The Sports Bubble Is About to Pop

[Commentary] Don’t buy ESPN’s PR talk that its 7 million-household dip in subscribers is just a blip. It’s for real, and the end of its empire will have widespread consequences for the way you watch sports and pay for TV. ESPN’s Security and Exchange Commission filing revealed a bombshell: The company had lost 7 million subscribers over the last two years. For more than 30 years prior, ESPN enjoyed an unbroken stream of growth and innovation on its way to becoming the immovable Gibraltar of the cable bundle. Every participant in the sports economy -- franchise owners, athletes, programming networks, cable companies, and even the fans themselves -- have benefitted from this broadband version of the hide-the-ball trick. That big fat $100 average household cable bill that everyone pays has served as a siphoning conduit of cash forcibly flowing from fan and uninterested non-fan alike.

The brazen economics of modern sports are being revealed and dismantled by the Internet, and the coming fumble-pile of desperate industry participants should make for some great viewing. That’ll be bad news for $30 million-a-year over-the-hill third basemen, the greater fools who pay them, and the unknowingly subsidized superfans who love them. The rest of us will live in a world with a few more bucks in our pockets -- and a few less braying Chris Berman-wannabes clogging up our iPad screens.