OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – The Amateur Softball Association (ASA) has announced the ratings for the KFC Bound 4 Beijing Tour which aired on ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU and combined for 59 different airings with over 120 hours of softball programming across all three networks.

Throughout the 60 games, beginning in Tucson, Ariz., and wrapping up in Irvine, the team has played in front of over 200,00 people in 45 cities. In front of amazing crowds and supportive fans, the team kicked off competition Feb. 19 and experienced a diverse amount of USA hospitality. The team surpassed many records during this tour including setting a Tour record attendance of 8,724 in Bowie, Md. It was the largest crowd in pre-Olympic Tour and was just shy of the all-time attendance record; at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games as 8,750 people were in attendance at the gold medal game as the U.S. defeated China 3-1 for their first Olympic Gold.

The ratings for the eight original games that aired on ESPN averaged a 0.55 national rating while the 11 original airings on ESPN2 averaged a 0.28. In total, over 10 million households tuned to watch the KFC Bound 4 Beijing US Tour featuring the USA Softball Women’s National Team on their way to the 2008 Olympic Beijing Olympic Games.

In addition, ESPN International picked up several broadcasts airing them in Canada, Africa and Asia furthering softballs global presence in the international sports landscape.

Now with travel to China about a week out, the team looks back on the past six months with fond memories but are now ready to go over to China and defend their three-gold Medals.

“ESPN’s coverage and support of USA Softball has been a major factor to our success during this Tour,” said Jessica Mendoza (Camarillo, Calif.). “I don’t even know how many times we have been stopped when we were eating, at the mall or even in our autograph lines and people say ‘We’ve been watching you on T.V’. It’s great to see that the whole nation can watch us and not just those that are able to attend the games. Everything about the Tour has been great and we owe a big thanks to our partnership with the ESPN family.

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