The person on this list that shocked me was Trent Dilfer. Thought he was a very good analyst.
I mean, sorry that people lost their jobs, never wish for that, but all the people on the network that matter to me are still around (except Jane McManus), so…
Roger Cossack
Jay Crawford
Jayson Stark
Ed Werder
Those are the biggest ones for me. I actually couldn’t stand Stark but he was a staple.
Werder being dumped the day better the draft is particularly rough.
All in all, I think it’s long past time for ESPN to get put on the blender.
Couldn’t they have traded him to NFL Network or something; maybe get a mid-level draft pick and free up some cap space?
He was the best analyst on NFL countdown. The ones who are left needed to be fired
Tim Hasselbeck
Charles Woodson
Randy moss
It had really started to annoy me the last few years how every show seemed to consist of a panel of 4-5 people plus 12 “experts” who come in for a question or two. I guess i am too damn old and comfortable with the old school information presentation version of two or three or so presenters, a big research team off screen, and actual subject matter experts where appropriate. But I don’t need opinion on every damn issue from 4 washed-up sort-of-was athletes, that is one of the reasons I ignore most sport radio. Hopefully they did good analysis first and pared it down to the useful,intersting people and it will be better.
Interesting, I like Stark better than Olney or Kurkjian. Not that those guys are bad, by the way. All three are very good baseball reporters, but Stark always felt a little less like a “reporter” if that makes sense. Always liked his trivia questions.
They must have gotten my tweet.
[QUOTE=Twitter]
Who’s the hipster douchebag on @espn baseball coverage tonight?
8:42 PM - 10 Apr 2017 from Pennsylvania, USA
[/QUOTE]
NFL Network should be salivating at the chance to pick up Dilfer and Werder.
Stark to the MLB network shouldn’t be too far behind. Who I feel the worse for are the low-level/fringe reporters. Some of the college sports reporters, the hockey and soccer people and so on. They’re going to have a harder time finding work I’d think.
Interesting that the cuts who are POC are a very small minority (pun always intended)
I’m surprised to hear the comments about Dilfer so far. Never thought much of him.
Has anyone heard anything more on the “Greenburg to leave Mike and Mike” story from a while ago? I listen almost every morning, so curious if that has legs or what.
Too bad about Stark - IMO he’s far better in print than on the air - maybe that’s why they kept Kurkjian and Olney (both of whom I also like) instead of him.
I can dream that MLB Network will pick up Doug Glanville and give him most of Harold Reynolds’ airtime, right?
Also, does anyone actually like Stephen A Smith? I actively avoid him, and in stuff I’ve read I’ve never heard anyone admit to enjoying him.
Just saw that Andy Katz was on the list - I haven’t followed men’s basketball closely for years, but I always enjoyed his work.
Man - that would be an amazing upgrade. We can only hope. HR is terrible.
I can’t stand him or any of the other “hot take” types like Jason Whitlock, Colin Cowherd, Skip Bayless, Shannon Sharpe, etc. Their increasing popularity is what has turned me off of any sports news shows entirely.
I know Disney hates to lose money, but it seems to me that they’re going about it wrong. The staff cuts are peanuts compared to what they could save by getting out of MNF and/or MLB. They’re paying more in rights fees than they can afford and subscribers are dropping off. Their business model no longer works.
That’s a false assumption. From everything I can gather, the money they’re losing isn’t in their live sports, it’s in their television shows.
They make more than enough to cover the billion dollars they spend carrying the MLB and NFL in ad dollars, what they aren’t making money on are tv shows such as Sportscenter and the like. The cord-cutting is hitting them there the hardest.
What they need to do (and are coming close to doing) is carrying live sports a majority of the time, and the original programming is just going to be the “angry guys yelling at each other” variety because those are literally the only shows people are watching on the network. Highlight and analysis shows are dying because everyone just sees the highlights and reads the story on the internet.
I generally agree with you - but for some reason I don’t mind Colin Cowherd (or at least didn’t when he was on ESPN - not sure how his take has changed since he went to Fox). Kornheiser and Wilpon I can stomach, in small doses.
Yeah, the cord cutting hurts across the board. But mainly it’s the contracts with major sports leagues. I don’t know where the numbers ended up, but 3/4 through last season MNF viewership was down 24%. ESPN had to give money back to advertisers. They weren’t the only network that had to do that, by the way, but they severely overpaid for MNF rights and NBA rights. And I assume those are contracts that would be even more costly to back out of.
As an active proponent of cord-cutting (I give regular seminars on the hows and whys), I can’t bring myself to shed any tears for ESPN, whose headquarters is just down the road. It’s way past time for pro sports and their feeder industries to get a reality check and quit driving/warping how video entertainment is priced and delivered in the US. If the pyramid is structured so that only the maximum number of cable subscribers can support the costs of ESPN/II/III etc. and the billion-dollar rights costs of the games, maybe the real value of those games as entertainment needs to be re-evaluated.
Let the NFL go to its own network, as is rumored for ca. 2021, and leave the rest of the entertainment spectrum to find its own reasonable level.
How exactly do you think it would cost effect to get out of long term contracts with major sports leagues? The out clauses are likely incredibly pricey, and they are their highest rated programming. And if they dropped out, they likely would not be considered for the rebid prices.
Basically ‘getting out of’ MNF and/or MLB would kill the network entirely.
Live sports/events, news and to a much lesser degree, special interests are the only thing keeping cable TV afloat. ESPN dies the moment it gives up on rights to live sports.
Long term they’ll need to pivot to direct streaming ala HBO NOW or partnering/bundling with Netflix and other streaming services. That’ll probably work and be successful, but there’s basically no room in that model for SportsCenter, “hot takes” and beat reporters.
If the NFL just goes to the NFL Network full time as a premium channel (or as a direct streaming service) that will have some bad side effects, specifically it’ll become more insular and the NFL will have end-to-end control of the narrative. If you think there’s not enough accountability of off field issues, health issues and being a good corporate citizen today, wait until the NFL becomes vertically integrated. Also, innovations like the 1st & 10 line and instant replay came about as networks competed with each other, if there’s only 1 provider things will stagnate.