Words by Jason Cordner
ESPN is ready to open its first studios in New York City. The Worldwide Leader has signed a deal on a lease that will have it moving into the South Street Seaport Pier 17 complex. It’s expected that ESPN will use the studios to house the new Mike Greenberg Show when it launches sometime in the spring of 2018.
According to the New York Post, ESPN will occupy the third floor of the new complex, which will include restaurants, shops, and office space.
David R. Weinreb, the Chief Executive of the company behind the real estate project that ESPN is now a part of, told the Post that “this is completely down the fairway of what we intended for the property. We’ve always talked about studios coming live from the Seaport.” Further to that point, ESPN executive VP for content Connor Schell called the new studio a “state of-the-art content factory that will allow us to produced differentiated studio content for both television and digital.” The space, which will include one permanent studio for television production and two others for radio, will reportedly become operational next March or April.
Over its four-decade run, ESPN has occasionally faced difficulties with attracting and keeping talent due to its location in remote Bristol, which is a two-hour trek from Manhattan.
With Fox Sports 1 becoming more of a threat by the day, it makes a ton of sense for ESPN to expand into the New York market.