Bill Simmons Discusses Temptation To Start Own Sports Site

Simmons Open To One Day Launching Own Site

ESPN's Bill Simmons said he likes "being the underdog," including the idea of "launching my own sports site, hiring some talented writers and designers and trying to compete with the big guns," according to a Q&A with Jason Pinter of the HUFFINGTON POST. Simmons: "I could see doing something crazy like that. I like taking chances, I am not afraid to fail, and beyond that, I am not afraid to fail violently and miserably." He noted he feels "semi-validated" with his current career, adding, "I always wanted to write a column for the [Boston] Globe. But if you flip it around, really, I wanted a column there because the Globe had the most readers. It had nothing to do with the Globe itself. For the last eight-plus years, I've been writing a sports column for the sports web site that has the most readers. Same dream, just realized a little differently." Simmons next Tuesday will publish "The Book of Basketball," and he said of the differences between penning a column and a book, "Book companies are even more rigid than ESPN, which I didn't think was possible." He added, "I kind of wish there had been cameras in the Random House offices when they found out that the book was 700 pages, just for comedy's sake. But that's the book I wanted to write, and eventually, they accepted that." Meanwhile, Simmons said he originally "didn't understand Twitter," but noted, "It's helped my writing a little because it's a challenge to craft jokes within 140 characters -- gets your brain cells going all the time -- and I'm competitive so I like messing around with that" (HUFFINGTONPOST.com, 10/21).

COULD IT WORK? SPORTS BY BROOKS wrote without "distribution from one of those same corporate sites or a consistent main media presence, it’d be very difficult for Simmons to build any substantial traffic, regardless of content." Simmons would "start his own thing, then farm out ad sales to another company, while striking a distribution deal with one of the major sports portals." But he has developed a "huge built-in following," so maybe he "could pull it off." Meanwhile, SPORTS BY BROOKS suggested that "when the time is right," Simmons will leave ESPN. He is "smartly using ESPN's unparalleled distribution to get his product out there," and "when he leaves, it will be for something substantial" (SPORTSBYBROOKS.com, 10/22).