diff --git a/recipes/espn.recipe b/recipes/espn.recipe
index 34c772f767..03c95d0001 100644
--- a/recipes/espn.recipe
+++ b/recipes/espn.recipe
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ class ESPN(BasicNewsRecipe):
 
     use_embedded_content = False
     remove_javascript     = True
-    needs_subscription = True
+    needs_subscription = 'optional'
     encoding= 'ISO-8859-1'
 
     remove_tags_before = dict(name='font', attrs={'class':'date'})
@@ -75,32 +75,30 @@ class ESPN(BasicNewsRecipe):
 
         return soup
 
-
-
     def get_browser(self):
         br = BasicNewsRecipe.get_browser()
-        br.set_handle_refresh(False)
-        url = ('https://r.espn.go.com/members/v3_1/login')
-        raw = br.open(url).read()
-        raw = re.sub(r'(?s)<form>.*?id="regsigninbtn".*?</form>', '', raw)
-        with TemporaryFile(suffix='.htm') as fname:
-            with open(fname, 'wb') as f:
-                f.write(raw)
-            br.open_local_file(fname)
+        if self.username and self.password:
+            br.set_handle_refresh(False)
+            url = ('https://r.espn.go.com/members/v3_1/login')
+            raw = br.open(url).read()
+            raw = re.sub(r'(?s)<form>.*?id="regsigninbtn".*?</form>', '', raw)
+            with TemporaryFile(suffix='.htm') as fname:
+                with open(fname, 'wb') as f:
+                    f.write(raw)
+                br.open_local_file(fname)
 
-        br.form = br.forms().next()
-        br.form.find_control(name='username', type='text').value = self.username
-        br.form['password'] = self.password
-        br.submit().read()
-        br.open('http://espn.go.com').read()
-        br.set_handle_refresh(True)
+            br.form = br.forms().next()
+            br.form.find_control(name='username', type='text').value = self.username
+            br.form['password'] = self.password
+            br.submit().read()
+            br.open('http://espn.go.com').read()
+            br.set_handle_refresh(True)
         return br
 
     def get_article_url(self, article):
         return article.get('guid',  None)
 
     def print_version(self, url):
-
         if 'eticket' in url:
             return url.partition('&')[0].replace('story?', 'print?')
         match = re.search(r'story\?(id=\d+)', url)