Ex-Espn Prez Tries To Out-Espn Espn

JOHN SKIPPER IS TAKING ON HIS FORMER EMPLOYER AS HEAD OF A STARTUP THAT WANTS TO BE THE NETFLIX OF SPORTS

- Ira Boudway

ON A RECENT FALL MORNING, JOHN SKIPPER IS BACKSTAGE at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater, a 5,600-seat space tucked beneath the famous New York City arena. He’s there to greet Canelo Alvarez, the red-headed Mexican boxer whose only loss in 53 professional fights was to Floyd May weather in 2013. Skipper, the executive chairman of sports media startup DAZN Group, has just signed Alvarez to the richest athlete contract in sports history, a $365 million agreement for the rights to broadcast his next 11 fights. In a few minutes the two will wind through hallways and stairwells to the stage, where Alvarez will pose chest-to-chest before the press with his upcoming opponent, Rocky Fielding of Liverpool.

In the meantime, Alvarez, in a dark vest and white button-up shirt, is autographing boxing gloves, pulling them from a pile of 300 and dropping each finished pair into a large cardboard box. When Skipper approaches, Alvarez pauses. “Thank you for being here. We are very excited about the deal,” Skipper says, shaking hands. “Muchas gracias.”

It’s a big moment for Alvarez, yet Skipper seems the more thrilled of the two. For him, the hoopla marks a big step forward in his comeback from a public stumble. “Today is a lot of adrenaline,” he says prior to heading onstage.

A year earlier, Skipper was president of ESPN and one of the most powerful people in television. In his six years on the job and 20 at the network, he helped build it into a $10 billion juggernaut for Walt Disney Co., cutting massive checks to the NBA and NFL and running the machinery that helps turn professional athletes into household names.