| Arena Football League on ESPN | |
|---|---|
| Presented by | (seebelow) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Production | |
| Running time | 3 hours |
| Original release | |
| Network | ESPN (1987–2002, 2007–2008, 2014–2019) ESPN2 (1995–1999, 2007–2008, 2014–2019) ESPNEWS (2014–2019) ESPN3 (2014–2019) ABC (1998–2002, 2007–2008) ESPN Deportes (2016–2019) |
| Release | 1987 (1987) – 2019 (2019) |
Arena Football League on ESPN was a presentation of theArena Football League with games airing onESPN,ESPN2,ESPNEWS,ESPN3 andESPN Deportes. As with all other sports broadcasting on the ESPN family of networks, allarena football games had aired on TheWatchESPN App. It was previously aired from 1987 until 2002 and then again from 2007 until 2008. When the league folded in 2019, the contract was over.
ESPN was the original broadcaster for Arena Football games, showing games live in the league's first two seasons,1987 and1988. ESPN signed a six-year contract with the AFL in 1987, but was given the option to opt out of the contract if they were not getting the rating they wanted.[1]
Partially because of turmoil within the league itself, ESPN did not broadcast Arena Football again until1992, when they broadcast six games and the ArenaBowl on an overnight,tape delay basis. Starting in1993, ESPN started showing games live or at least not during overnight hours.
WhenESPN2 was formed, the telecasts began to air more frequently on the new network. ESPN2 began televising a more standard schedule ofArena Football League regular season and playoff games from1995–1999.
ESPN subsequently began televising AFL playoff games from2000-02.
It originally had aired the inauguralArenaBowl live in1987, whileABC (under theWide World of Sports umbrella) aired the ArenaBowl five consecutive years from1998–02.
On December 19, 2006,ESPN and theArena Football League agreed to a five-year agreement that includes extensive multimedia rights and a minimum of 26 televised games per season, beginning in 2007 and lasting until 2011. As part of the deal, ESPN purchased a minority stake, reportedly ten percent, in the AFL. The network will gain privileged financial information, but insists that it will not give the AFL more favorable coverage on shows likeSportsCenter as a result.[2]ESPN televised a minimum of 17 regular-season games and nine playoff games—including a minimum of three Wild Card games, three Divisional Playoff games, both Conference Championships and theArenaBowl on ESPN,ESPN2 andABC. ESPN had an exclusive window for weekly Monday night prime time games on ESPN2. Both the season opener and ArenaBowl were on ABC, where three wild card games, two divisional games and one conference championship were on ESPN and the seventeen regular season Monday night games, one wild card game, two divisional games and one conference championship game was all on ESPN2.
[1]*Schedule change
SomeAFL fans complained that the TV schedule “inequitably favored teams” such as thePhiladelphia Soul,Chicago Rush, andColorado Crush, teams whose ownerships include, respectively,Jon Bon Jovi,Mike Ditka andJohn Elway. 14 of the 17 ESPN games had at least Chicago, Philadelphia or Colorado playing. The Soul (whose part-owner and team president is formerAFL on ESPN analyst Ron Jaworski) have appeared in seven of the 17 regular season games onESPN platforms, more than any other team in the league.[3] This criticism was also present whenNBC went out of their way to not let some teams appear on their schedule. In 2008, the Chicago Rush have nine regular season games on ESPN and ABC, while the 2007 Arena Bowl ChampionSan Jose SaberCats have just one, week one against the Chicago Rush, and theNew York Dragons had 1, a 10:30 game versus theColorado Crush. Other criticism includes the scheduling of games on various days and times, as opposed to a weekly AFL gameday.[citation needed]
ESPN returned to the AFL (in 2014) as broadcast partners, with weekly games shown onESPN,ESPN2,ESPNEWS, and all other games available live and free onESPN3.[4]ESPN Deportes andESPN Latin America had broadcast AFL games in Spanish from2016 to2019, when the league folded.[citation needed]
Former broadcasters of the AFL onESPN andABC includedMike Gleason,Gary Danielson,Brent Musburger,Merril Hoge, andHolly Rowe.
Early on,ESPN said they would use "some prominent faces in the broadcast booth" and ended up going with the duo ofMike Greenberg andMike Golic fromESPN Radio andESPN2'sMike and Mike in the Morning for their number one team. The second team will consist ofNFL Live'sTrey Wingo andMark Schlereth with the third beingRon Jaworski andMerril Hoge. In May 2007,Mark Jones replaced Jaworski, who focuses on his newMonday Night Football role. Jay Rothman, producer ofMonday Night Football, and Bryan Ryder will also produce the Monday night Arena Football games on ESPN2. The announcements were made on January 16, 2007.[5][6]
| Team | Play-by-play | Analyst(s) | Field reporter | Producer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mike Greenberg | Mike Golic | Jay Rothman Bryan Ryder | |
| 2 | Trey Wingo | Mark Schlereth | ||
| 3 | Mark Jones | Merril Hoge | ||
| 4 | Dave Pasch | Ray Bentley |
The other play-by-play announcer used on playoff games isBob Wischusen.
Pasch, Wischusen, and Bentley returned to their respective roles whileMarcellus Wiley andShaun King joined as color commentators. The tandems of Greenberg-Golic and Wingo-Schlereth would not reprise their roles as play-by-play men in 2008.
The replays of classic Arena Football games that had aired onESPN Classic in 2007 would also be dropped in 2008.[7]