Legendary ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith has suggested his time with the network could come to an end as the company falls under the Disney-owned umbrella, which is bracing itself for over 7,000 employee layoffs.
In February, ESPN’s parent company Disney announced plans for some massive cost-cutting measures to come in the next few months. CEO Bob Iger revealed that the company planned to slash over $5billion (£4bn) in costs during a major restructuring of the company.
Major restructuring includes laying off north of 7,000 employees from its workforce of over 220,000, and ESPN is likely to be hit. And despite being one of ESPN’s prized assets, Smith says he may not be safe from the cost-cutting measures, with the analyst among some of the companies highest earners.
Smith picks up $13million-a-year (£10.6m), the second highest at ESPN behind NFL broadcaster Troy Aikman’s $18m (£14.7m) salary. On a new edition of his “K[no]w Mercy” podcast, the 55-year-old, who offers box office commentary on a range of US sports including basketball and football, spoke in-depth on the reports.
He said: “Have you all been paying attention to the business landscape? Disney itself announced that over 7,000 employees are going to be let go. ESPN is under the Disney umbrella.
“They’re going to have cuts coming. Hell, for all I know, I might be one of them. Now, I doubt that. But it’s possible. No one knows.”
Despite Smith getting the axe being unlikely, shifting his $13m wage bill would save the network a huge sum of many and many jobs. This would not be the first round of cuts for the network in recent years after laying off 300 employees in 2015 and 2021 each.
In 2017, former president John Skipper laid off roughly 100 anchors, reporters, and analysts, including big names like Trent Dilfer, Danny Kanell, Jerome Bettis, Marc Stein and Len Elmore. However, sources told Front Office Sports that they don’t expect it to be as bad this time round.
“I don’t think it will be as bad as 2017. But it might be bad,” said one source.
