Total Pro Sports
What’s been perceived as an ESPN mistake by a former reporter for the network is said to have cost The Worldwide Leader in Sports over a billion dollars and is continuing to keep money away from their coffers.
The network has allowed several big names to leave over the years, including Skip Bayless, Dan Le Batard, Colin Cowherd, and Dan Le Batard. They still appear to be doing well, having built around Stephen A. Smith while bringing in the likes of Pat McAfee, Nick Saban, Jason Kelce, and the Manning brothers, Peyton and Eli.
They also had Shannon Sharpe before legal issues ensnared him.
Still, according to Pablo Torre, one of the most popular sports podcasters at the moment, they let north of a billion dollars walk away.
“If you think about Zach and Bill Simmons and Ryen Russillo and Dan Le Batard and Colin Cowherd…and throw me in there somewhere in the rotation if you want, but just like down the list, right? So that’s Meadowlark (Le Batard’s company), The Ringer (Simmons’ company), that’s The Volume (Cowherd’s company), that’s some other stuff that’s emerging,” Torre said recently.
Torre surmised that the company cost itself the aforementioned sum while missing the future of podcasting, which they already had under their roof.
“If you were to collect all of those guys and just do the math on that. ESPN, legitimately, let over a billion dollars walk out the door,” he continued. “Now, they missed, I would argue, the future of sports podcasting that was already in-house.”
To be fair, media bigwigs have been throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at sports podcast networks like the ones some of the aforementioned personalities have created.
Sharpe was said to be due a $100 million payday before he was sued and will probably still get a lofty deal later on.
ESPN may not regret their moves, but it probably did leave them short.
Also Read: ESPN Makes Game-Changing Announcement For ‘Monday Night Football’ That Hasn’t Happened Since 2020
