Dallas sports media's boots quake as ESPN enters fray, hires half of News staff

Yesterday, the World Wide Leader unveiled it's latest enterprise, http://www.espndallas.com/.

From what I've noticed, they introduced the Chicago, New York and Boston sites weeks ago and Dallas was part of phase II to showcase a pared down and personal approach to sports reporting.
There is nothing special about this site. For its main headlines, it's just stories that have some remote connection to Dallas or the area in general (Omar Vizquel bullfighting, Rangers losing, Cowboys winning, Mike Leach vs. social networking).

Furthermore, there's team/sport-centric blogs, video, ads and promos for ESPN Radio. Nothing you wouldn't find at the News site and nothing just out-of-this-world awesome.

In terms of who's doing all the writing, it's familiar faces.

ESPN vets Matt Mosley (former Newser) and Marc Stein are listed as staffers, however, I don't know if both will continue their regular duties as NFC East beat man and NBA guru, respectively.

Other familiar faces: Dallas Morning News ex-pats Calvin Watkins (Cowboys), Dick Durrett (colleges, Rangers, Stars) and Tim McMahon (Cowboys) are in the mix.

Now we know why Evan Grant was hired back at the News.

I think this is OK. I haven't seen it advertised around town much, but maybe I'm out of the loop. The writers are good. I generally like them. Nothing too bad to say. I wonder, though, if it really matters. You hired those guys for their familiarity and that's about it. No one who reads the Morning News everyday online is following Durrett over, except his mom.

And I understand ESPN's logic, but I find it funny that there's a confluence of media outlets (News, Star-Telegram, Observer plus blogs/sites) for an area that cares tons more about its high school teams than its professional hockey, basketball and baseball teams.

Yes, Dallas-Fort Worth is a gigantic market, but it's not a sports city. I wonder if there's enough interest for all these entities to share the ad revenue.