Those Guys Have All the Fun - James Andrew Miller [239]
TONY HAWK:
Having my 900 [a 2.5 aerial revolution on a skateboard ramp] be a highlight on SportsCenter was the first time there was any sort of crossover between regular ESPN and ESPN2 for our sports, where there was any sort of recognition on that level. I had a lot of people around that time say, “Oh, I saw you on SportsCenter,” and that just didn’t happen back then.
The 900 had been this quest of mine for nearly ten years of my life. It wasn’t something that I thought would transcend skating itself or my career, it was just something I wanted to do. But to have done it in such a venue and in front of an audience like ESPN’s just changed everything for me.
ESPN and NASCAR grew up together and helped each other grow, so it was hard to imagine their sibling-like friendship ever coming to an end. But it came to one, all right, on December 15, 1999, when a coalition made up of Fox Sports, Fox’s ballsy FX network, NBC, and TNT agreed to pay $2.4 billion to NASCAR for a new six-year package, one that included the Winston/Nextel Cup Series and the Busch Series races. ESPN retained the rights only to the Craftsman Truck Series through 2002 under a separate pact.
When the announcement hit Bristol, one executive said the campus was “like a morgue.” Many felt spurned and bitter. ESPN had aired NASCAR when no one else wanted it; now that NASCAR had grown big and popular, ESPN was being ungratefully dumped. The truth was closer to the proverbial “offer they couldn’t refuse”: ESPN was simply outbid. In refusing to budge, ESPN avoided a deal that was certain to lose money on its own—but was also certain to earn big ratings.
In television, hits serve as tentpoles that raise up the programs around them. In losing the highly rated NASCAR races, ESPN also suffered ratings damage to programming that used to follow them—even the mighty SportsCenter. ESPN had nothing comparably popular to replace NASCAR, at least not at first, and the company became mired in an overall ratings downturn that would eventually force new president George Bodenheimer to shake things up.
PAUL BROOKS:
We asked all the potential TV partners for a presentation on how they would approach the future, not only economically, but also from a marketing point of view and what their coverage would be like, all directed to taking our sport to the next level. ESPN really didn’t process the request. Others had a bigger vision and bigger commitment to what the future could be. I think there was a lot happening in the overall ESPN/ABC world that directed focus away from this. I think the timing was difficult for them.
The day before the decision, George Bodenheimer called [NASCAR CEO] Bill France and asked if they could meet for lunch, one-on-one. Clearly, our antennas were up, and I ended up going to that lunch with Bill and George. We needed a lot if we were going to grow as a sport, and something seemed to be holding them back at the very end. It was a good lunch, but we could all tell it was not going to go the right way. It was a huge disappointment. ESPN had truly become a big part of our sport.
JERRY PUNCH, Racing Analyst:
There’s no way that I ever anticipated NASCAR would walk away from ESPN. Bill France had understood and appreciated what ESPN had done for his sport. It was a symbiotic relationship; we were holding hands and grew up together. When we started