ESPN Is Begging The NFL & Other Professional Sports Leagues To Buy A Stake In The Company
ESPN is a sinking ship and at this point, bankruptcy feels inevitable. This next story will blow your mind and by the end of it, hopefully, it conveys the message that they’re totally screwed. By now you know about the ESPN layoffs. Apparently, things are so bad at ESPN that they are begging the NFL and other professional sports leagues to buy a stake in the company.
“As Disney considers a strategic partner for ESPN, Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger and ESPN head Jimmy Pitaro have held early talks about bringing professional sports leagues on as minority investors, including the National Football League, National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball, according to people familiar with the matter.”
“ESPN has held preliminary discussions with the NFL, NBA and MLB about a variety of new partnerships and investment structures, the people said. In a statement, an NBA spokesperson said, “We have a longstanding relationship with Disney and look forward to continuing the discussions around the future of our partnership.”
This is absolutely nuts. How are journalists supposed to be objective about covering a sport when the sport owns the journalists? If this move were to happen, it would completely tear down any journalistic integrity that ESPN has left.
Also, why would the NFL, NBA, or any other league go for this? If ESPN is dying, let them die. It makes far more sense for the NFL to pour resources into NFL Network. Ditto for MLB and MLB Network. If ESPN tanks and can’t afford TV rights anymore, why bail them out? So you’re going to buy a stake in a failing company to then turn around and pay yourself for those same broadcast rights? It just doesn’t add up.
If the NFL and other professional sports leagues are smart, they let ESPN rot and move their broadcasting rights elsewhere. I’m sure Amazon would love a bigger stake. What about FanDuel or DraftKings?
The only takeaway here is that ESPN is in far more trouble than anyone realizes.
