The move from Soccernet wasn’t a difficult call. You needed a CSI techie to find MLS articles these days over at Soccernet now, not just my own, but those written by esteemed former ESPN colleague Jeff Carlisle. Ives Galarcep moved over to FoxSoccer.com earlier this year. New management is in charge at Soccernet, and I don’t get the feeling that MLS is not a big part of the plan going forward.
So here's a little rundown of the most important moves so far:
Ives Galarcep from ESPN to Fox
Steve Davis from ESPN to Sports Illustrated
Greg Lalas from Goal.com to MLSsoccer
Jonah Freedman from Sports Illustrated to MLSsoccer
Jen Chang from ESPN to ?
Max Bretos (ok, I know he's not a writer, but) from Fox to ESPN
Greg Seltzer from Soccer 365 & No Short Corners to MLS
Shawn Francis from The Offside Rules to MLS Insider
????
As Davis confirms, ESPN is all but abandoning its effort to provide MLS news on the web. With all due respect to Davis and Jeff Carlisle who are both excellent writers, ESPN's web coverage wasn't all that consistent to begin with. So this is probably a good move for ESPN, and will hopefully make other outlets stronger. Sports Illustrated, having been raided by MLS, is restocking.
At the risk of sounding like Ives, if I've left any moves out let me know in the comments and I'll update the post.
[Updated with Seltzer and Francis.-fs]
-FS
9 comments:
FS: Steve Davis is clearly a man of integrity. But I do wonder when I read a (good and fair) piece about MLS labour talks by Davis on Sports Illustrated, but it goes unmentioned there (though he discusses it on his blog and isn't hiding it) that he's also a freelancer for MLSSoccer.com.
As long as Davis' work on MLS outside of MLSSoccer.com remains fair and objective, should we not worry about what some might see as a conflict of interest? I'd be curious to know your thoughts on this.
(I'm not picking on Davis as he's not the only one doing this and he hasn't shown any bias towards MLS in any pieces I've read; I only mention him as he's the subject of this piece.)
Too many Davis' running around. I have half a mind to change my name to Davidson or something.
As for Chang, I don't think I've seen it confirmed, but the guess is he's going to take Freedman's old job at SI.
By the way, Greg Seltzer mentioned that he'll be writing for MLSSoccer.com as well.
Tom,
There's no question that Davis is one of the more pro-MLS writers out there. Along with yours truly, he's in the camp that is generally unamused by the prospects of a strike that shows little possibility of helping much of anything other than the pocketbooks of the veteran players, at potentially great cost to MLS.
But then you have a guy like Ives, who's also written plenty for MLSnet, and he's penning posts on his blog about how reasonable the player demands are. And guys like Goff and Duane Rollins who appear to be playing to the players who are their sources.
My one quibble with Davis's SI debut is that he seems to undermine the support for the players among the fans. I see a lot of old school guys in the camp of the owners, but there's plenty of others who think MLS is a disgrace and needs to change.
So, all that being said, there's a conflict of interest for all of us. It's implied from the moment we start typing. Best case scenario is a really good, informed outside writer who doesn't cover the league beat, but I'm not sure we've seen any of those.
As for the rest of us, I'm not personally concerned until a writer becomes an obvious shill, a la Kartik, or starts writing like total crap without reason.
However, I can see how it would be wise for Davis to disclose his MLS contacts on the page. I do my best to point out my own predilections when I need to.
-FS
Jason,
Thanks, I knew I forgot someone!
Re: Chang, all do respect, but he's got big shoes to fill if that's where he's going.
-FS
That's "due" respect, wtf is wrong with me. Fail.
-FS
The lack of MLS coverage on Soccernet these days is probably because ESPN is in the process of hiring a new MLS editor. Hopefully, once that person is in place, we'll see more MLS stuff out there, and possibly some new writers in place.
Anon,
If so, one can only speculate as to why Davis would say it doesn't appear ESPN has much interest in MLS going forward.
-FS
I'm getting tired of the same people moving around. MLSSoccer seems to want to go the cool guy hipster route like it's ten years ago. If the Chang to SI thing is true, they've basically just brought over Soccernet. How about some new voices.
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