You're absolutely spot on...though it pains me to say so.
I think the reason that people feel the need to bitch and moan year after year (myself included) is because it's soooo close to satiating that craving for a "big deal" showcase for the sports we all love, yet we're ultimately just left feeling dirty after watching. Kind of like a high dollar prostitute.
What's so frustrating about the whole affair is that ESPN wastes countless hours devoting coverage to all sorts of niche, fringe sports (billiards, darts, bowling....I mean, c'mon), that it seems perfectly reasonable to expect to see a few days of legitimate action sports coverage.
I understand that ultimately Middle-America and the largely uninitiated general viewership has to be attracted and catered to, thus the MEGA MO, and the abundance of moto events, but god damn....there has to be some sort of middle ground, no?
If nothing else, why not offer EXTENSIVE on-line coverage of the events that ESPN deems less viewer friendly? I would absolutely love to see an hour of skateboard street coverage; including practice and qualifiers. On-line would also be the perfect venue to showcase inline and/or other sports that have been cut like surfing and wakeboarding...think about it:
For essentially negligible cost (same features, no additional course building—for rolling anyways), they could invite a dozen rollers to jam the street course, and broadcast it on-line. Why not? There could be regular commercial breaks, or they could make you sit a long-style ad before it started; we're talking about increasing ad revenue...why the flip not? grrr. Also, there's definitely a sizable audience interested in summer watersports...why shun those people for another fucking moto event? I just don't get it.
