Joe Lieberman: “Despite ESPN's national prominence and its countless opportunities to relocate to a larger media market, the network has…”

“Despite ESPN's national prominence and its countless opportunities to relocate to a larger media market, the network has steadfastly stayed with bucolic Bristol, as it is endearingly referred to on the air. ESPN maintains its foothold in the same industrial park where it began 20 years ago, although the Bristol campus, as it is now called, spans today 43 acres and the network has 210 employees. We in Connecticut are very proud of this relationship and particularly of ESPN's leaders and broadcasters who have happily put down roots and raised their families in central Connecticut. I think John Leone, former mayor of Bristol, now head of the Bristol Chamber of Commerce, may have summed up the relationship between the city and its network best when he said: In New York, ESPN would be just another network. Here in Bristol, ESPN is the king. So to the king of Bristol--and their royalty of American sports television--I say happy 20th, ESPN, and many more.”