Is Stephen A. Smith worth closer to the $18 million annually that ESPN is offering him or the $25 million that he’s reportedly asking for? John Ourand of Puck recently explained why Smith’s asking price is not at all outrageous.
Ourand was on CNBC’s Last Call on Friday to detail his recent report that Smith is asking for $25 million a year, $7 million more than what ESPN is offering. Host Contessa Brewer detailed that $25 million is more than what Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff and Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green made in the most recent NFL and NBA seasons and more than what two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell is making for the current MLB season.
Brewer then asked Ourand the natural question. “What does Stephen A. Smith do for ESPN that makes him worth that kind of money?”
“Well he’s a No. 1 talent on ESPN,” Ourand said. “I love that you brought up Blake Snell. I would suggest that more people would recognize Stephen A. Smith walking down the street than Blake Snell by a factor of 50-1, probably.”
Ourand continued that Smith is on First Take 250 days a year and does other shows for the network, such as NBA Countdown, SportsCenter and Get Up.
“He works harder, puts in more hours and brings in better results in terms of viewership and in terms of ratings than really anybody else on ESPN’s air, not including NFL teams, NBA teams or college football teams.”
“There’s no chance that he’s going to go over to Fox. There’s no chance that he’s going to go to NBC,” says @Ourand_Puck on @espn reportedly offering @stephenasmith a $90 million deal. “But there are other opportunities out there.” $DIS $FOX $CMCSA pic.twitter.com/xMdfkH6wuu
— Last Call (@LastCallCNBC) June 22, 2024
Brewer followed up by detailing the changes that are happening in media — including with ESPN — and wondered if Smith’s asking price was realistic.
“We’re in an ad-pressured environment,” Brewer said. “Media companies, legacy media companies are having to innovate and change the way they do business. You’ve got ESPN partnering up with Penn to try and get some ad dollars from sports betting, and that’s not even going so great. Is this an environment where talent can make that kind of money?”
Ourand’s answer was two-fold.
“The answer is no,” he said. Ourand then specifically named Fox and NBC as places where Smith will not end up.
He then shifted gears.
“But there are other opportunities out there. And ESPN is not the traditional media company. They’re launching a direct-to-consumer app with an entire channel next year. This fall they’re going with a sports streaming service. So they need somebody like Stephen A. Smith who cuts through the clutter, that’s able to talk to viewers and potentially get them to come in and subscribe.
“So if you view ESPN as a traditional media company, no it makes no sense. If you view them as a newer media company that’s trying to reach new subscribers? Yeah, it does make a lot of sense.”
[Last Call CNBC on X. Photo Credit: Stephen A. Smith on YouTube]
