Sarah Spain is leading a pioneering project at iHeartMedia to launch a daily women’s sports podcast later this month and anchor women’s sports updates across their radio network. But it’s not the first time Spain has pitched expansive women’s sports coverage to a major network.
In a recent interview on the Sports Media with Richard Deitsch podcast , Spain detailed how ESPN rejected her multiple times on pitches for women’s sports shows. Spain even said she recruited sponsors aboard for the projects, yet ESPN still said no.
Now, with her podcast Good Game debuting July 17, the former NWSL team owner and longtime sports radio personality is getting a chance to do at iHeartMedia what ESPN refused to give her resources to do during her many years at the worldwide leader across print, radio and television.
“Between the (NWSL’s Chicago) Red Stars and my many pitches of a women’s sports show to ESPN that did not go answered, there is still this feeling sometimes of, ‘Man, I wish I had a billion dollars,'” Spain explained. “When you get to the top of most places, it is still a middle-aged white dude. And they have to buy in, and they have to do the work, and they have to read the data, and they have to update themselves on the analytics. They have to recognize that they are being told, ‘You are years behind a massive economic opportunity,’ and still not think of it as a charity. That’s what’s been really frustrating for me.”
Spain told Deitsch she had one major sponsor “willing to give ESPN a bunch of money” to sponsor a women’s sports show, plus three others interested. The network still rejected her pitch.
“ESPN does more than anybody else, both in terms of hours of women’s sports programming, rights packages, coverage, etc., and also they could do more. They could do differently. And I think to me, that’s the biggest missed opportunity,” Spain said. “What you need is an actual show where the people hosting it are tasked with watching it and know the landscape.”
Spain believes Around the Horn does a good job incorporating women’s sports stories and reporters who cover these sports more consistently, but “play the hits” morning shows like First Take should not be expected to cover women’s sports effectively.
“It’s just not possible. You can’t watch every game,” Spain said. “So when we go to the same places for what we expect to be excellent commentary on everything it serves, sometimes they’re going to be bulls***ting a little, or have watched a couple little highlights and not enough. And that’s so much of what we’ve seen in the problems regarding the WNBA coverage early on this year, is a bunch of people parachuting in with zero context and zero knowledge and loudly, wrongly saying things that are actually super damaging.”
Earlier this year, Stephen A. Smith was challenged by multiple personalities on First Take over the show’s lack of WNBA coverage. Pat McAfee apologized after a strange rant ended in him calling WNBA sensation Caitlin Clark a “white b****.”
Still, Spain remains optimistic that while the growing pains have been ugly at times, Clark’s career breaking through as national sports news has created a crack in the usual mix of sports programming that will help women’s sports long-term.
“What’s great about Caitlin (Clark), what’s great about the WNBA right now is it’s not just good for that league,” Spain said. “It’s going to shake up a little bit of that old, rote, let’s go down the line, ‘MLB, NBA, NHL and NFL,’ OK, those are all the stories.”
Many have clamored for ESPN to create a regular women’s sports show as leagues like the WNBA and NWSL have grown. While the network has not yet done so, Spain and iHeartMedia could finally become the first of many to embrace that ever-increasing audience and sponsor base.
[ Sports Media with Richard Deitsch ]
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