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Dan Le Batard: Stephen A. Smith Can Make $18 Million Per Year on His Own
“He’s going to want power and a bunch of other things because he is the modern-day Howard Cosell whether you like it or not…”
Published
6 days agoon
By
BSM Staff
Stephen A. Smith is reportedly in contract negotiations with ESPN ahead of the expiration of his deal next year, according to John Ourand of Puck. Ourand reported that Smith had been presented with an initial offer of $18 million per year for five years at the network, making him the highest-paid talent at ESPN.
Smith, however, is reportedly looking for $25 million per year, and his agents replied by asking the network to look at the deal Pat McAfee received that pays him nearly $30 million per year with his eponymous program, The Pat McAfee Show, and appearing on College GameDay. Another comparison that Ourand reports was made is the nine-year multiplatform media rights extension between ESPN and Omaha Productions worth $700 million, which includes the continuation of Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli and expanded original content collaboration.
Dan Le Batard discussed the report on Smith and the contract negotiations on Friday’s edition of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, prefacing his opinion by stating that show contributor JuJu Gotti had informed him that no one wanted to hear how much money those in the media were making. Le Batard finds it interesting though that Smith is reportedly being offered the highest salary in the history of the network for a talent.
“It used to be for Jon Gruden at $6.5 million, but the explosion of everything that’s happened has made everyone realize, ‘Oh, all these talent are super undervalued,’” Le Batard explained, “even though everyone listening to this would say, ‘It’s ridiculous for anybody to be making the kind of money doing this nonsense that people can make.’”
As he continued, Le Batard conveyed that Monday Night Football play-by-play announcer Joe Buck is currently the highest-paid employee at ESPN (although reportedly Troy Aikman is paid more than Buck), but he does not have to do as much as Smith. Aside from reportedly looking for $25 million per year, Le Batard believes there is more than just money involved in the negotiations.
“He’s going to want power and a bunch of other things because he is the modern-day Howard Cosell whether you like it or not, and beyond sports, he’s got conquering ambitions because he is casting a wide net going on FOX, making sure the audience is as large as it can be as he heads into the leverage of negotiations because he can do this for $18 million a year on his own. He doesn’t need ESPN.”
Smith is the executive producer and a featured commentator on ESPN’s First Take, the morning debate show that has garnered 22 consecutive months of year-over-year growth. He also recently completed his second season on NBA Countdown on which he covered several marquee matchups during the year, including the NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks. Outside of ESPN though, Smith has built Mr. SAS Productions, through which he recently produced a docuseries on debate-format television and also hosts his own program, The Stephen A. Smith Show, at least three times per week. Smith joined the iHeartPodcast Network this past February within a distribution deal for his independent program after initially working with Audacy’s Cadence13.
“He sets a table for all the rights that [ESPN has] unless it’s the Stanley Cup,” producer Mike Ryan said, “so what I would do if I’m ESPN is I would pay him $10 million for every sport he can actually cover because the daytime programming on [Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final,] a game that they have – their coverage was Mike Greenberg asking Udonis Haslem about what he thought about tonight.”
Ryan emphasized that when the United States hosts the World Cup in 2026, it is more likely that the ESPN show will be discussing quarterback Dak Prescott than the international soccer tournament. As a steadfast Florida Panthers fan with a keen interest in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final, he opined that the network needs to follow the model it has in growing other entities. For example, Ryan stated that Smith has shown everyone what he can do with the National Football League and that Pat McAfee has discussed the National Hockey League on his program.
“What has happened with hockey and the ratings with ESPN now engaged has been an explosion of people realizing how wonderful these playoffs actually are because elsewhere on the network, they are better partners to hockey than they are to baseball by a lot,” Le Batard said. “The baseball people are dying at ESPN because they clearly do not care about the sport, but they care about hockey more and believe in the future of hockey more and spend as if they believe in the future of hockey more, but the morning shows aren’t equipped to talk about this well.”
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Sports Online
Caroline Fenton Joins Yahoo Sports
“Caroline will host a range of Yahoo Sports shows and contribute social and digital video across multiple sports, including college football.”
Published
16 hours agoon
June 27, 2024By
BSM Staff
Caroline Fenton, who announced two weeks ago she was leaving 102.5 The Game in Nashville, has been announced as a new addition to the Yahoo Sports team. Fenton had been with the Nashville sports station since 2021 and also did work for SiriusXM College Sports Radio.
In a post on LinkedIn, Yahoo said in part, “We’re very excited to welcome Caroline Fenton to the Yahoo Sports team! Caroline will host a range of Yahoo Sports shows and contribute social and digital video across multiple sports, including college football. You can catch Caroline’s coverage soon across Yahoo Sports platforms and social channels.”
“I am so excited to finally announce that I’m headed to Yahoo Sports,” Fenton wrote in an X post. “This group is creative and hungry to deliver the best possible content to sports fans and I couldn’t be more eager and honored to be on board. Let’s get it started, Yahoo Sports!”
Fenton went to Nashville from ESPN in Bristol, CT where she created content and contributed on-air as a social/digital video producer. She is a native of St. Louis and a graduate of LSU.
In January 2023, Fenton moved to middays where she had been part of Caroline, Willy & DMase with Willy Daunic and former Tennessee Titans wide receiver Derrick Mason.
YahooOoOoooO!!!💜
— Caroline Fenton (@carolinefenton1) June 27, 2024
I am so excited to finally announce that I’m headed to Yahoo Sports. This group is creative and hungry to deliver the best possible content to sports fans and I couldn’t be more eager and honored to be on board.
Let’s get it started, @YahooSports!!! https://t.co/JHx7LKmwD3
Sports Online
Dan Le Batard: Our Show Would Have Two Times More Listeners if the Panthers Lost the Stanley Cup Final
“I believe it is something that the rest of North America feels whenever someone other than your fanbase is celebrating anything.”
Published
2 days agoon
June 25, 2024By
BSM Staff
After losing three consecutive matchups to the Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup Final, the Florida Panthers hoisted the Stanley Cup following a Game 7 victory. The Panthers officially secured the first championship in the history of the organization, a means of celebration throughout South Florida and the Miami-Fort Lauderdale region. Dan Le Batard, however, understands that it may not be the case beyond the geographic locale. The program received a message from a user on X who stated that it sucked to see Le Batard and the cast of the show happy.
Le Batard has been discussing the Stanley Cup Final over the last several weeks on his program, which has included several storylines germane to the show itself. Greg Cote, show contributor and columnist for the Miami Herald, wrote a column earlier in the month classifying Oilers star forward Connor McDavid as an overrated player. Although McDavid and the Oilers were unable to defeat the Panthers, he became the second skater in NHL history to lose the Stanley Cup Final but still win the Conn Smythe Trophy, which is given to the most valuable player of the Stanley Cup Playoffs as a whole.
“I believe it is something that the rest of North America feels whenever someone other than your fanbase is celebrating anything,” Le Batard said. “The internet is a wildly divided place. I don’t believe that people are happy for each other on the internet, and I believe that more people would be listening to this show by double today if the Panthers had lost; that that would attract more people in today’s North America than happiness.”
Jon “Stugotz” Weiner, the co-host of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, expressed that the only people who are happy for fans of the Panthers are those of the rival Tampa Bay Lightning. In fact, the organization shared a message of congratulations for the Panthers on social media Monday night.
“I don’t believe that the fans of Tampa Bay were actually happy for Florida,” Le Batard responded. “That is simply the organization of Tampa trying to be magnanimous. I don’t believe there is anybody in hockey today anywhere outside of a 50-mile radius of here that’s happy for the sport of hockey today because of what happened last night.”
Several members of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz shared their experiences watching the game on social media as the team claimed victory and was awarded the Stanley Cup. Meadowlark Media producer Roy Bellamy recorded a segment for The Hockey Show inside of Amerant Bank Arena as the team was celebrating on the ice. During Tuesday’s edition of the show, Cote took a victory lap in Miami, presumably for being exonerated after his opinion on McDavid gained national attention and was being considered a potential jinx.
Cote revealed that he is going to post a column on Tuesday about the last couple of weeks, including the drama surrounding his McDavid take. Weiner believed that Cote should not write another column, instead using his original writing as his final word on the topic. While Cote acknowledged that it essentially could be what he ends up writing on Tuesday, the column following a Stanley Cup victory needed to be celebratory and recognizing the achievement.
“You were wrong,” Le Batard said. “You’re the best kind of right, which is you’re wrong.”
“No, no, I disagree,” Cote replied.
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Dan Dakich: ‘Stephen A. Smith is a Race-Baiter, That’s All He Has’
“Stephen A. Smith is the Joe Biden of television.”
Published
2 days agoon
June 25, 2024By
BSM Staff
Dan Dakich had a strong reaction to something Stephen A. Smith said recently on First Take. Smith and Doug Gottlieb had a war of words after Smith said black head coaches had contacted him complaining about LeBron James doing a podcast with JJ Redick while his black head coach, Darvin Ham, was on the hot seat.
Smith had said, “Black coaches called a Black commentator to complain about a Black superstar doing a podcast while his Black head coach was on the hot seat before he ultimately lost the damn job. What does that have to do with white folks? Some things are none of your damn business.”
During his Don’t @ Me show on OutKick.com, Dakich did not hold back on his opinion of Smith and what he said.
“Stephen A. Smith told white people, ‘Stay out of it, it’s black people’s business,’ with regard to Darvin Ham being on the hot seat and black coaches allegedly texting and getting ahold of Smith,” Dakich said. “I say ‘allegedly’ because he is clearly a liar. All you gotta do is follow Jason Whitlock and Stephen A. Smith’s bulls**t basketball career and you know Stephen A. Smith is the Joe Biden of television, but he alleges that coaches, black coaches, are mad that a white guy, JJ Redick is doing a podcast with a black guy, LeBron James.
“It upset coaches, black coaches, because their black brother, Darvin Ham was on the hot seat. Well, that’s fine, I get it. And if it happened, so what? They’re upset. Hey, go over in the corner and be upset. But Stephen A. Smith is now taking it to another level. Stephen A. Smith is now saying, ‘Hey man, it’s a black thing. He was upset because Doug Gottlieb on FOX called him a race-baiter. Well, Stephen A. Smith is a race baiter that’s all he has. He has nothing else. He has shown he knows nothing about basketball by being on NBA Countdown, absolutely no personality for a real show. Sure, he’s fine on his yelling and screaming show where he can dominate a guest, act like he knows something, talk over people, but he knows zip.
Dakich talked about having Smith on his Indianapolis radio show once and said he cut him off and ended the interview early.
“He was just yelling and screaming and talking. I get it, that’s his schtick and he’s gonna make a lot of money. But the whole idea of ‘White folk stay out of this’ is complete bulls**t. Then Stephen A. Smith, you stay your ass out of Caitlin Clark, and all of your African American colleagues, stay your ass outta little white girl stuff. Imagine how that would go over if somebody said it. ‘Hey Stephen stay your ass outta hockey, stay your ass outta anything where white people are involved. Stay your ass outta most things.’
“How about, white people stay your ass outta listening to Stephen A. Smith and paying attention to Stephen A. Smith. I put a ban on Stephen A. Smith, but this really pissed me off. Because I can’t stand racism. I just can’t stand it. And I think all of the people like Stephen A. Smith are deep down incredibly racist.”
