The Athletic Continues To Be The Greatest Con Job In The History Of Sports Media

The Athletic Continues To Be The Greatest Con Job In The History Of Sports Media

What if I told you that there was this sports media company that lost approximately $50 million three years in a row but prided themselves on being better than everyone to the point where they had a paywall blocking off readership unless you paid for the subscription?

No really… that place exists. It’s called The Athletic and it’s still the greatest con job in the history of sports media.

Darren Rovell put out an interesting but not terribly shocking Tweet today. It would appear the only thing The Athletic is good at is losing money.

Operating Losses for @TheAthletic

•2019: $54 million
•2020: $41 million
•2021: $55 million

(Source: New York Times)

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) May 5, 2022

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. The Athletic is a complete and utter joke. It’s some rich asshole that got enough people to invest in his shitty product. Then when the shitty product failed, he took the cash and ran. Kudos to the guy for getting the New York Times to buy his awful product. I just can’t believe for the life of me that anybody fell for this.

Dave Portnoy put his thoughts out there today and it was hard to disagree with him:

I know I’m not, but sometimes I feel like I’m the only person that sold a profitable company. So many founders raise a ton of money, lose a ton of money and get wild valuations based on nothing. I’d never trust a founder that didn’t risk his own money and can’t turn a profit https://t.co/DQ6kjlqrXl

— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) May 5, 2022

In my opinion which I said at the time it never made an ounce of sense. It just felt like a way for early investors to make money and get out. https://t.co/pJZSwmLkej

— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) May 5, 2022

The Athletic is a business model built on bullshit.

“We’re going to put the newspaper business out of business”!

“We’re broke and hope the newspaper business bails us out”!

The real problem is our society. If you bought that subscription, you’re an asshole. If you agreed to work for that place, you’re an asshole. They don’t have reputable writers. They have a collection of weak individuals that were desperate and couldn’t turn down a faulty check even though they knew they were talking into the Titanic.

Who The Hell Is Dumb Enough To Pay For The Athletic?

I can promise this much. There will NEVER be a paywall at this company to view a written article. That’s a promise and there isn’t a dollar amount that can change my mind.