The Sports Media Thread

[dfwabel]

12 minutes ago, the admiral said:

 

So you think a guy should call a game solo for all nine innings every game? I don't think anyone does. 

The Dodgers had Jaime Jarrín do Spanish Radio solo until 2015 when they brought in his son. He was 79 then and has a contract through the 2020 season.

[Alex Houston]

On 8/2/2019 at 6:58 PM, the admiral said:

 

So you think a guy should call a game solo for all nine innings every game? I don't think anyone does. 

 

It would be unusual for sure, considering we've grown up in a time when duos are common and I get the rationale for it. But if you have someone who understands pacing, good articulation and sometimes lets moments speak for themselves, I could see listening to a solo broadcaster. Locally, I'd be okay with Benetti or Hughes going the distance. 

[ninersdd]

https://awfulannouncing.com/mlb/bill-walton-will-call-a-white-sox-angels-game-next-week-with-jason-benetti.html

[dfwabel]

And today, Bill Simmons woke up to this.

 

 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Good. I've grown a little uncomfortable with him talking about how much money his producers don't have.

[dfwabel]

39 minutes ago, DG_Now said:

Good. I've grown a little uncomfortable with him talking about how much money his producers don't have.

Have he hit peak revenue already? 

I say that because they're now partnering with Luminary for "Premium" podcasts of Rewatchables.

 

No HBO money now, right?

[DG_ThenNowForever]

33 minutes ago, dfwabel said:

Have he hit peak revenue already? 

I say that because they're now partnering with Luminary for "Premium" podcasts of Rewatchables.

 

No HBO money now, right?

 

Are they done partnering with HBO? I hadn't heard that.

 

I read the Luminary stuff two ways -- one is that Simmons hasn't found some sort of "new media" partnership he isn't willing to jump on (DAZN was a partner for some time). The other is they want to paywall some of their podcasts but they can't.

 

Either way, I'm still under the assumption their podcast empire is making tons of money; at least enough to poach talent from ESPN. But if/when the podcast bubble pops? Who knows. Maybe Simmons will hire more of his idiot relatives.

[dfwabel]

1 hour ago, DG_Now said:

 

Are they done partnering with HBO? I hadn't heard that.

 

I read the Luminary stuff two ways -- one is that Simmons hasn't found some sort of "new media" partnership he isn't willing to jump on (DAZN was a partner for some time). The other is they want to paywall some of their podcasts but they can't.

 

Either way, I'm still under the assumption their podcast empire is making tons of money; at least enough to poach talent from ESPN. But if/when the podcast bubble pops? Who knows. Maybe Simmons will hire more of his idiot relatives.

The Ringer staff is larger that one would think, between 80-100.

 

DAZN was basically an ad read for him.  His interview with John Skipper was on April 3rd.  D AZN needed to sell the Canelo Alvarez fight on May 5th and the GGG fight four weeks later. 

 

He got a new HBO deal last summer but the length wasn't specified.

 

Last Monday it was announced that Rusillo was joining full time. That news had to have quickened the vote to unionize.

Edited August 12, 2019 by dfwabel
DAZN/Skipper comment added

[DG_ThenNowForever]

20 minutes ago, dfwabel said:

The Ringer staff is larger that one would think, between 80-100. 

  

He got a new HBO deal last summer but the length wasn't specified.

  

Last Monday it was announced that Rusillo was joining full time. That news had to have quickened the vote to unionize. 

 

Seems like, right? If there's money for Rusillo, there's money for a 401(k) plan (!)

[FiddySicks]

I found Rusillo joining The Ringer to be pretty surprising, but not really surprising at the same time. He's been doing work for them for awhile now, so it's no surprise that he would want to make a transition like that at some point. But the whole crux of his argument against ESPN, and the reason he's been kind of on again/off again with them over the past few years is money. I'm sure there's more to it in that guys complicated, malcontent brain, but money is definitely #1. Him joining The Ringer full time and leaving ESPN has to be about money (And with his new Manhattan Beach home he goes on about ad nauseam, he probably needs it). If that's the case, than what's been Simmons' holdup on actually paying his already established people their fair share? They obviously have the cash flow to pay a guy who's in as high demand as Rusillo. Stands to reason that they would have the cash to pay everyone else. 

 

Rusillo is a really strange one for me. He's probably my favorite personality in sports, and there's absolutely no podcast I look forward to more than his. He's fantastic at what he does and has an insight that almost nobody has, and he can articulate things to his listeners better than anyone out there. That's a HUGE get for Simmons and The Ringer. That being said, he comes across as such a miserable, smug douche (His "You know, no big deal" line he puts out whenever he drops any name with even the tiniest bit of clout is absolutely cringe inducing). He's probably the last dude in sports media I'd ever want to "have a beer" with. With that being said, though? I still love the guy's work. 

 

In other words, he's PERFECT for The Ringer. 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Rusillo pushes back on Simmons on a network where no one else will (House getting steamrolled is kind of sad to listen to), so I appreciate him as a counterbalance.

 

Yeah, he talks about money and real estate too much, but so does Simmons. They come off as LA nouveau-riche (which is a special kind of nouveau-riche), and because they're spending time with movie stars and entertaiment execs, they're probably really feeling their status, or lack thereof.

 

Simmons' original bread and butter was being a sports everyman, and that's way far gone at this point. But he also doesn't need to actively try to alienate his listeners.

[dfwabel]

33 minutes ago, Bucfan56 said:

I found Rusillo joining The Ringer to be pretty surprising, but not really surprising at the same time. He's been doing work for them for awhile now, so it's no surprise that he would want to make a transition like that at some point. But the whole crux of his argument against ESPN, and the reason he's been kind of on again/off again with them over the past few years is money. I'm sure there's more to it in that guys complicated, malcontent brain, but money is definitely #1. Him joining The Ringer full time and leaving ESPN has to be about money (And with his new Manhattan Beach home he goes on about ad nauseam, he probably needs it). If that's the case, than what's been Simmons' holdup on actually paying his already established people their fair share? They obviously have the cash flow to pay a guy who's in as high demand as Rusillo. Stands to reason that they would have the cash to pay everyone else. 

 

Rusillo is a really strange one for me. He's probably my favorite personality in sports, and there's absolutely no podcast I look forward to more than his. He's fantastic at what he does and has an insight that almost nobody has, and he can articulate things to his listeners better than anyone out there. That's a HUGE get for Simmons and The Ringer. That being said, he comes across as such a miserable, smug douche (His "You know, no big deal" line he puts out whenever he drops any name with even the tiniest bit of clout is absolutely cringe inducing). He's probably the last dude in sports media I'd ever want to "have a beer" with. With that being said, though? I still love the guy's work. 

 

In other words, he's PERFECT for The Ringer. 

In December 2017 (months after his drunken Wyoming incident), Russillo said on air that the extension he was offered was at the same money as his current contract. 

Quote

“Here’s the deal: I have been here like I said 12 (years) — 8.5 in this slot — I wasn’t sure I wanted to move slots. Personally, I felt like I wasn’t growing the way I wanted to grow. And that’s OK. I can be wrong there … But the way my contract works is if I was going to move a slot then I could talk to them about like, ‘OK, well, if I’m gonna move again with Will — we’re gonna do 3 to 6.’ Especially with everything that a lot of people at the company had to go through earlier this year, I just said, ‘Is there any way we can talk about an extension?’ ESPN said, ‘Absolutely. We’ll do this.’ And I was offered an extension, and it was the same money that I made now. And in the grand scheme in the way the world works, it’s a lot of money, and I get that. But my days were gonna be different. I was gonna be here on NBA hits for SportsCenter. I was gonna be here like 10 hours a day.

 

“I don’t have a lot of a life now. I don’t really have any balance. I’d be lying if I told you I was super happy lately. I know people who know me really well here, I don’t think they’re entirely surprised by this. So it would have to be something where I also felt like I was growing creatively outside of ESPN Radio — some other entities … I don’t know if that was going to happen.”

 

[FiddySicks]

Yup, that's exactly what I was referencing. Obviously it's more than just a dollar figure, but that's pretty much the basis of his issues with ESPN to begin with. 

 

 

Point is, if Simmons has the scratch to land Rusillo, it would stand to reason he has the money to properly fund everyone else's relatively reasonable requests. 

[Sport]

19 hours ago, DG_Now said:

Rusillo pushes back on Simmons on a network where no one else will (House getting steamrolled is kind of sad to listen to), so I appreciate him as a counterbalance.

 

 

This is why I've kind of stopped listening to their podcasts. Simmons said something on a Rewatchables episode that I was listening to recently that was nowhere near the neighborhood of funny, I don't think he even intended it to be a joke, and it caused uproarious Def Comedy Jam levels of laughter from the other 3 Ringer employees. It was weird. I think it's just a reflex at this point - Bill says something, anything, and their Pavlovian response is to guffaw like they're listening to a comedian do bits from his act on the Bob & Tom show. 

 

Also, I'm sure Shea Serrano is a swell guy with good intentions who does good charity work and has the right political mindset, but his Ringer mascot act where the entire bit is how much he likes stupid action movies is really thin at this point. If his name is on a pod I skip it. 

 

 

 

[Digby]

Deadspin forced out their editor over some “stick to sports” nonsense.

 

The idiot manbabies on team Barstool will crow about this regardless of how sensible it is.

 

Quote

But despite the internal turmoil and Greenwell’s exit, the company has recently garnered positive attention: Deadspin was nominated for its first national magazine award earlier this year and, according to Comscore data, it reached 17 million unique visitors in June—a record for the site.  

 

https://www.thedailybeast.com/deadspin-editor-quits-rails-against-bosses-ive-been-repeatedly-lied-to-and-gaslit

[The_Admiral]

7 hours ago, Digby said:

Deadspin forced out their editor over some “stick to sports” nonsense.

 

The idiot manbabies on team Barstool will crow about this regardless of how sensible it is.

 

Wouldn't be Deadspin without "The Thing You Think Is Bad Is Actually Good," would it

[dfwabel]

Michelle Beadle off another show as Rachel Nichols and Maria Taylor replace her on "NBA Countdown".

https://thebiglead.com/2019/08/16/rachel-nichols-and-maria-taylor-replacing-michelle-beadle-on-espn-nba-countdown/

[Digby]

I think of Nichols as more of a reporter/interviewer than a host, but she should be good there.

 

Countdown’s problem is that the players try too hard to emulate the yelling and talking over each other parts of the TNT crew while rarely offering much else. It gets old.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Good. Michelle Beadle seems to actively dislike watching NBA games so I never understood why she was given the job.

[dfwabel]

4 hours ago, Digby said:

I think of Nichols as more of a reporter/interviewer than a host, but she should be good there.

 

Countdown’s problem is that the players try too hard to emulate the yelling and talking over each other parts of the TNT crew while rarely offering much else. It gets old.

Exactly.

They need to decide what it is because "Inside the NBA"-Lite doesn't workm.  Either mimic the NBATV version but add a writer (Windhorst, Ramona, Jackie Mac...) or just have a host and Jalen.

 

34 minutes ago, DG_Now said:

Good. Michelle Beadle seems to actively dislike watching NBA games so I never understood why she was given the job.

Going back to "SportsNation" I've never gotten her shtick.  She just likes the Spurs since that's where she was the in-arena host and Pops has courtside tickets.