ESPN is bracing for painful layoffs in the coming weeks, sources tell Front Office Sports.

As part of a corporate restructuring, parent Disney is slashing 7,000 jobs and $5.5 billion in costs. The layoffs could amount to 3% of Disney’s global workforce.

Stephen A. Smith alluded to the network’s precarious situation on his “K[no]w Mercy” podcast. 

“Have you all been paying attention to the business landscape? Disney itself announced that over 7,000 employees are going to be let go,” Smith said. “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.”

ESPN’s footprint has been reduced to less than 75 million U.S. homes from 100 million in 2011, and the network has suffered several layoffs over the last decade.

• Ravaged by the pandemic, ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro cut 300 jobs and let 200 positions go unfilled in 2021.
• 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. 
• ESPN dropped 300 employees in 2015.

“I don’t think it will be as bad as 2017. But it might be bad,” said one source.

As part of Disney’s restructuring, chief executive officer Bob Iger has made ESPN one of three global “pillars,” along with Entertainment and Parks & Experiences. 

But Iger also rejected pleas from activist investors to spin off the sports network, declaring: “ESPN is a differentiator for this company.”

ESPN declined to comment.

After visiting Old Trafford last week, a consortium led by Qatar’s Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani is set to make a renewed bid to buy Manchester United on Wednesday, per Sky Sports.

Sky reports that talks between the club and the Qatari contingent on Thursday were largely positive — so much so that the latter is now preparing an offer more likely to satisfy the club’s current owners, the Glazer family.

After expressing interest in only a partial sale in February, there is growing confidence that the Glazers will completely sell the club, per Sky. The family believes the club is worth in the range of $7.2 billion.

Sheikh Jassim’s group had previously said it would not overpay for Manchester United — but its meeting at the club’s grounds last week supposedly softened that stance.

Meanwhile, British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe and his company INEOS are also expected to make a second bid for the club, though they declined to comment on the matter after their trip to Manchester on Friday.

Ratcliffe and INEOS purchased Ligue 1 side OGC Nice for a reported $107 million in 2019. Current Nice player Aaron Ramsey described Ratcliffe as “very passionate” about bringing success to the French club.

Manchester United currently sit third in the Premier League table, have advanced to the FA Cup semi-finals, and are set to face Spanish side Sevilla in the UEFA Europa League quarter-finals.

New Zealand Rugby is gauging the power of its brand as it seeks investors.

The iconic All Blacks, likely the most revered rugby team worldwide, is looking to sell a stake in their commercial operations worth around $62 million.

NZR Commercial CEO Richard Thomas said he would meet with investors over the next few months “to understand if there is an appetite in the institutions in New Zealand to do it. Once that’s known, we’ll know whether we’re going through with that institutional raise or not.”

The club had to navigate fan and player resistance to outside investors when it sold a 5.7% stake last year to private equity firm Silver Lake for $124.9 million. The deal, which valued NZR at $2.2 billion, was opposed by New Zealand’s Rugby Players Association.

NZR plans to use the investments to amplify the All Blacks brand and earning power and grow the game at all levels in New Zealand.

Rugby World Cup Rights 

Meanwhile, the Rugby World Cup, which takes place in September in France, is finding buyers for its media rights. 

Public broadcaster RTE and Virgin Media acquired the rights to the tournament in Ireland last week.

Rights in Japan were sold last month to NHK, Nippon TV, and J Sports, which held those rights for the previous World Cup in 2019.