Basketball fans started claiming tables at a sports bar in Denver an hour before the Denver Nuggets tipped off a recent playoff game.
But they weren’t just there to watch Nikola Jokić. Many were hoping to catch a glimpse of their favorite… local podcasters.
“They all know hoops for sure, but they also are funny as hell and it's super entertaining,” said Mark Ajluni, a regular at the bar.
“They're not afraid to have a hot take here and there, but they're also just like — they're genuine fans,” explained Micaiah Chacon.
They were talking about the hosts of the DNVR Nuggets show, a podcast and livestream that has slowly grown into a rare success story in local media. The bar — known as the DNVR Bar — sits on the ground floor of the company’s headquarters, serving as a real-world hangout for fans of the team and the podcast.
Upstairs, the Nuggets show’s four hosts had settled down in front of lights and cameras to watch Game 2 against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Meanwhile, thousands more people were tuning in online — to watch the guys watch the game.
"Cam Johnson, catch and shoot!” one host exclaimed as a three-pointer swished. “Oh no — are they not missing tonight?” said another.
The DNVR Nuggets show is the flagship of a company with a national footprint. After a decade of growth — sometimes thriving, sometimes surviving, sometimes laying people off — Allcity Network has expanded to five cities, 140 full-time employees and revenue well above $10 million, according to CEO Brandon Spano.
“Our goal is to see $100 million-plus valuation by the end of the year,” Spano said in an interview, and to expand to 30 cities within five years.
Survivors from a wave of startups
The company formally got its start as BSN Denver (the Brandon Spano Network) in 2015, part of a wave of new media outlets like SB Nation, Deadspin and The Athletic that hoped to build viral followings on the internet as newspapers and their sports sections shrunk.
“There was this excitement — this new wave of media can be anything and you could be really creative with it. You could build community off it,” said Adam Mares, who built his own following before joining the company as a host of the Nuggets show. “But there wasn't an idea of how can we make money off of it?”
Over the last decade, the company has adapted and survived, even as countless rivals have failed. Perhaps most importantly, Allcity made an early shift to podcasts and livestreaming and recruited scores of sponsors. It has taken rounds of Series A and Series B funding, and hopes to raise a final round of Series C funding this year.
Today, it has dozens of daily shows across the network, in addition to events, merchandise sales, written content and a membership program.
In Denver, viewers engage with the Nuggets show 6 million times in some months, Spano said, with sponsorships from gambling companies, local roofers, Toyota and others. And it’s become one of the most recognizable parts of the team’s local fan culture.
Phrases coined on the show — like Aaron Gordon’s nickname, “Mr. Nugget” — have a way of leaking into the fanbase, and even the locker room. Meanwhile, players like Bruce Brown and Peyton Watson return the favor with appearances on the show.
And down in the bar, fans from as far as Serbia and Australia make pilgrimages during trips to see the Nuggets.
But what keeps people watching?
Co-host Eric Wedum, aka D-Line, says he covers sports like a super-fan — not a buttoned-up journalist. The shows are about the emotional journey of the fans throughout the season, not just the Xs and Os.
“If something goes well, you want to sort of live in that moment a little bit longer — and sort of savor it,” said Wedum, a visual artist who first made his name in the Nuggets scene by designing T-shirts.
“Also, there's the other side. If you're feeling despondent (after a loss), you want to feel like that therapy session. You want to be able to talk it out and rationalize,” added Wedum, who is also the company’s creative director.
He’s joined on the Nuggets show by Mares, Brendan Vogt, Harrison Wind and Duvalier “Superstar Dev” Johnson, each bringing a different balance of analysis, journalism and fandom. But above all, the show is calibrated to feel casual and even empathetic.
When the team loses, the refrain is “that sucked,” not “they sucked.” When the Nuggets win, the host revel in it: “We are so back.”
The company is capitalizing on a bigger shift in media, according to sports media academic Brian Moritz at St. Bonaventure University. Audiences want to see and hear from personalities. They want streaming and podcasts. And they want to feel like they’re part of something.
“They're building a community, a fan base within a city's fan base,” Moritz said. “It takes that kind of sports bar ethos of ‘We're all watching our team together.’”
It’s about having an “emotional and visceral experience together,” Mares said. “I think that (sports) are in a weird way, really important in their absurdity … What else makes an entire city feel the same emotion?”
Today, the company has shows in Denver, Phoenix, Chicago, Philadelphia and Dallas.
Only Denver has its own bar, though. Running a sports bar on Colfax is “not a sexy business right now,” Spano acknowledged. But Spano sees it as a vital in-real-life place to build a virtual brand. Today, it’s owned and run by his wife, Lydnsey Spano, and recently became the home bar of the Summit FC women’s soccer team.
What happens when they lose?
Allcity’s timing has been good.
The company caught the podcast and internet video waves. It also has benefited from the legalization of gambling. At one point, gambling ads made up more than 70% of the company’s revenue, Spano said.
Ads and segments promoting gambling remain frequent today, though the company has since diversified and reduced sportsbooks to less than 20% of its revenue, he added.
Perhaps its best stroke of luck was the rise of the Nuggets from a perpetually hard-luck team to a champion under superstar Jokić. The team’s 2023 championship run resulted in $200,000 of revenue for Allcity, Spano said, including from a book and a growing audience.
“They came along at a good time because the Nuggets got good. Well, what happens when the Nuggets aren't good anymore? And I think that's when you find out how robust and built the community is,” Moritz said.
That question might feel a little ominous right now, as the Nuggets have struggled against the Timberwolves in the first round of the playoffs.
Back in the bar on that Monday night, the crowd got hyped as the Nuggets took a 19-point lead in Game 2. But the team slowly wilted under pressure from the Wolves. When the final buzzer sounded around 11 p.m., Denver had lost, and what was left of the crowd filtered out.
Up in the studio, the hosts started to make sense of it all for the diehards online.
“Man that was tough, that was tough,” Mares said. “Get in here, everybody. Come suffer together, be with your people here. Welcome, everybody, to the losers lounge, presented by Bet365, where winning is everything.”
In general, those post-loss shows will draw a significantly smaller audience.
“It’s statistically true. We have data on this,” Mares said. “Every win has significantly more views and money and everything else.”
Spano says the company is building a “diehard” following that will weather losing seasons. Four of the company’s five markets are profitable, he said, despite up-and-down sporting performances.
Tonight could put that theory to the test. After a disastrous three-game stretch in the playoffs, the Nuggets are facing the prospect of an embarrassing early elimination in Game 5 by the Wolves. The DNVR guys could find themselves playing therapist for an infuriated fanbase once more.
“We're the emotional repository for people, oftentimes,” Mares said.
But no matter what happens to the Nuggets, Allcity has its eyes on expansion. If it can reach Spano’s goal — 30 cities within five years — it will always be covering a winner, somewhere.
