Four years ago, the U.S. Women’s National Team snapped a 16-year drought to regain the title of World Cup Champions and FOX Sports aired a record-setting 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup from Canada, establishing a new standard for World Cup coverage. With just 100 days to go until the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France, it’s time for FOX Sports to take that experience and raise the bar even higher, according to David Neal, Executive Producer of FIFA World Cup on FOX and Vice President of Production for FOX Sports.
“It’s interesting now that the standard we are attempting to raise is our own,” David said. “All of us, whether it’s production, talent, operations, engineering, everybody – our collective goal is to raise that standard again.”
Once the 2019 Women’s World Cup kicks off on June 7, FOX will offer more than 800 hours of coverage across linear and digital platforms from France spanning all 52 games live, all 24 teams and nine cities. FOX Sports will also boast an unrivaled, iconic location with a stunning vista of the Eiffel Tower for its studio coverage. But there’s still plenty of work to be done before viewers get to enjoy all of this.
I recently spoke with David about what the 100-day countdown actually means for his production team, the biggest difference between producing a World Cup in Canada versus one in France, and why the U.S. Women’s National Team reminds him of a historic NBA team.
It’s been a little over four months since our last chat. In addition to the U.S. Women’s National Team qualifying with a strong showing at Concacaf, what has changed since then with regard to how the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019 is shaping up?
We are delighted to have the U.S. in the Women’s World Cup as defending champions and the No. 1 ranked team in the world. Beyond that, the U.S. got a favorable draw in December. In their group is Sweden, which is a very tough opponent that has a long history of very competitive matches with the U.S.; Chile, which is making its first appearance in the Women’s World Cup, one with a very strong goalkeeper in particular; and Thailand. So it’s not a group that should pose many problems, though you can never assume anything. Having said that, if the U.S. wins the group, they would potentially be on target to face the host nation, France, in the knockout round, which would be a major event.
A “100-day countdown” to the Women’s World Cup is a catchy way to remind people about the big event, but what does it mean, tangibly, to the FOX Sports production team working hard to get ready?
It increases the sense of urgency for our group. It means we’ve already passed the deadline for shipping large bulk items to France on a container ship that we send in. It means that we are getting very close to our production and talent seminar in April. It means we are getting very close to beginning construction on our part of the IBC (International Broadcast Centre), which happens in early to mid-May. And obviously it means we are getting very close to the event itself. So for us, “100 days” is more than just a nice round number; as we really start moving from the planning stage to the operational stage, it increases everybody’s awareness that this event is coming very quickly.
Besides the time zone differences, what else changes when you go from preparing for a Women’s World Cup in Canada versus one in France?
It requires more resources to do a broadcast in France than it was to do it in Canada; that’s just a simple fact. Everything from travel to hotels to basic services in France are more expensive than in Canada. So this is the business part of showbusiness that we have to pay attention to.
You announced the lead announcing team this morning: Aly Wagner and JP Dellacamera.
JP is a broadcasting legend and he’s become the definitive play-by-play voice of women’s soccer in the U.S. He’s done multiple Women’s World Cup finals, and this will be another to add to a long and distinguished list of achievements. Aly is really the breakout star from our class of 2015. That World Cup was her very first time on a big stage as a broadcaster, and since then she’s been on an absolute rocket ship. The thing we were most proud of her for is that she did a fabulous job as one of our lead color commentators for the 2018 Men’s World Cup – she was the first woman in U.S. history to do color commentary on a Men’s World Cup. So her work ethic, her passion for the game, the fact that no one does more homework than Aly – that’s what led her to be so remarkably successful at the men’s World Cup last summer in Russia, and it made naming her as the lead color commentator for the Women’s World Cup one of the easiest decisions I’ll make as we head toward event. She has absolutely earned it and is an outstanding leader in her field.
The expanded partnership between FOX Sports and Twitter for the 2019 Women’s World Cup was recently announced. What made the previous partnership with Twitter so successful?
The way digital in general and the Twitter component in particular took off in 2018 in Russia is really something we all point to with great pride. It was an incredibly successful platform for us, and one of the reasons I think it works so well for both sides is that for us on the linear side and for the FOX Sports digital group, and obviously Twitter as their leading partner, was that everything was in sync. We were companion programs to each other. It wasn’t as if two different sets of content were being done in individual silos. Any consumer who watched the television side, watched the digital side or, as many people did, watched both – they were getting a consistent style of coverage, a consistent analysis.
Stepping back a bit, what strikes you most about the way women’s soccer has matured in the U.S. since the 2015 World Cup?
One of the highlights of my career was producing the NBA on NBC in 1998, the final year of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, his sixth and final NBA championship. And I have to tell you that being around the U.S. Women’s National Team now, the attention they garner, the buzz they generate – these players are rock stars. The closest thing I can think of that I’ve experienced in my career is being around Jordan and the ’98 Bulls. It’s really that special to see the way that fans and the media react to this U.S. Women’s National Team. It’s a phenomenon.
What are you personally most looking forward to at this year’s Women’s World Cup?
I’m looking forward to a feature that was shot by Jennifer Pransky, our multitalented and award-winning senior profile unit producer. She went to Normandy, France in early February with three veterans of D-Day who came ashore that day at Normandy Beach. She went there with about a dozen members of the U.S. Women’s National Team and heard the story of what that day was like through the eyes of these 90-plus-year-old veterans, heroes of the U.S. invasion. I can’t even begin to do justice to the emotion that will come across in the feature, the faces of the players who had tears streaming down their cheeks as they listened to these men describe what that day was like. It is a feature we will air in multiple parts. It will make every American proud, and all of us at FOX Sports will be exceedingly proud to bring this story to our viewers during the World Cup.
