It’s been a long weekend, filled with watching various televised sports events, including the NBA and NHL Playoffs, the NFL Draft (which had to be on how many networks at the same time?), and a bit of the English Premier League, just to see Liverpool win a title.

And that led us to turn our attention today to some observations about the coverage of sports on the local TV level.

And why, you might wonder? Is sports on local television even relevant anymore? Let’s define the question a little more.

Because “sports on local television” is an increasingly hot topic in the television business these days. After nearly every professional sports team decamped decades ago from being carried on local broadcast channels–lured by big money deals from regional cable networks, some pro leagues are rediscovering local over-the-air signals to carry some games. They are finding broadcast partners willing to roll out the red carpet, matching up stations to serve team’s geographic markets, and in turn put their product before significantly larger potential audiences.

There are multiple factors for bringing professional sports games back to local TV stations. But our focus here is a different exploration of sports on local television. We’d like to offer some thoughts about how sports is being covered in local television newscasts (or isn’t being covered—as the case may be.)

Over the years, we have heard more than one local station owner, manager or consultant question the need for any sports coverage in local news, let alone having a few people dedicated to staffing a sports department. We know of a few stations in the top 50 markets who have gutted their sports departments, and at least one who currently has no full-time on-air sports talent on their staff.

Sports has been a part of the local tv news format since it was invented shortly after the birth of the medium. Some will point to everything changing with the rise of 24-hour sports networks, led by the birth of ESPN over 45 years ago in nascent years of cable networks. Then there was the rise of regional sports networks dedicated to covering teams closer to home. The internet arrived in the 90’s and then the ability to stream games, first on audio and then on video, which chnaged everthing yet again. 

Today there is no need to wait for scores in the late news, and now, not even for highlights. Plus there is no shortage of online places to discuss, dissect, and discard your favorite team’s latest performance, every hour of every day.

So let’s ask the question bluntly: Is sports coverage in local television newscasts even needed any more?

We’ll not make you wait for overtime for our answer. We say absolutely, just as long as some thought and focus goes into what that coverage is–and making sure it doesn’t feel like it’s the same kind of coverage that might have been on local television news fifty or more years ago.

First and foremost, local sports coverage should have a local focus. Sure, a major league sports team should be part of the menu if it’s in your market. But more prominently featured should be collegiate, high school and yes, even those “lifestyle” sports that regular people participate in.

It’s estimated that over 20 million people now play pickleball. (Don’t ask us, we don’t quite get it either.) But it is important to a growing audience. When was the last time you saw highlights of a local pickleball tournament in a local TV sportscast? Compare that to the last time you saw highlights of a baseball game, on any professional level from the Major Leagues down to the local single-A level. We’ll bet that the frequency is a bit different.

Speaking of betting, that opens a whole different can of worms. Wagering on sports is now legal in 39 states, plus the District of Columbia. Local television stations have gladly accepted ad dollars from the online sports books as they have arrived in each market. But you don’t see much about odds or parlay picks in local TV sportscasts either. Which is probably a good thing for many reasons. And after saturating the market as legal sports books launched in each state, there amount of ad dollars spent on sports gambling has diminished by half since 2021.)

All that said, we were heartened recently when Tegna’s KARE11 in Minneapolis/St. Paul took the time to point out that one of their photojournalists had recognized a newly minted sports superstar, some dozen years ago. KARE’s Gary Knox saw a 6th grade girl playing basketball in a local gym back in 2013 and tweeted for people to remember her name, because of how she impressed him with her hoops play.

The name of the 6th grader in a St. Louis Park, MN gym, was Paige Bueckers. In case you haven’t heard, Paige just wrapped up her college career leading the University of Connecticut’s women’s team to a national title and becoming the number one pick in the 2025 WNBA draft. She has been followed in local TV sportscasts in the Twin Cities, where high school basketball competes with high school hockey for daily sports headlines during the school year. Even the state tournaments, in both sports for both boy’s and girl’s teams, are televised each February and March. 

And in a place known as “The State of Hockey” that is no small comparison.

Our point here is that sports is news. It makes news every day, even for those who would be the very last to consider themselves sports “fans.” It is still the topic of endless conversations and interest (along with the wagering of no small amount of money) by a significant portion of your audience. Does that audience need to see three and a half minutes of pro sports highlights and headlines each weeknight in your newscasts? Probably not. But unique takes on those headlines, especially if there is local color to add, along with unique coverage of the local sports that many follow, is definitely still worthy of a place in local TV newscasts.

Particularly if it is creative, and dare we say…fun, on occasion?

And no, we don’t define fun as trying to out-cliche the national sports personalities that can be seen and heard on all the sports outlets available on every platform. Anyone trying to be the next Chris Berman, Doris Burke, Pat McAfee or Stephen A. Smith needs to stop and take a hard look in the mirror. Those men–and increasingly women as well, finally–are great at what they do, but they have put in the work over many years to build their careers. The audience doesn’t need or want endless copies of their style or catchphrases.

We believe that having fun in sports coverage in 2025 is recognizing that the words spoken by anchor Jim McKay in the iconic opening years ago in ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” still resonate: “Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sports… the thrill of victory… and the agony of defeat… the human drama of athletic competition.”

Perhaps focusing on covering sports in an area slightly smaller than the globe would be the one change to make those words to become a mantra for every local station’s sports department. “Wide World of Sports” was successful for so many years because it focused on telling stories more than final scores. Under the legendary Roone Arledge, it invented the genre of “up close and personal” sports journalism that nearly every sports broadcast that followed has deployed. That’s what sports segments in local TV newscasts need more of.

Because you never know when the 6th grader you are covering today will be the next superstar in her (or his) favorite sport. And they will be making headlines not just in the sports segment, but in the top of the newscast as well.