Sometimes, in life, certain things may not happen the way people want them to, but it may end up being all for the better in the end. For Dave Portnoy, the president and founder of Barstool Sports, that was the case back in 2017 when it appeared that the Pardon My Take podcast was going to move to ESPN as a show called Barstool Van Talk.
On Friday, Portnoy was a guest on The Dan Dakich Show podcast and he told Dakich that the deal not working out with ESPN worked out for Barstool and defined the company moving forward.
“It turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to us,” Portnoy said. “Barstool was at an interesting point. If they made a big offer, we wouldn’t have been able to match it. It drove Dan back to Barstool fully and it really kind of galvanized us vs. the world. It plays to our advantage.”
Portnoy went deeper into what exactly happened that cause the partnership to fail. To the surprise of no one, he did mention Sam Ponder. He showed her begrudging respect for the way she put herself in the center of undoing a deal that the network and Barstool had been working on for over a year.
“I was always a little uncomfortable with the deal because I thought ESPN wanted to test drive Dan and PFT. We have the show and then, I had made fun of Sam Ponder 3 years beforehand on the College Football show. She had her kid on and I said in graphic language, which I wish I didn’t use, nobody is tuning in to see a little kid. You are a very attractive woman. Young guys want to see you. Get the kid off the show.
“She sat on it and I give her credit because that’s something I do. I’m a grudge guy. The day after the show, she’s like this is who we are doing business with and it became a big power struggle with ESPN. They cancelled the show after 1 day.”
Barstool Sports aggressively touts its “us vs. the world mentality.” Portnoy told Dakich that “98%” of what is written about the site is easy to dismiss because it is written by people that don’t make an attempt to understand what he and his staff do.
“There’s a group of people who don’t like me. I’m used to it. Somebody said this to me the other day, he people who don’t like me, if I was walking across water, they would say it’s because I can’t swim. We are not for them. Turn the channel off. Don’t pay attention to me. I don’t care.”
During the interview, Portnoy said that he feels Barstool has a distinct advantage over competitors such as ESPN. He isn’t trying to find shows that appeal to certain demographics. Portnoy said he accepts he does not have the answers. He will let the audience determine what is and isn’t a good idea.
“I don’t care what your background is. If you come off a cornfield or whatever, if you make me laugh, if you are talented, I will hire you. I don’t tell them what to do. I don’t come up with the ideas. You can do whatever you want at Barstool. Sink or swim. The internet weeds it out.”
