ARTICLES - ESPN Bets on New York Dominoes

The next big thing in sports programming is dominoes?

ESPN has scouted dominoes at the Altamira Club in the Bronx.

To the occasional domino player, it is a stretch to even call this quiet game of straight-faced strategy a sport. But anyone who has spent time in a Latino neighborhood in New York City could testify that dominoes played there — with the slammed-down tiles, the verbal sparring, the bragging and bluffing — is no parlor game.

From the opening bid, a simple sidewalk match will quickly escalate into a raucous, freewheeling spectacle: a mini-fiesta where salsa and cigars, Bacardi and brown-bagged beers have as much a role as the little colored tiles with dots.

The dominoes games almost always draw spectators, so perhaps it is no surprise that the ESPN sports network has declared dominoes games the next big spectator sport and is promoting it as both a colorful cultural touchstone and a highly competitive game, complete with rankings, formal tournaments, celebrity events and sponsors.

Encouraged by the success of televised poker, the network has begun combing New York City for top players and colorful clubs for its coverage, and has been taping segments on formal tournaments and casual neighborhood games.

Hourlong domino shows now run on Tuesday nights at 10 on the network's Spanish-language sports channel ESPN Deportes. Hoping it will be popular with English-speaking viewers, network officials plan to show similar programming on ESPN2 starting in June.

"We think it will be the next cool thing," said Lino Garcia, the general manager of ESPN Deportes. "We're connecting with the best places dominoes is played, so naturally we're going to start in uptown Manhattan and the Bronx, the places where it really happens."

From John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times
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