Field of Dreammakers

As pervasive as sports media have become for sports fans, some pundits have wondered whether the prospect of stadiums as glorified studios might soon become reality. Why go, they say, when 60-inch, high-definition sets will soon render the live experience inferior?

"That won't happen," says John Walsh, ESPN executive editor. "There is still nothing like the experience of being at a game."

Cultural observers say a bigger threat may be video games. Many fans, not to mention a healthy percentage of the athletes, spend hours a day playing virtual versions of the real thing. The games are never interrupted by commercials. Most alluring, every game starts and stops whenever the Xbox or PlayStation proprietor takes matters in hand.

For those who might grow impatient during the real-life version of the current World Series as the batter steps out of the box to adjust his helmet for the ninth time, it's worth heeding sports-TV consultant Neal Pilson. "This stuff isn't going away," he says. "It's just getting started."

For those who enjoy countdowns, lists, special issues, and other signs of sports commemoration, the next 12 months will be a joy. Sports Illustrated and ESPN, the pillars of sports iconography, are themselves icons, celebrating their 50th and 25th anniversaries, respectively.

ESPN, with an empire that now encompasses four networks, a popular website, radio networks, theme restaurants, and a magazine, will use all of the above to celebrate the era of SportsCenter broadcasting that it created.

"Were going to use it as a chance to really look at what's happened during the past 25 years, which has essentially been a boom time in sports," says John Dahl, executive producer of the 32-hour programming block planned for the anniversary. Show topics will include the best and worst teams, best players, biggest stories, and the effect of ESPN's constant coverage on fan, player, and coach behavior, good and bad.

At Sports Illustrated, the bash has already begun. This summer, the venerable sports weekly launched a one-year countdown to its 50th birthday, culminating next August. A state-by-state caravan, commemorative books, and several special issues are planned.

Robert Thompson, a professor of popular culture at Syracuse University, N.Y., says both ESPN and SI have become cultural institutions."

Sports Illustrated became the handbook of this sports world as it grew into a national phenomenon during the 1950s and beyond," he says. "With ESPN, its influence is very strong. SportsCenter and the culture of highlights, of seeing all the teams all the time, really start there."

Despite the successful launch of ESPN The Magazine, Sports Illustrated still dominates the category with circulation of 3.27 million and annual ad revenue of $644 million.

The ESPN25 programming begins next Memorial Day weekend and runs through Sept. 7, 2004.

That is the day when a small cable station called the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network launched from a Bristol, Conn., studio. Today, many in the industry refer to ESPN, whose various networks reach a combined 260 million households, as, simply, "Bristol."

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