I don't think this is new for ESPN. I don't think they announced it but a month or two ago during one of the earlier rounds of the Champions League, Tommy Smyth was one of the commentators on a game in Europe one afternoon and was in Bristol for First Take the next morning. It's totally possible that he flew back but it seems pretty unlikely that they'd cart him back to Bristol for a studio appearance when they frequently have guests by remote or phone.

Yeah they do this for the CL as well. The only game they did from the stadium was the final. It's kind of lame, as you would think that the one network with a monopoly on sports coverage could afford to send some people to Switzerland.

I don't think this is that bad. They have done this for all of the non-North American Formula One races ever since the races were on ESPN2 back in the day.

AA, there has been waaaaaay too much soccer here the past few weeks and not nearly enough cup stacking.

This was a terrible decision made by CBS during the Final Four and I do think it takes away from the feel of the broadcast.

The whole sending announcers to Europe I can sort of understand, but not when the event is in your own country.

...yet they are spending money to travel to find out where "titletown usa" is. I hate ESPN sometimes

I find it highly ironic that the MSM derides bloggers for sitting at home and commenting on sports without actually attending the events, but then the largest sports media monopoly on the planet does virtually the same thing with a huge worldwide event.

I have an idea - why not let AA, Will and some other big time bloggers cover the Euro Cup, too?!

I will gladly take veteran European announcers in a studio over novice American announcers doing the game live in Austria and Switzerland.

They already call all their European Soccer content, ie the Champions League, from Bristol. I love how Tommy Smythe is always making shit up he clearly can't see any better than us because he's watching the same replays.

ESPN sent a crew to Moscow for the Champions League final on May 21. But, yes, otherwise they worked out of Bristol.

I'm guessing hotel and expenses was the biggest concern. This is a 22-day tournament, from June 7 to June 29. That's a lot of hotels, train trips and per diems.

That said, I'm looking forward to Andy Gray on ESPN. You might recognize the wacky Scotsman from EA Sports' FIFA video game series.

Since they only have two announcing teams, it would be almost impossible to send them to every game and do it live. Both teams would be dead tired from the amount of travel involved.

Also, ESPN already poined up and sent JP Delacamera and John Harks over to London and to Barcelona to do the USA-England and USA-Spain games right from the stadiums.

As for calling the games in front of a monitor, all of them including Andy Grey have done it before and they do a pretty decent job of it. It should be a fun tournament to watch esp with Grey. He is fantastic on the English games he covers.

Didn't ESPN broadcast an earlier world cup(2002 or 2006) from Bristol?

ESPN Deportes teams:

PXP-ANL
#1 Fernando Palomo - Mario Kempes
#2 Ciro Procuna - Rafael Puente

Studio
Eduardo Biscayart
Richard Mendez
Jose Ramon Fernandez

Also from a TV.

On 2006 ESPN sent three announcing teams and last year sent JP and Foudy to China.

Several teams worked from a studio during the 2006 World Cup, including Adrian Healey and Tommy Smyth.

Not a big deal, you won't be able to tell they aren't there. Sky Sports even does it for EPL games, the commentators are in London for a game in Newcastle. FSC and GolTV both do it for Serie A, La Liga, and Bundesliga games.

I do agree it appears to be common practice, but I think if you're going to televise the thing you should go actually be there covering it, regardless of the sport. Sure, it doesn't affect the commentary...but just the fact we know the people reporting the action aren't actually there...just leaves me with a bad vibe about it. I know Formula 1 coverage has been like that for quite awhile and it sounds from the other comments here soccer fans are quite used to this.

Getting Andy Gray is a phenomenal coup for ESPN, he is pretty much the best colour guy in the UK. Wonder how he'll enjoy spending a month in Bristol...

First of all... ESPN only sent like five people from Connecticut. The rest of the staff were from the networks in Argentina and Mexico. Hey Moscow is the most expensive city in the world. Plus they spend a good deal of their budget paying Clarence Seedorf to guest on both networks.

JP Dellacamera was told he had to do Euro and MLS simultaneously... he passed.

Hey as far as the announcers... Tommy with a Y is just pure schtick. Really listen to what he says.

All I could say is that at least we have these guys instead of Dave O'Brien again. He along wit some of the other US announcers might not be able to point out any of the countries on a map.

By the way the ESPN Deportes guys are going to be part of them in Europe, others in Bristol, and the rest in Mexico City.

Getting Andy Gray is a phenomenal coup for ESPN, he is pretty much the best colour guy in the UK. Wonder how he'll enjoy spending a month in Bristol...

Better, I'd bet, than being stuck at home for a month with a contract to a network that can't do much in-depth coverage.

Anon's right: the amount of travel involved across two countries for this schedule really means it's a choice between a BBC-style investment or doing it from Bristol.

(Is this being shown in Canada or Australia? If so, are those countries taking the international English-language commentary feed?)

If I'm not mistaken, I believe Martin Tyler is working the tournament for an Aussie network.

they usually send the 1st team announcers (rae and smyth) to the semis and final. I believe this is what they did for the 08 CL. Rae and Smyth are far more interesting and entertaining than any US announcers and lend an international flavor to the broadcasts.

It's really funny that you're talking about an "impossible amount of travel". Geography, anyone? Austria and Switzerland are not exactly the largest countries on earth.

The furthest distance between two venues (Geneva and Vienna) is 500 miles. Which makes it a 90 minute flight. Infrastructure is excellent. Wouldn't be much of a problem to send the commentators to every single match if only ESPN was willing to do it.

And besides, only Basel (Switzerland) and Vienna (Austria) are used for all of the k.o. matches. So at least they could have sent one announcing team to each country.

By the way: Is it correct that tonight's quarterfinal between Holland and Russia will be the first Euro match ever to be shown live on US network TV? I'm curious what the ratings will be like...

i know there are thousands hate Tommy Smith. There are many many blogs and facebook myspace group against him. He takes ESPN quality. He doesnt even know anything about soccer. I cam do better comment than him with my broken English. Please get him off the air.