Fox is making a big deal out of next month’s FIFA Women’s World Cup Draw. Promoting it as “the first time since 1999 that the Official Draw of FIFA Women’s World Cup™ is being televised in English in the United States,” Fox is pulling out all the stops for the draw which will take place at the hallowed Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa.
When the draw airs on Fox Sports 1 on Saturday, December 6 at noon, ET, the network will have an all-star cast analyzing the draw of the 24 countries including host country Canada, 2nd place finisher United States and defending champion Japan.
Rob Stone will be the studio host live from Los Angeles. Fox taps former CNN reporter and Sky Sports anchor Kate Abdo who will helm FS1’s coverage from Ottawa. Former USWNT defender Heather Mitts, former German soccer star Ariane Hingst, fall-time leading goal scorer for England, Kelly Smith as well as former USWNT coach Tony DiCicco will join the Fox Sports 1 set to discuss where the teams will play and which group will become the so-called “Group of Death.” Also joining the discussion will be Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl who will be stationed in Canada.
Abdo, Hingst and Smith will make their Fox Sports debuts during the draw.
This will be one of the tests where soccer fans will be watching to see how Fox approaches the World Cup. Along with the FIFA World Cup CONCACAF qualifying tournament which Fox Sports 1 aired earlier in the fall, this will be seen as one of the early tests in how the network handles this event. With ESPN out of the World Cup picture until at least 2022, soccer fans want to see if Fox can treat the sport with some respect. We won’t go over how Fox has done in the past, that has been analyzed to death, but it’s how they do going forward during the World Cup contract that will build on the network’s legacy with the beautiful game.
Fox did handle the CONCACAF tournament well without dumbing down the sport. Now it will be the draw that comes next and after that, the World Cup itself in 2015.
The network seems to have assembled a decent cast for the draw next month. Coming soon, we’ll find out who Fox will hire to call the Women’s World Cup next year.
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About Ken Fang
Ken has been covering the sports media in earnest at his own site, Fang's Bites since May 2007 and at Awful Announcing since March 2013.
He provides a unique perspective having been an award-winning radio news reporter in Providence and having worked in local television.
Fang celebrates the four Boston Red Sox World Championships in the 21st Century, but continues to be a long-suffering Cleveland Browns fan.