And, oddly, do it for an international event offering no games in U.S. primetime and little chance that U.S. athletes will be anything but obscure also-rans.

ESPN will give soccer's month-long World Cup, kicking off June 11 in South Africa, more than 85 hours of programming beyond games — more than triple what it aired for its the 2006 Cup in Germany — and deploy some 300 on-site staffers, doubling its 2006 total. While announcers called about 20 games off TV monitors in ESPN's Connecticut studio in 2006, announcers will be at all the games — barring logistical hiccups — in South Africa. And, using the event's 3D world TV feed, the Cup will be the launch pad for ESPN's new 3D channel.

The obvious question: Why bother?

Jed Drake, the ESPN senior vice president overseeing coverage, notes ESPN's "long-term commitment" to soccer given it carries MLS games and will air the 2014 Cup. He cites the old argument about soccer's inevitability: "It's inevitable that when soccer is so dominant everywhere else in the world, there will be greater interest in the U.S."

If not boffo TV box office. In 2006, ESPN Cup games averaged only 1.9% of U.S. cable TV households and 1% on ESPN2 while marquee games on ABC managed 3.1% of all U.S. households.

The 2010 Cup, like the 2006 Cup, is in a time zone six hours ahead of the U.S. East Coast — meaning games are in U.S. daytime, not primetime. (Said Drake, on whether ESPN might take a cue from Olympic TV and hold games on tape until primetime: "Other networks may do that, not here." And like Olympic TV, ESPN will focus on the host country. And perhaps do so with an edge, given that ESPN's E:60 Tuesday airs an on-site report on the outbreak of so-called "corrective rape" of lesbian women in South Africa.)

But unlike the Olympics, there's no way to fill air time with U.S. success. The U.S. team is guaranteed three first-round games in the 64-game event. It's fourth game could be its finale since, if all goes according to form, it would face powerful Germany.

But ESPN won't present the Cup as an American show anyway. After using mostly U.S. game announcers for the 2006 Cup, it will rely mostly on foreign voices next month. "We shifted our thinking to go after the best announcers we could find," Drake says. "We'll be very happy with what flows out of their mouths naturally. But they realize it's a different audience."

It's an audience that will get the biggest sales pitch for soccer ever on U.S. TV.