Bob Ley, the longtime former ESPN personality who retired in 2019 after four decades with the network, is not happy with his former employers after the news that 300 people are being laid off and 200 open positions will not be filled:
The message of the layoffs was sent from ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro in a company-wide memo:
“As you know, we value transparency in our internal dialogue, and that means in both good and challenging times,” Pitaro wrote in the memo. “After much consideration, I have some difficult organizational decisions to share. We will be reducing our workforce, impacting approximately 300 valued team members, in addition to 200 open positions.
Today is hard because ESPN has always been — and will always be — fortified by its fantastic people. Teamwork, dedication, spirit and grit have built this place and are what make ESPN special. Prior to the pandemic, we had been deeply engaged in strategizing how best to position ESPN for future success amidst tremendous disruption in how fans consume sports. The pandemic’s significant impact on our business clearly accelerated those forward-looking discussions.
In the short term, we enacted various steps like executive and talent salary reductions, furloughs and budget cuts, and we implemented innovative operations and production approaches, all in an effort to weather the COVID storm.”
It was reported this week that Disney is trying hard to wrest “Sunday Night Football” from NBC. It also wants two NFL packages.
