The sports media landscape is undergoing some significant changes this summer. In print, Postmedia has tightened its belt, combining the Vancouver Sun and Province newsrooms and cutting back on their sports beat reporters.
Sportsnet is introducing a new sports talk radio station, Sportsnet 650, featuring the likes of James Cybulski and Scott Rintoul, as well as the exclusive broadcasting rights for the Vancouver Canucks. In response, TSN has made adjustments to their TSN 1040 lineup, introducing a new daily show from the former Kurtenbloggers, Mike Halford and Jason Brough, while Matt Sekeres and Blake Price will take over the afternoon drive.
Online, however, is where things could get really interesting. Over in the centre of the universe, The Athletic has been using a subscription-based model to bring in-depth coverage of Toronto sports teams, including the Maple Leafs. They pulled in some big names, including James Mirtle, Tyler Dellow, Sean McIndoe (aka. Down Goes Brown), and the newly-added Justin Bourne and have seen enough subscribers to declare their risky experiment a success.
The Athletic also covers Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland, specifically targeting die-hard fans willing to pay for premium coverage. According to an article in Bloomberg on Monday, The Athletic needs 8,000 to 12,000 subscribers in a city to turn a profit. The only city where they’re managing to do that is Toronto, where they have 10,000 subscribers.
Most of that subscriber base is fueled by Ontario’s fanatical devotion to hockey, which has the founders of The Athletic eyeing the rest of Canada. The Bloomberg article hides a bombshell in the penultimate paragraph, saying The Athletic “is also diving deeply into the NHL, by launching hockey coverage in six cities in Canada that have teams in the league.”
While fans have questioned whether The Athletic would be expanding to other Canadian markets, this is the first indication that something might actually be happening. But does this mean that The Athletic Vancouver is enroute, providing coverage of Vancouver sports as a whole? Not necessarily.
The article only indicates that NHL coverage will be coming to the six non-Toronto teams, which would suggest that they only intend to cover hockey, perhaps under one overarching banner. That’s what they appear to be doing with their coverage of college football, covering a wide swathe of teams under the “All-American” url.
Would this approach work for Vancouver sports fans? Is there enough of a demand for coverage of the Whitecaps, Lions, and Canadians that a dedicated Athletic site for Vancouver would make sense? I’m not sure there is.
That said, with the coverage provided by websites like Pass it to Bulis, Canucks Army, The Daily Hive and others, would there be enough interest in a subscription-based site from Canucks fans? If the report in Bloomberg is correct, we will be finding out very soon.
This tweet from The Athletic associate editor Kaitlyn McGrath suggests the report is indeed accurate:
Lots of exciting developments with @TheAthleticTO (We're coming to a Canadian city near you!): https://t.co/JfRZA7KlgH pic.twitter.com/TkDX7SxPXu
— Kaitlyn McGrath (@kaitlyncmcgrath) July 24, 2017
Update: Comment from James Mirtle, editor-in-chief of The Athletic Toronto: "Long term we plan to have sites in every Canadian city but it's premature to say at this point when that will happen."
