Chicago is set to be the first city with its own ESPN website.

ESPNChicago.com will be launched in April and is the pilot for more ESPN expansion. The website plans on highlighting all of Chicago sports, covering everything from high school to professional athletics.

For the past decade, ESPN has received a large response from its Chicago-based radio station, ESPN 1000. Hundreds of thousands of people visit the radio’s website daily, said ESPN’s vice president of digital media, Marc Horine.

ESPN hopes the millions of Chicago-based fans who visit the national website will start to browse around the Chicago website as it gets going. Horine said the website will take shape based on the demands of the visitors.

“The goal is to super-serve the Chicago sports fans,” Horine said. “After it takes off, we will look and see where we need to expand.”

Chicago has several professional, collegiate, semi-professional and prep sports teams, and all the levels hope to see more attention from ESPN Chicago.

The Chicago Bears will be getting more attention from the website, but the team’s spokesperson, Michael Corbl, said the website may not be as big of a deal to the Bears as other sports teams.

“We can’t really tell until everything is launched and we see how everything is run,” Corbl said. “It won’t really affect us, but any additional coverage by major outlets is always positive.”

Corbl said he believes Chicago was a good choice for this new website because of its sizeable fan base.

“[Chicago] is one of the biggest [sports] markets in the United States,” Corbl said. “Our fans are interested in [Chicago] teams, so it is a good fit.”

Horine agrees with Corbl when it comes to the “fit” of Chicago.

“It is just the right city for us to build and grow this product,” Horine said. “It just made a lot of sense.”

DePaul University is home to several NCAA sports and is part of the Big East conference. The Big East is regularly broadcasted on ESPN television stations and the Blue Demons are hoping the new website will bring more attention to their teams, said spokesperson Greg Greenwell.

“The fact that the website has ESPN’s name on it already gives it more muscle,” Greenwell said.

Greenwell also said he thinks Chicago is an easy pick for the new website due to the large number of sports teams and fans in the city.

“I think Chicago is one of the biggest sports cities in the country, if not the world,” Greenwell said. “The fans are passionate. There is a lot of interest, there is a lot of support and there is a lot of discussion of Chicago sports.”

The Schaumburg Flyers is a Chicagoland minor league baseball team. It may be receiving attention from the new website, but it is uncertain because there are no lines drawn yet for specific coverage. If the Flyers are covered on ESPNChicago.com, Schaumburg Flyers General Manager Ben Burke said he welcomes any exposure from ESPN, but is hesitant to think that they will get much attention.

“If we can get it, it would be great,” Burke said. “I don’t think it will be a lay-up getting a relationship with ESPNChicago.”

However, Burke said if the team gets the coverage, he can’t see anything bad about it.

“The alternative is when [ESPNChicago.com] didn’t exist at all so anything is positive,” Burke said. “I don’t think there is any possible way this could not be good for us.”

To utilize their resources, ESPN has joined with various Chicago sports writers and personalities to launch and run their website, Horine said.

“We’re gonna have Chicago voices writing exclusive content for this site,” Horine said. “We are going to have a daily Sports Center that is accustomed to Chicago sports.”

ESPN has yet to make any local affiliations, but Horine said they will look towards them in the future.

“It really is a work in progress,” Horine said. “We want to build the project first before we build any partnerships.”