ESPN Shuts Down Grantland

[slickdtc]

Effective immediately, Grantland is no more. I believe the site is still live but no more content will be delivered.

Huge blow to anyone who likes great writing and analysis across the sports spectrum and even in to entertainment (music, TV, film).

Bill Barnwell, their primary football analyst, is GREAT. Hope he and the plethora of other talented writers catch on elsewhere. Some already have.

ESPN can rot. This site was one of the most visited on the Internet (551st according to Alexa as of today), but apparently wasn't generating money. It definitely could have if it needed to, but I kind of feel like ESPN was planning this since releasing Simmons. No one is allowed to be bigger then the brand, and since Grantland was supported by ESPN/Disney but didn't brand themselves too clearly as such, it was only a matter of time.

Lost a good one. There's room for someone else to come up. Looking forward to seeing that happen.

This is the first time I've seriously considered abandoning watching ESPN.

[JayBee74]

Re: ESPN Shuts Down Grantland

I only watched First Take (occasionally) and Monday Night Football. First Take is getting harder and harder to take since the banter between Stephen A and Bayless has gotten more "cutesy", "homery", and secondarily devoted to Skip's beloved Cowboys.

[SPTO]

Re: ESPN Shuts Down Grantland

It was only a matter of time before this was going to happen what with the way things ended with Simmons. I hope Jonah Keri catches on somewhere hell, it'd be awesome if he comes back home to Canada and work for Sportsnet or something like that.

The avarice and greed of Disney/ESPN knows no bounds because honestly, Grantland was a dedicated and often times quite incisive look into the sports and pop culture world. I'm sure the vacuum will be filled at some point.

[slickdtc]

ESPN Shuts Down Grantland

Anyone have any good replacement recommendations of Grantland's caliber?

I know there's quality, in-depth sites but they're typically dedicated to one sport. Grantland was a one stop for things sports and entertainment in a high quality manner.

Apparently some writers are staying on with ESPN. Yuck. I'd rather not patronize their site and think this move was a success.

Maybe Yahoo or someone can swoop in and rescue some writers. It wouldn't surprise me to see some of the better writers there cooking up something together. Like you said, Keri, Barnwell, etc. They should come together and launch independently.

[Sandman42]

Re: ESPN Shuts Down Grantland

Anyone have any good replacement recommendations of Grantland's caliber?

I know there's quality, in-depth sites but they're typically dedicated to one sport. Grantland was a one stop for things sports and entertainment in a high quality manner.

Closest one you'll probably get to Grantland is Vice. SB Nation is very good too for the sports side, but it depends on the sport, their college football coverage is the best on the internet, but none of their NFL writers stack up to Barnwell and Mays (RIP Grantland NFL Podcast )

I don't think Yahoo would pick them up. Yahoo tried to launch a Grantland/longform competitor a few years ago (can't remember the name) but it failed.

[Jr.]

Re: ESPN Shuts Down Grantland

Anyone think that Simmons recruits the Grantland staff back and rebuilds Grantland with a new name?

[KingV2k3]

Re: ESPN Shuts Down Grantland

Anyone think that Simmons recruits the Grantland staff back and rebuilds Grantland with a new name?

I hope so!

I saw someone in the media today (sorry can't recall the source) saying that's it's likely the Simmons new employer HBO, will try to make something similar happen...

[dsallupinyaarea]

Re: ESPN Shuts Down Grantland

I'm legitimately upset about this. I work in a cubicle. This site was a staple of my day to day for 4 years.

[brent3419]

Re: ESPN Shuts Down Grantland

nnnnnnnnoooooooooooo!!!!

Sent from my SM-G360P using Tapatalk

[slickdtc]

Re: ESPN Shuts Down Grantland

And that's it:

[MachoMyers]

Re: ESPN Shuts Down Grantland

Awful. I was really getting into Jalen and Jacoby's podcast and the Masked Man does a great wrestling column. ESPN ffs.

[NYJets]

Re: ESPN Shuts Down Grantland

This sucks, and terrible timing too with nba just starting up. Zach Lowe was by far my favorite writer on Grantland.

Simmons is going to do some type of writing venture, and he hired a few editors from Grantland a few weeks back. But no details yet, and I believe everyone he hired so far was pop culture/entertainment people, no sports yet.

[slickdtc]

ESPN Shuts Down Grantland

Still haven't found a suitable replacement. My bathroom time is so hollow these days.

The bright side is it's gotten me to follow some of my favorite Grantland writers on Twitter. Mainly to keep up with where they end up but also good substance from the tweets themselves.

I'm a long form guy, though. I need that in depth substance.

Finally Google has returned some results, mainly from Reddit. Sports on Earth (run by MLB Advance Media), The Big Lead (USA Today), and FiveThirtyEight (ESPN, blegh) all have varying degrees of substance. We might be okay...

[Hassan Darkside]

Re: ESPN Shuts Down Grantland

For those interested, Simmons finally spoke about Grantland on his podcast yesterday with Malcolm Gladwell.
<iframe width="75%" height="225" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/231617929&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=fal se&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;s how_reposts=false&amp;visual=true"></iframe>

[redsox4evur]

Re: ESPN Shuts Down Grantland

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">My next website is called The Ringer - launches later in 2016. Check out our logo &amp; sign up for our newsletter at <a href="https://t.co/EgdH3mnlbC">https://t.co/EgdH3mnlbC</a>.</p>&mdash; Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) <a href="https://twitter.com/BillSimmons/status/699966794220449792">February 17, 2016</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We've got a new website coming later this year at <a href="https://t.co/v4ucEuoB3P">https://t.co/v4ucEuoB3P</a>. Watch this space for updates.</p>&mdash; The Ringer (@ringer) <a href="https://twitter.com/ringer/status/699963242748088320">February 17, 2016</a></blockquote>
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And finally...

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Don&#39;t do it with ESPN. RT <a href="https://twitter.com/ParrishWalton">@ParrishWalton</a>: What are the lessons <a href="https://twitter.com/BillSimmons">@BillSimmons</a> learned from running Grantland from a business perspective?</p>&mdash; Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) <a href="https://twitter.com/BillSimmons/status/699976293362733056">February 17, 2016</a></blockquote>
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