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There has been a lot of online speculation about what would be the next site to launch as part of the new ESPNLocal.com initiative. There has been debate as to whether a site for Miami or New York would launch next. We jokingly said Tulsa would be next in a recent sports media best practices story. Well it looks like it really will be ESPNNewYork.com, based on a line contained in a recent ESPN press release about their digital media properties.

The launch of four local sites in Chicago, Boston, Dallas and Los Angeles were among the highlights of 2009.  ESPNChicago.com -- ESPN’s first local site, launched in April, followed by ESPNBoston.com and ESPNDallas.com in September and ESPNLosAngeles.com in December.  ESPNNewYork.com is slated to launch in spring 2010.

This differs somewhat from their original plans announced in July 2009, which did not even have ESPNBoston.com in their roadmap, and said that ESPNLosAngeles.com would not launch until 2010 (LA got out the door in December 2009). But they did say ESPNNewYork.com would launch in the first half of 2010, so it is unclear why there has been debate and speculation.

So enough speculation, let's just go with what the worldwide leader is saying about their plans. Sorry about that Tulsa.

One last question, why could they not have made it easier for people and made the Los Angeles site ESPNLA.com?  Oh wait, that domain is being cybersquatted by a company by the name of Hong Kong Domains LLC.