ESPN Tour May Swing Into D.C. After All

'SportsCenter' Snub Prompted Outcry From Mayor, Others

When programming executives at ESPN came up with the idea to send their main news show on a 50-state tour, they failed to include the one place in the country that is home to the White House, the U.S. Capitol and almost 600,000 residents.

The cable sports network paid for its omission.

The D.C. mayor issued a press release complaining of a monumental dis. A local radio political commentator threatened to call for a boycott of the network. And, yesterday, the Rev. Jesse Jackson jumped into the fray and called an ESPN executive to proclaim the District as worthy of a traveling television show.

By late afternoon, network officials were reconsidering the itinerary, not because of Jackson's phone call, they said, but because of the statement issued last week by Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D).

"We have been actively looking at ways to include Washington, D.C., and we're in discussions with the mayor to secure a prominent location," said Diane Lamb, an ESPN spokeswoman. In a conversation a few minutes earlier, she had said the network stood by its itinerary.

The show, "SportsCenter," began its 50-state, 50-day odyssey July 17 at Boston's Fenway Park, where the Red Sox played the New York Yankees. Last night, the show used a skydiving contest in Lost Prairie, Mont., as its backdrop.

Producers had planned to highlight the District during stopovers in Virginia and Maryland, an approach that echoed a plan last year by Sports Illustrated to exclude the District from a 50-state sporting tribute. Sports Illustrated ultimately changed its mind.

Then Williams, Jackson and WTOP political commentator Mark Plotkin began piping up.

In a letter to the network and in a statement last week, Williams demanded that ESPN reverse its decision, invited "SportsCenter" host Chris Berman on a tour of the city and declared that it was senseless for the show to "invest 70,000 miles on a show about America and sports and yet entirely skip the nation's capital."

Vince Morris, a spokesman for the mayor, said yesterday that ESPN's failure to include the District was insulting to a city already "omitted from many things, including, most importantly, the right to vote in Congress."

"These little snubs add up," he said.

Referring to the network's consideration of an itinerary change, Morris said, "It's a great way to promote the city as a destination."