In my opinion, no one incorporates and involves fans opinions and views more than ESPN. They do so much to involve the fans in everything that they do, online and on television, that it is no wonder why they are the largest and most popular sports media outlet in the nation.Everyone of their articles online has a comments page or a forum in which fans can respond to and some of the posts is more entertaining than what the article talks about. For example, it was funny to me to read the many things football fans has to say in regards to the Brett Favre issue. There were some who hated the idea of Bret Favre wanted to come back, some wanted Favre to come back to their team, and others wanted Farve to return to the Green Bay Packers.
Aside from providing the opportunity for fans to respond to ESPN articles, the network also gives fans a chance to have their voices heard on television, or at least their questions read. For example, on one of the network's shows called College Football Live, they give a college football fan the opportunity to send in a video of themselves talking about how much they love their team. They select the best and most enthusiastic one and airs it on their upcoming show.
To take it a step further, online they have a place where fans can customize their own ESPN.com home page which will be tailored to the things that the person likes or wants to see and read. You can also create your own profile which will allow you to join conversations, send writers comments, plus a number of other things that you can get involved it.
Even though all of this is probably more than any other sports network will allow fans to do this is still not all ESPN provides. Recently they created a tournament in which allowed fans to submit videos of their town and reasons as to why it should given the title of "Titletown USA." In order to be "Titletown USA" your town will have to symbolize what it means to be called this by showing how many championships your town has won, how enthusiastic your sports fans are, and how strong of a winning tradition you have. The contest was then narrowed down to 20 finalists and they were to be voted upon by other sports fans. The town with the most votes won the title and surprizingly it wasn't a big city that won. It was a small city in Georgia who didn't even have a professional team but won over 100 high school championships.
Being that ESPN is the number 1 sports network in the nation it is safe to assume that one of the major reason why this is so is because of the opportunity that this network gives to fans to participate in anything ESPN does. Whether its television or online ESPN makes sure that they make fans feel important. And thats the way it should be.
