As it turns out, media rights aren’t the only the properties that ESPN acquired in its megadeal with the NFL.
According to Front Office Sports’ Ryan Glasspiegel, ESPN will also be taking over the lease to NFL Network’s 75,000-square-foot studios, which are located across the street from SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. It is currently unknown how many years are remaining on the lease and how ESPN plans to use the facility.
Nevertheless, news of ESPN assuming the studio’s lease is certainly notable, as it seemingly indicates that the Worldwide Leader in Sports plans on maintaining some sort of West Coast presence. Earlier this year, the network ended operations in its own Los Angeles studio, which had been the home of NBA Countdown, NBA Today and the late-night SportsCenter for several years.
At a minimum, one would expect that ESPN taking over the lease means that NFL Network programming will remain based in Southern California. The Disney-owned cable channel acquired the NFL cable channel as a part of the wide-ranging equity deal that was announced late-Tuesday night, although the agreement will still need to receive regulatory approval before being finalized.
In addition to the NFL Network, ESPN will also take ownership of NFL Fantasy and RedZone Channel, which it will distribute to pay TV operators. ESPN will also license three more NFL games per season that will air on NFL Network and shift four of its existing games to the league’s cable channel.
With the network also announcing a deal to extend its NFL Draft rights, as well as a separate content licensing agreement, it will clearly have no shortage of football content at its disposal as it enters its streaming era. And we now know that at least some of that content will be based out of Southern California, as ESPN’s banner will continue to extend to the West Coast.