ALLCITY Network, the Denver-based sports media startup, is laying off staff at some of its properties nationwide.
The company’s local presence is DNVR, covering local sports through streaming video, podcasts and more. Its Denver shows are taped on Colfax Avenue at the DNVR Bar, a bar and restaurant branded as “a place for the diehards.”
In all, 16 people at the network lost their jobs, CEO Brandon Spano told Denverite.
"We are very, very conscious of what this is and how it impacts people. We’ve never done one before and we don’t plan on ever doing one again, but as the business scales and grows, it does get more complex," Spano said.
The layoffs made up about 7 percent of the company's workforce, Spano said, describing it as a "really small percentage" of the company and adding that Denver is "largely unaffected."
The company has not publicly identified everyone hit by layoffs, but they include:
- Two people in Denver. One was Mitchell Carroll, a member of DNVR’s Colorado Rapids team who also worked on ALLCITY events. The other person, who hasn't yet been publicly identified, worked on Colorado Avalanche coverage.
- Five on-air staffers at the company’s Chicago outpost, plus additional production staff, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
- Other employees involved in hockey and baseball coverage.
"We’re really kind of re-imagining the content model here and trying to be more efficient," Spano said. Baseball and hockey draw smaller audiences in general than other major sports.
A disappointment for a company on the rise
The layoffs are a disappointing turn for a digital media startup that has been on a promising trajectory. The company launched in Denver in 2019 and now includes outlets in Phoenix, Chicago, Philadelphia and Dallas. Its mission is to “make it more fun to be a sports fan.”
The company has gained a loyal following with shows that create a sense of community for local sports teams, with an emphasis on daily coverage, in-depth analysis and personality.
Its most recent expansion, to Dallas, was announced this August. The company also recently held a $12 million Series B funding round led by TEGNA, the owner of 9News and other outlets.
“ALLCITY is at a monumental inflection point where the next 18 to 24 months will not only define who we are as a company but will also define the future of local sports coverage in America,” Spano said at the time.
With the new investment, the company has been re-examining its finances, Spano said.
"We have a lot of information, we have a lot of data that we didn’t have before," Spano told Denverite.
Spano said affected employees would get severance and a period of health care coverage, but the decision to announce layoffs a week before Christmas drew blowback online.
Spano said the company made the cuts as soon as it was ready, arguing that it was better to let people know of the change before they spent on holidays or made other life decisions.
"It's not always the best timing or the best moment for anybody, and all you can try to do is take care of people as good as you can," he said.
