The rise of ALLCITY

Remember this dude who got roasted for smoking a cigar after the Nuggets won the championship?

https://x.com/HarrisonWind/status/1668533694993412096

It's time we have a bigger discussion about his kind. He works for DNVR, which is part of the ALLCITY Sports Network. It's essentially a cross between The Athletic and a fansite that covers a college program. They even sell a "Diehard" membership package at $80 annually.

We all know how the fansites eroded rational coverage of college athletics. I know this seems to be a less polished version of The Athletic, but I can't help but wonder if the same fate befalls pro coverage if ALLCITY continues to do well.

 

I definitely think it will. In fact, it's already in the process of happening, helped along recently by the pop culture/football mix that is the Travis Kelce/Taylor Swift relationship. Not that I necessarily think that's been a bad thing in her/their case, but it changed the tone and even the logistics of coverage of the NFL, at least, and I could see it happening in other sports in time. And it could certainly happen again, and more often, with other cases.

It happens faster when there is some pop influence, particularly by the athletes crossing over into other things, like, say, Steph Curry and LeBron James, and such. It softens the sports aspect, and makes sports more inclusive in a wider, more common-man (read: fan-influenced like of way). Once that happens, the fans become more directly involved and talked about, increasing their influence and access and acceptance. Of course, it also weakens the idea of needing qualifications, experience or training for sports media work, but we've been seeing, and decrying that for a while now.

It's just an outgrowth of social media, in general. Everyone has access to it, and can give and take their two cents' worth, about anything, so its existence has naturally changed things about coverage in a lot of areas. It's kind of evolution -- we might think devolution -- in action. It will take time to really occur, but it's happening, and has been, for years.

 

I have an easy answer to fanboi journalism.

I don't read it.

Or actively mock it.

Depends on the day.

 

Maybe it's a Denver thing? (Apologies to MileHigh)
Denver Post Hockey Writer Wins Stanley Cup! | SportsJournalists.com

 

PHNX (Phoenix) seems pretty successful too.

I'm a little dubious about long-term potential though. The reason Rivals/Scout/247 was able to gain such traction 25 years ago is they offered totally unique things - like covering the shit out of recruiting and message boards. There was a huge untapped market for that kind of stuff.

ALLCITY doesn't seem to have any sort of edge like that. It's mostly fanboi content, which is fine for what it is, but can be found just about anywhere.

It's like Barstool, but 20 years too late.

 

Never too late for more misogyny!

 

I can’t believe I’m about to be defending DNVR, but I’m going to ask this question:

What’s the difference in coverage from a fan-focused outlet like ALLCITY and local beat reporting from a traditional outlet that doesn’t do any accountability reporting on the team? The latter has become the norm, but the fan sites are the ones we pick on.

 

It's a excellent question. There is no difference. The main local paper will never say anything even slightly critical of the local teams until the day after someone gets fired.

I will say, too, that with all the upheaval in the Coyotes over the past couple of months, the definitive voice fans looked for was Craig Morgan at PHNX.

 

Have you gotten out of the newspaper business?

 

I can sometimes enjoy fan-perspective journalism. Some of those writers are talented and bring good angles to stories. Wind smoking a cigar and celebrating as if he's part of the team is amateur hour.

 

Their best work as a company was probably on the Coyotes and in the Denver market on the Nuggets — even with the afore-mentioned incident atop this thread. In both cases they stepped onto beats that were getting short shrift in their markets and created a space. And with Morgan, they made a terrific hire that instantly infused credibility with the fan base. With the Nuggets, they went along for the team's ride and rise to where they have become a primary voice covering the team -- although, as noted in this thread, there is a line they crossed. But to their credit, the Nuggets beat was often underserved by the Broncos-centric media in Denver and All-City capitalized.

The quality across the board is hit-and-miss, at least in Denver and Phoenix. I haven't followed what they did in Chicago and Philadelphia, although it seems like their plan in those markets centered around buying pre-existing podcasts and subscriber bases and going from there.

On the one hand, I'm always for creation of jobs in sports media. But on the other hand, what this sort of media leads to is the expectation of other reporters on those beats that they be fans, too.

 

So, it sounds like ALLCITY is about to be a major player in the sports media space:

x.com