National Spotlight, Locally Less So

With the weekly MLS Primetime Thursday match bumped to ESPN, the stage was set for another classic KC-Columbus thriller last night.  The two teams didn’t disappoint, scoring 5 goals in a 16 minute span and 6 goals total, though the local media coverage of the 3-3 draw did leave me more than a little disappointed.

The Kansas City Star story, written by the Columbus Dispatch’s Shawn Mitchell, once again gets buried (page D7), but why?  The Royals didn’t play Thursday, yet still got the top story.  The Chiefs and a local swimmer got stories on the side and the centerpiece package goes to a NASCAR feature on Kyle Busch.  So despite being the only local team to play — and at a deadline-friendly 7 pm kickoff time — in a game that turns out to be of presumable interest to even the casual sports fan, the most space it merited was the inside of the back page???

By contrast, let’s take a look at what could have been.  Exhibit A: The Columbus Dispatch.

Front and center on the sports page.  Two full color pictures.  Two stories, a game recap and a column, both that jump to page 2 where readers get a third picture from the match.  But not to stop there, the paper also includes a great picture and brief on Abby Wambach’s injury in the US Women’s National Team game Wednesday, as well as a story on the selection of the Crew’s Robbie Rogers to the US Men’s Olympic Team.  

Exhibit B: The Columbus Crew Advertising Department.  Major kudos are in order.  Perhaps Friday’s edition was a fluke, but two terrific quarter-page, full color ads appear.  The first for the Crew’s U18 Academy team who will play in the US Soccer Development Academy Finals tonight on ESPNU.  The second for the Crew’s friendly against England’s West Ham on Sunday.  I certainly don’t recall the Wizards doing any such publicizing of the Wizards U19 Region II Championship victory or the club’s recent exhibition against Atlas, either.