‘It’s a Really Sad Day’: CNN’s Oliver Darcy Breaks Down ‘Confusing’ Reason Why Sports Illustrated May Shutter

CNN’s Oliver Darcy called the future of Sports Illustrated magazine “uncertain” after news broke Friday that the iconic magazine laid off nearly its entire staff.

“It is a really sad day for people who grew up with Sports Illustrated, like myself,” Darcy said. He explained:

What’s going on, it is a bit actually confusing. Basically, the publisher of this magazine did not own the rights, outright, to publish Sports Illustrated. Those rights belong to another company called Authentic Brands Group. And, the publisher, Arena Group, they missed payments for the publishing rights to publish this magazine.

As a result, the company that actually owns those rights has revoked this company’s ability to publish the magazine. And as a result of that, Arena Group, which was publishing it, says that it is laying off its staff. So, it’s unclear whether the owner of the actual publishing rights for Sports Illustrated is going to step in here and try to revive this paper. The staff is, obviously, calling for that. But, right now the owner is not saying anything, and the future of this iconic sports magazine is really in jeopardy.

The magazine’s NFL editor and unit chair of the SI Union Mitch Goldich said in a statement:

Earlier today the workers of Sports Illustrated were notified that The Arena Group is planning to lay off a significant number, possibly all, of the Guild-represented workers at SI, a result of Authentic Brands Group (ABG) revoking Arena’s license to publish SI.

This is another difficult day in what has been a difficult four years for Sports Illustrated under Arena Group (previously The Maven) stewardship. We are calling on ABG to ensure the continued publication of SI and allow it to serve our audience in the way it has for nearly 70 years.

We expect The Arena Group to honor all the terms of our union contract and will fight for every one of our colleagues to be treated fairly.

We have fought together as a union to maintain the standard of this storied publication that we love, and to make sure our workers are treated fairly for the value they bring to this company. It is a fight we will continue.

Watch the clip above via CNN.