Bummed about Grantland's demise

[CaribouJim]

I really enjoyed the site - perfect mix of sports and pop culture IMO.

[TheSultan]

Very good site with writers that didn't take the "old sports cliche" approach. Hopefully something will take its place.

[warriorfan4life]

I do not read a ton of sports journalism anymore, but Grantland had tremendous voices on hockey (Sean McIndoe aka Down Goes Brown), NBA (Zach Lowe), baseball (Jonah Keri), and NFL (Bill Barnwell) among other things. I hope that Bill Simmons can help build something similar at a new venue, and regret that Fox is going down the lowest common denominator road with Jamie "Hot Take" Horowitz.

[The Reptile]

I read an article on a business site that said ESPN's current cost cutting is a direct result of two things - granting some carriers the right to leave the out of some basic packages and the fact that the over paid for the rights to Monday Night Football, the NBA and MLB. It's probably going to get worse before it gets better.

[MKE_GoldenEagleFan]

I read an article on a business site that said ESPN's current cost cutting is a direct result of two things - granting some carriers the right to leave the out of some basic packages and the fact that the over paid for the rights to Monday Night Football, the NBA and MLB. It's probably going to get worse before it gets better.

This is the exact reason why I don't see these college football power 5 being able to do what they are doing forever. These monster TV payouts are going to decrease at some point, they can't continue to rise at the rate they are.

[TheSultan]

Or ESPN has come to the conclusion that live events are really the best thing to monetize. Sites like Grantland, and shows like Outside the Lines, are great from a journalistic point of view, but if you can't make money on them, why employ the writers and producers? My guess is that despite the large rights fee payouts, ESPN makes more profit from airing live events than anything else.

[CaribouJim]

http://www.si.com/more-sports/2015/1...l-simmons-espn

http://www.slate.com/articles/sports...them_down.html

http://www.thenation.com/article/goo...ts-journalism/