The Barstool Sports Fund has raised $41,534,141 and has saved over 440 small businesses from going under during the pandemic, including some in Arizona. That generosity did not matter to the Pima County Board of Supervisors when they voted on Tuesday to nix funding for the Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl.
The Pima County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 at its August 10 meeting to remove nearly $40,000 in funding for the Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl, due to “misguided virtue signaling” say critics.
Until Barstool Sports became the sponsor, the County had financially supported the Arizona Bowl, which is one of the few remaining sport-tourism and economic development opportunities in the fifth poorest metropolitan area in the country.
Barstool Sports critic, Pima County Supervisor Sharon Bronson says the company “does not represent who we are as a region or as a community.” The company’s founder, Dave Portnoy, and other staffers have faced accusations of racism and sexism in the distant past.
Barstool Sports is the third largest sports media company in the country, only behind ESPN and Warner and that’s without having any television distribution. The internet comedy company has been around since 2004. Since then, they have recorded hundreds of thousands of hours of content and produced over 100 brands.
“While it is true that in the past, they’ve had jokes that have missed, comedies and content that didn’t land or stand the test of time, they have also evolved from those early years into the only sports media company with a female CEO, Erika Nardini (previously the Chief Marketing Officer at AOL), and an all-female C-Suite of Executives, with a leadership team with LGBTQ, Arab and Black representation,” wrote Kym Adair, Executive Director of the Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl in a letter to the Board. “Their staff of 280 are inclusive of every race, creed, color, and sexual orientation.”
Adair shared a story about the company in her letter to the Board:
This past Spring, you may have heard that the NCAA canceled a College Women’s Golf Championship Regional event because the course conditions were not up to championship standards. These women who were planning on playing in this event, were devastated. Not only had their chance to move on to the Finals been extinguished, they had their final collegiate games canceled right before their eyes. Barstool Sports and Sam “Riggs” Bozoian, Barstool Sports’ Fore Play podcast host, learned of this and immediately stepped up to host a tournament for these Universities up the road in Chandler. Through Barstool Sports’ efforts, all the travel, hotel accommodations, and golf fees for these student athletes were underwritten and they even managed to convince the NCAA to allow these teams to attend the tournament. A week after the Golf Championship Regional was canceled, 13 of the top women’s golf teams in the country were playing in the first ever Let Them Play Tournament hosted by Barstool Sports. Barstool Sports turned an idea into an event and positively impacted these women’s lives forever.
The Board will discuss how to reallocate the funding to a different organization at its Aug. 16 meeting. One Pima County resident quipped, “Maybe the Board can use that $40,000 to start a campaign to bring back Spring Training, which they drove away.”