ESPN Los Angeles - or - how ESPN fakes viewers into thinking they care about the West Coast

ESPN, like many other sports media institutions, has long been accused of having an East Coast bias.

That's certainly understandable. Naturally, as a network located in Bristol, CT, they are going to have better access and insight into the New Yorks, the Bostons, the Philadelphias simply based on geography alone. I don't care about how far technology has come, if you are closer to the action, you will be able to report on it better.

But a difference in geography, time zones, and market size led to ESPN neglect the West Coast.
-Geography: It's harder to care about something when it's 1,000 miles away.
-Time Zones: "We East Coast types have to stay up so late to catch the end of West Coast Games."
-Market Size: The biggest markets are in the East. Who really cares what San Jose did tonight?

And so, in a supposed attempt to make reporting on West Coast sports easier, ESPN created a studio in Los Angeles. The goal was to provide a West Coast presence on ESPN, so that coverage could be focused less on the Yankees and more on the Dodgers.

But in reality, ESPN Los Angeles is a big, fat waste of a studio, and an excuse for ESPN not to pay time-and-a-half.

In the broadcasting world, a network like ESPN must employ countless people to gather video, log it, edit it, and get it on the air. To do this, you need editors, scriptwriters, and anchors for Sportscenter.

The problem that arises is that many West Coast games end after midnight Eastern time, which means that ESPN is put between a rock and a hard place: either they pay employees overtime to stay at Bristol and cut, write, and read highlights of a Padres game, or ignore the games altogether and fear the stigma of having an east coast bias.

So ESPN chose the former. They built a studio in Los Angeles, flew Neil Everett and Stan Verrett out there, and promised viewers a more West-Coast oriented Sportscenter.

Of course, behind the scenes, the brass at ESPN was thinking "that ought to shut them up for a while."

Watching Sportscenter-LA, it is indistinguishable from its Bristol counterpart. There's nothing inherently West Coast about it. The set looks the same, the graphics are the same, and worst of all, the stories are the same.

On the June 8, 2009 edition of Sportscenter-LA, the A-block opened with highlights of the Yankees and Rays. After a discussion on the amount of home runs at the new Yankee stadium - gee, where have I heard that before - they moved on to their longest highlight of the night: Braves and Pirates, two East Coast teams under .500!

Their first highlight from anything on the West Coast didn't come until after the first commercial break.

What's the point?