ESPN.com is expecting a baby brother.

Arriving in April will be ESPNChicago.com, ESPN’s first venture into a locals devoted Web site. The site will cater to Chicago sports fans, and provide a “24/7 Chicago sports news operation.”

Currently, MillerCoors is the first advertiser on the site, and ESPN said that if this venture is successful, expect to see ESPN[yourcity].com in the future.

Certainly there is a market in several cities for more in-depth local coverage.

According to the Chicago-Tribune, local talent, as well as ESPN’s own Midwest-based talent will fill the site with content.

And like the cable channel, ESPN Chicago will feature its own “SportsCenter”-style newscast with a three- to five-minute highlight reel of the day’s top stories. It will have original content and include breaking news, provided by Chicago’s WLS-Ch. 7. The ABC affiliate and ESPN are both owned by The Walt Disney Co.

ESPN columnist Gene Wojciechowski, a former Chicago Tribune sportswriter, will write for the site. Other ESPN contributors will write for the Chicago site, as will ESPN 1000 radio personalities Tom Waddle and Bruce Levine.

If this model works, expect this trend to grow very, very quickly. As print media continues to save ground and money, there is a void being left around the nation for local, in-depth sports coverage. As beat writers get laid off, digital media is picking up the pieces. The ability of a site like espnchicago.com to share resources with four or five or more media outlets gives them the ability to provide all of the coverage that a local print paper might have provided in years past.

If you are successful in delivering the information, people will come back, and online, it’s easier to allow users to preview your model and decide what they want.

While ESPN has branded itself the “Worldwide Leader,” they don’t have much experience in the local game. Nearly all of their coverage is on a national level, barring a few specific events. Day-to-day coverage of one town that has two baseball teams, a hockey, football and basketball team, as well as several D-I colleges in the area is a great test to see if they can do this.

Normally I am looking to reel in the power that ESPN yields over consumers, but I truly believe that this is a great step towards them providing the coverage that fans want.

As long as this stays local and doesn’t branch into a giant cross-promotion with all of their national outlets, I see this as a good thing.

A further review will be given when the site launches in April.

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