ESPN: The masses have spoken. “We want sports not politics”

Sports is entertainment. Entertainment is escapism. Forcing ignorant political commentary from poorly educated buffoons is incompatible with escapism.

Yes, that’s a big part of it. Plus, younger viewers don’t care about sports as much as the older generation, their screen time involves iPhones, and they expect free media. Then, there are the multi millionaire team owners and players who often are unlikeable assholes. And, the advertisers and their commercials are woke, trying to impose political views while insulting viewers. Meanwhile, if you go to a game in person, it costs a small fortune.

I have a suspicion that gambling is a major part of what’s keeping these pro sports financially viable.

why would anyone who follows sports watch espn anymore, especially when there are more knowledgeable and entertaining personalities on youtube? pat mcafee and the urinating tree are a couple off the top of my head that i find way more preferable than the whole entire espn bunch. the final nail in the coffin for me was when espn canned rachel nichols. she and sportcenter were the only reasons to tune in.

the only show that i considered was can't miss on espn was the 30/30 documentaries. these were very well made. do they still even make those anymore?

This is much less to do with who will or will not watch, politically or otherwise. By a very substantial amount, ESPN was the most successful cable and satellite revenue entity. I forget the number but it was around 5$ per subscriber per month. Whether a cable/satellite subscriber watched ESPN occasionally or not at all, ESPN collected 5$ monthly from the viewer’s cable bill. This compulsory cable/sat revenue revenue FAR exceeded ESPN’s advertising revenue(revenue from actual viewers). If you have a cable/sat subscription you are paying ESPN that monthly fee. Cable/satellite subscriptions are headed downward and have been for several years. I believe it was around 10 million lost subscribers in 2021 + 2022. Disney hopes it can be made up by ESPN streaming subscriptions. In the near to mid term there is almost no chance of this happening.

They get rid of the cute MILF Suzy Kolber, but keep the bald chick. I want to kiss Suzy.

"I hate the University of Miami football program " ^ Fuck you.

The cuts at ESPN have little to do with woke politics. Its part of a major restructuring at Disney by Bob Iger who was forced to come back out of retirement to clean up his predecessor's mess. Bob Chapek the former CEO actually hated all "woke" politics and opposed promoting a lot of content that dealt with LGBTQ issues, women, and people of color. He scoffed at Scarlett Johannsen's lawsuit for the pay she deserved from the movie black widow and he burned a lot of bridges with talent. His major flaw would have to be the underwhelming operation of Disney Plus. In addition, ESPN has been a company where careers go to die. They have to spend so much on broadcast rights for the NBA the ability to grow talent in house is a challenge. The easiest way people serious about sport journalism can make money these days is to build their brand on Youtube a la Pat McAfee which is ironic because the sportcasters who have developed a presence on youtube are the ones they keep or want to hire (Pat McAfee, and don't be surprised if Shannon Sharpe) joins too

I haven’t watched espn non game since like 2000’s.

Although sometimes espn does have some must watch clips once in a blue moon, that I will admit https://youtu.be/EaW6vBOvLqA?t=125

^^^ you bring up a good point. At one time in my life I always stayed up and watched Sportscenter. It's probably been close to a decade since I've done that on a regular basis. I also agree getting rid of Suzy Kolber was horrible. Weird voice, but she was so cute.

ESPN pivoted too hard into personalities over people who know how to talk about sports.

The reason these entertainment companies or even any company generally speaking, cater to zoo animals, is because zoo animals make up a large % of their customers or viewers. I believe back in 2020, not just nike, but seemingly every major american company, even the large accounting firms, were posting BLM and black squares on their social media. Twitter, linkedin, instagram, company home page etc. even if they didnt genuinely believe in the group. White supremacy on the other hand is nowhere near as common as some media outlets would claim- and nowhere near as common as the number of people supporting BLM. If white supremacy was anywhere near as popular as BLM, all these companies supporting BLM would gladly be supporting white supremacy openly as well. And their rallies would be much larger. Espns behavior was simply an attempt to appeal to the zoo anImal. But it backfired- because zoo animals arent predictable or rational to begin with, so you simply cant apply the same ideals of human nature to them.