{"id":46282,"date":"2025-08-05T05:06:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T05:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/46282\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T05:06:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T05:06:15","slug":"dave-portnoy-reveals-barstool-sports-passed-on-wnba-star-sophie-cunninghams-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/46282\/","title":{"rendered":"Dave Portnoy reveals Barstool Sports passed on WNBA star Sophie Cunningham’s podcast"},"content":{"rendered":"

By JAKE NISSE, US SPORTS WRITER<\/a> <\/p>\n

Published: 17:13 EDT, 4 August 2025 | Updated: 17:16 EDT, 4 August 2025 <\/p>\n

Dave Portnoy is no stranger to partnering with athletes for Barstool Sports podcasts, but he recently turned down the chance to work with Indiana<\/a> Fever star Sophie Cunningham.<\/p>\n

Cunningham, who has seen her fame skyrocket after teaming up with Caitlin Clark<\/a>, recently announced a new podcast<\/a> alongside Complex producer and ‘Summer House’ reality star West Wilson.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

‘It wasn’t so much her, any time I have to deal with agents, it’s hard,’ he revealed on ‘The Unnamed Show.’<\/a><\/p>\n

‘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.’<\/p>\n

Portnoy added that the deal was nearly signed before he ultimately walked away.<\/p>\n

\"Barstool <\/p>\n

Barstool boss Dave Portnoy revealed that he passed on Sophie Cunningham’s new podcast<\/p>\n

\"Cunningham <\/p>\n

Cunningham even recorded a test episode for Barstool before Portnoy ultimately walked away from the deal<\/p>\n

‘So now, I like her but I’m kind of rooting against her,’ he said.<\/p>\n

After joining the Fever this offseason and teaming up with Clark, Cunningham has seen her fame rise massively<\/a>, topping one million followers each on TikTok and Instagram and scoring an endorsement deal with Arby’s of late.<\/p>\n

However, Portnoy revealed on ‘Unnamed’ that Cunningham wasn’t the only athlete he recently passed on.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Former NHL player Whitney, though, already hosts Barstool’s hit hockey show ‘Spittin Chiclets’ alongside fellow ex-player\u00a0Paul Bissonnette, and Portnoy ultimately decided not to go into business with the\u00a0Tkachuks.<\/p>\n

‘Chiclets is huge, the No. 1 hockey podcast,’ he said on ‘Unnamed,’ as reported by Awful Announcing<\/a>. ‘Is it like this enormous cash cow like [Pardon My Take’]?\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘No\u2026Hockey isn’t football. It just isn’t. You don’t have the advertising coming into it\u2026 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.’<\/p>\n

\"Sophie <\/p>\n

Cunningham has seen her fame rise massively since teaming up with Caitlin Clark<\/p>\n

\"Brady <\/p>\n

Brady and Matthew Tkachuk were also in talks with Portnoy over a potential podcast<\/p>\n

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.’<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Barstool already has (separate) shows with basketball player Patrick Beverley and former NFL star Arian Foster.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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