ESPN's "Home for Handball"
For several year’s NPR’s Stefan Fatsis has proudly worn the mantle as Team Handball’s #1 mainstream media proponent and fan. But coming on strong and aided by the nationwide blowtorch that is ESPN Radio is Scott Van Pelt, who’s show airs from 1:00 – 4:00 PM, Eastern Time. Van Pelt and his crew talk about the sport daily and he’s now even sporting USA Team Handball gear. A shout even to Ulrik Wilbek. Who’d a thunk it.
But with such a mantle also comes great responsibility. All one has to do is look at early morning offering on any of the ESPN family of networks and quickly conclude that if ESPN wants to be the “Home of Handball” there’s plenty of room to start broadcasting. Or at the very least get some broadcasts on ESPN3 or ESPN Live or whatever ESPN is now calling their webstreaming channel. Hey, it’s been done before as the 2009 World Championship final was broadcast online at ESPN360. I was also told a couple of years ago that ESPN was sitting on the rights for the Liga Asobal, the Spanish Professional League. Finally, the EHF Champions League is there for the taking if ESPN wants it.
So Scott Van Pelt: Are you up to the challenge? Are you going to continue to talk Handball after Sunday? Are you going to shepherd the broadcasting of the sport at ESPN? Or are we going to spend another 4 years waiting until Rio?
Scott Van Pelt Show Website: http://espn.go.com/espnradio/show?showId=scottvanpelt2009
Link to show podcasts: http://sports.espn.go.com/espnradio/podcast/archive?id=3028618
Scott Van Pelt Twitter: https://twitter.com/SVPshow (Note the current moniker)