ASA and ESPN Announce Partnership
2004
USA Softball Aiming for Athens Tour Games to be aired on ESPN
and ESPN2 leading up to Athens Olympic Games
Oklahoma City, OKThe Amateur Softball Association of America,
the National Governing Body of Softball in the United States, announced
today a media/marketing partnership with ESPN that will feature
the USA Softball Women’s National Team on the Road to Athens
in the Summer of 2004. Starting on Sunday, July 4, ESPN/espn2 has
agreed to showcase Team USA for five consecutive Sunday afternoons
at a destination time slot of 1:00 PM EST each weekend.
“
We are very excited to build on our current relationship with ESPN,” said
Kelly McKeown, Director of Marketing for USA Softball. “What
started out as a media sponsorship of our Top 25 Collegiate Softball
Poll has evolved into a multi-media marketing partnership that
truly benefits the entire sport. Everyone within the ASA family
should feel proud that the world wide leader in sports has decided
to feature our Women’s National Team on the Road to an Olympic
three-peat.”
“
Historically, softball has provided solid ratings for our network
and we couldn’t be more pleased than to feature the USA Softball
Women’s National Team as they prepare for the Olympics,” said
Carol Stiff, ESPN’s Programming Director.
Not only will the games be featured in over 86 million homes across
the U.S., but ESPN International has pledged to support the initiative
on a global basis.
“
In a time where each and every Olympic sport is under review by
the International Olympic Committee, our partnership with ESPN
will hopefully answer any critics that might question our sports
television appeal,” said ASA Executive Director Ron Radigonda. “Softball
is a game on the rise and we hope this distribution agreement will
allow all of our current and future fans to get up close and personal
with our team and all of our sports’ superstars.”
USA Softball’s Aiming for Athens Tour will feature the Women’s
National Team against some of the top collegiate teams in the United
States, foes from the across border, teams representing the National
Pro Fastpitch League and some of the strongest youth teams in America.
The tour will encompass games in over 25 different markets that
will touch an estimated 100,000 people across the United States.
For more information on the Aiming for Athens Tour, log on to www.usasoftball.com.
About ASA
The Amateur Softball Association, founded in 1933, is the National
Governing Body of Softball in the United States and a member of
the United States Olympic Committee. The ASA has become one of
the nation's largest sports organizations and now sanctions competition
in every state through a network of 91 local associations. The
ASA has grown from a few hundred teams in the early days to over
240,000 teams today, representing a membership of more than three
million. For more information on the ASA, visit www.asasoftball.com.
About USA Softball
USA Softball is the brand created, operated and owned by the ASA
that links the USA Men’s, Women’s, Junior Boys’ and
Junior Girls’ National Team programs together. USA Softball
is responsible for training, equipping and promoting these four
National Teams to compete in international and domestic competitions.
The USA Softball Women’s National Team is one of the only
two women’s sports involved in the Olympic movement to capture
back-to-back gold medals at the Olympic Games since 1996. The U.S.
women have also won seven World Championship titles including the
last five consecutive. For more information about USA Softball,
please visit www.usasoftball.com.
Brian McCall
Director of Communications
ASA/USA Softball
405-425-3463
bmccall@softball.org
www.asasoftball.com or www.usasoftball.com
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