Acquisitions in Sports Marketing: How Much is Too Much?

It’s cliché, but true, those who have the money have the power. ABC, the media giant, is making acquisitions in the online arena like headcoach Bruce Pearl, sweats—daily.

On February 12, Disney network picked up “The Talented Mr. Roto,” which is a site that began as an online fan group which later acquired columnists, reporters and scouts, according to a PaidContent.org article. This site will be phased into the ESPN Web site as part of a push for fantasy sports but will continue to keep its own brand name.

Fast forward a day, and ESPN again wants its voice heard online as it acquires TrueHoops.com, a leading sports blog about the NBA. As a packaged deal, ESPN got Henry Abbot as an NBA expert, who will continue to operate TrueHoops.com but under the ESPN umbrella, according to a PaidContent.org article.

In a blog on TrueHoops.com, Abbot discussed the acquisition telling fans the site would not go “behind the ESPN Insider paywall.” While this may be reassuring to some, it doesn’t fool those of us savvy enough to know that ESPN and ABC didn’t come to make friends they came to stake territory.

From a marketing perspective, ABC gobbling up smaller sites, which by the way most probably can’t turn down the money offered, is pure genius. But how much is too much; when does the voice of many simply become the voice of one? If this trend continues, it could be very soon that those who have the money could silence the voice of diversity, which made blogging so powerful.