Dave Portnoy is no stranger to partnering with athletes for Barstool Sports podcasts, but he recently turned down the chance to work with Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham.
Cunningham, who has seen her fame skyrocket after teaming up with Caitlin Clark, recently announced a new podcast alongside Complex producer and ‘Summer House’ reality star West Wilson.
And while Portnoy had the pair record a test episode for his company, the show ultimately landed at Colin Cowherd’s ‘The Volume’ network after the Barstool boss felt his business was ‘getting screwed’ in negotiations.
‘It wasn’t so much her, any time I have to deal with agents, it’s hard,’ he revealed on ‘The Unnamed Show.’
‘I really thought we would be carrying so much of the weight, marketing, all this s***, and her focus wasn’t going to be the podcast. It was just one amongst 9,000 things she was doing. And so it felt like we were getting screwed.’
Portnoy added that the deal was nearly signed before he ultimately walked away.
Barstool boss Dave Portnoy revealed that he passed on Sophie Cunningham’s new podcast
Cunningham even recorded a test episode for Barstool before Portnoy ultimately walked away from the deal
‘So now, I like her but I’m kind of rooting against her,’ he said.
After joining the Fever this offseason and teaming up with Clark, Cunningham has seen her fame rise massively, topping one million followers each on TikTok and Instagram and scoring an endorsement deal with Arby’s of late.
However, Portnoy revealed on ‘Unnamed’ that Cunningham wasn’t the only athlete he recently passed on.
He shared to co-hosts Ryan Whitney and Kirk Minihane that he was in talks to add a hockey show with NHL star brothers Brady and Matthew Tkachuk.
Former NHL player Whitney, though, already hosts Barstool’s hit hockey show ‘Spittin Chiclets’ alongside fellow ex-player Paul Bissonnette, and Portnoy ultimately decided not to go into business with the Tkachuks.
‘Chiclets is huge, the No. 1 hockey podcast,’ he said on ‘Unnamed,’ as reported by Awful Announcing. ‘Is it like this enormous cash cow like [Pardon My Take’]?Â
‘No…Hockey isn’t football. It just isn’t. You don’t have the advertising coming into it… If it was a football podcast, I’ll keep adding football because advertisers can’t get enough. Give me football. They’re dying to spend on football. You don’t have that in hockey.’
Cunningham has seen her fame rise massively since teaming up with Caitlin Clark
Brady and Matthew Tkachuk were also in talks with Portnoy over a potential podcast
He later continued: ‘It’s going to be a lot of stress in my life to not make a lot of money, but just have a cool podcast. At this point, is it worth it? And in the end, I don’t think it is. It’s just going to add f***ing a ton of stress.’
Brady and Matthew, of the Senators and Panthers respectively, are both multi-time All-Stars but Portnoy evidently didn’t think they would be a good enough investment for his company.
Barstool already has (separate) shows with basketball player Patrick Beverley and former NFL star Arian Foster.
The popular ‘Bussin with the Boys’ podcast, hosted by ex-NFL players Taylor Lewan and Will Compton, was also previously part of the Barstool network before departing the company in January.
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Dave Portnoy reveals Barstool Sports passed on WNBA star Sophie Cunningham’s podcast