESPN now has Spanish- and English-language rights for this year and the 2019 Pan Am Games in Lima, Peru.
“By giving it the platform that ESPN is going to give it this year, hopefully it will really bring it up to a point where it’s much more appreciated and embraced and can become bigger again,” Garcia said.
| Coverage |
Guadalajara 2011 |
Toronto 2015 |
| Dates |
Oct. 14-30 |
July 10-26 |
| On-site presence |
90 workers/1 set |
200 workers/3 sets |
| English |
20 hours on ESPN2 |
60 hours across ESPN/ESPN2 |
| Spanish |
100 hours on ESPN Deportes |
200 hours on ESPN Deportes |
| Opening ceremony |
ESPN Deportes only |
Live on ESPN and ESPN Deportes |
Source: ESPN
The timing of the Games made ESPN’s commitment easier. The 2011 Pan Am Games occurred in October, putting it in competition with the NFL, college football and the MLB playoffs. This year’s Games run July 10-26.
As an American commercial property, the Pan Am Games have never been especially successful. Most U.S. national governing bodies don’t use them as Olympic qualifiers, undermining their relevance, and the Games suffer from competitive imbalance, with the U.S., Cuba and Canada having won 60 percent of all medals historically.
In 2011, when the Pan Am Games were in Guadalajara, Mexico, ESPN Deportes averaged a 0.6 rating among Hispanic households in the U.S. and ESPN2 averaged a 0.1 rating across all households. But, ESPN notes, during the 2011 Games, ESPN Deportes beat all other Spanish-language cable channels, and both channels combined reached a total of 19 million viewers, an audience that was heavily female and bilingual, according to Nielsen research.
Mike Trager, a veteran sports television executive who is now a consultant, called ESPN’s programming plans “substantial.” But Canadian press reports of poor ticket sales — only 30 percent of 1.4 million tickets had been sold as of June 8 — illustrate the general lack of interest.
“I think because of the predominance of Latin American countries, they’re going to generate some interest from the Hispanic communities,” Trager said. “I don’t think they’ll be very successful on the ESPN family in English; that’s my gut reaction.”
ESPN will air the July 10 opening ceremony.
Ad sales are faring well on ESPN Deportes, Garcia said, and have covered ESPN’s production expenses, which are relatively low because the Games themselves handle most of those costs. Sprint and DirecTV are sponsoring “countdown” features on ESPN Deportes, and DirecTV, Home Depot and GM have all bought advertising.
ESPN is selling the Games to advertisers as a chance to hit a multicultural audience. With broadcasts in English and Spanish, they are reaching fans of nearly all the participating countries. Garcia also is banking on celebrity head coaches in the basketball tournament to possibly increase attention — Rick Pitino is coaching the Puerto Rican team and Steve Nash is coaching the Canadian team.
Ed Desser, president of Desser Sports Media, said ESPN likely sees the Pan Am Games as a relatively inexpensive way of putting live events on during a slow time of year.
“I watch ESPN 1 and 2 all day long, and generally speaking, during the week it’s mostly talking heads, so having live sports is definitely an upgrade,” Desser said.
