I have a story that I think hits to the center of this.
I worked for ESPN for two months as a temporary PA (left to start my writing career) roughly 11 years ago.
During the interview process, I was asked by a decision maker at the company what I would change about ESPN.
I told him I would want more highlights and more focus on games.
He told me I was wrong and that fans don’t care about games once they go final, they only care about storylines.
I told him that storylines need the context of games (or highlights of them on sportscenter!) and he told me, again, I was wrong.
I think they’ve continued to lose touch with what makes sports fans, sports fans