Olympic soccer in Canada

[MikeS]

From the Globe and Mail:

Soccer a low priority

The CBC is proud of its comprehensive Olympic coverage, but it is giving short shrift to soccer.

In the United States, early round telecasts of the men's and women's tournaments start today on MSNBC and Spanish language Telemundo. But, in Canada, fans will have to wait for the playoffs in two weeks to receive any coverage.

Soccer is taking a back seat, because of the absence of Canada's men's team and the shocking failure of the women to qualify. It makes more sense for TSN, which is the CBC's cable partner and is focusing on team sports, to air softball and baseball, sports in which Canada is competing.

Depending on the scope of its broadcast license, the digital channel CBC Country Canada could have been used to show soccer. The CBC is planning to use Country Canada to air same-day telecasts of Olympic equestrian events.

Fans are out of luck if they are hoping to watch soccer on MSNBC. All Olympic content on U.S. cable channels will be blacked out in Canada.

Still, Rick Chisholm, the head of programming and production for TSN, said the network has the flexibility to increase its soccer coverage if a strong story develops. TSN will be using BBC announcers when it airs live coverage of the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final for the men and the women.

[tihio10]

It's a shame that they will show only the quarters and semis and finals in Canada. I understand that Canada isn't competing in both Men's and Women's soccer (I am still shocked how they didn't qualify after how they played in the World Cup) but there is still much interest of soccer with or without Canada. Take for example EURO 2004: TSN had higher ratings of EURO compared to four years ago when they broadcasted it. Everyone was cheering for their "ethnic background" to win the tournament. I wouldn't mind watching a soccer match at like seven in the morning or 2 in the morning, because then at least I could tape it. I really hope they dont' show repeats of events, especially if no Canadians were involved, cause they could use that time to show soccer. I really hope TSN extends their coverage of soccer, cause I think we'd all appreciate that.

In other good news, Canada has just been elected to host the 20 and under World Cup. This will definetely be a great boost for Canadian soccer :)