'Second City' to none
Because I'm sure the Chicagoland fans were looking for one hub to host all of their local teams, ESPN introduced ESPNChicago.com. Yeah, that's not a joke. ESPN eliminated any hurdle a Cubs, White Sox, Bulls, Blackhawks or Fire fan might have in accessing scores, news and any other information they apparently would otherwise have trouble tracking down. (That last one is the soccer team. I had to look it up.)
Scoop Jackson, who will be a regular contributor, has his initial column posted on the site titled, "Why Chi?". As in, why ESPN picked Chicago to be the inaugural city to get its own, localized site. Jackson lists number of Chicago's sports accomplishments both past and present as his defense. My initial reaction to the question would be, "Well, ESPN is tired of hearing that they have an East Coast bias."
The better question is - why this? Do we really need an entire ESPN site dedicated to Chicago-based content, most of it unoriginal - being shoveled over from the website mothership?
To me this seems like a reach - a much more elaborate version of lame Sportscenter features like "Mount of Rushmore of Sports" and "Who's Now". It's completely unnecessary.
I'm more afraid that if it's received positively from the general public, it just opens Pandora's box to other sub-sites like ESPNNewYork.com, ESPNBoston.com and ESPNCalgary.com. (Maybe the last is a stretch, but you get the idea).
I thought, like Sports Illustrated's website, si.com, ESPN.com was fully customizable to showcase every individual's favorite teams.
In the final line of Jackson's defense of the Chicago pick, Scoop writes "Because we got Mike Ditka, fool."
Yup, this sounds like a good idea.
