ESPN to shut down New York, Los Angeles studios by 2025

ESPN plans to shed more costs, although this change looks different from what has played out over the course of 2023.

According to Puck News, the sports division of Disney aims to shutter two of their non-headquartered studios by no later year 2025. Its Pier 17 studios in New York City's South Street Seaport and its production house in Los Angeles are on the chopping block, likely as part of Disney's continued efforts to shed approximately $5.5B in operating costs.

The New York studios opened in 2018 and has been home to several studio shows in the last five years. Notably, it's home of "Get Up," "First Take," "NBA Countdown," "WNBA Countdown," "Around the Horn," and more. 

The Los Angeles studios are adjacent to Crypto.com Arena (formerly known as STAPLES Center), and have been home to the West Coast live editions of "SportsCenter."

Being the center of the global media industry, the major broadcasters throughout New York have played musical chairs with real estate for decades. 

ABC, ESPN's broadcasting sibling, has been scheduled to move from its longtime home in Lincoln Square to Tribeca since signing a 99-year lease for a new headquarters in 2018. The former Time Warner (now Warner Bros. Discovery) has moved its NYC base twice since 2003, including Hudson Yards, which was the biggest construction project in the United States as of the first stage of its completion in 2019. 

On the flip side, News Corp. (home of FOX and FOX News) and 21st Century FOX pulled out of a deal to move to One World Trade Center in 2016, just before selling some its assets to Disney in 2017. CBS sold its legendary Midtown headquarters in 2021 after it was re-merged with Viacom to form Paramount.

All of those companies aimed to consolidate their disparate parts throughout New York, and this rumored decision from Disney hints that it's going in the same direction. Yet it also speaks to the seismic changes around work since the coronavirus pandemic began in 2020. 

Obviously, some studio functions that can't be done remotely, but ESPN has often deployed remote broadcasts years before the pandemic as a way of reducing travel for play-by-play teams and other on-air talents. Most discussion around remote work has centered around white-collar jobs, and a consolidation of offices could be an attempt to cater to those wishes by employees.

Either way, in the short-term, Disney shareholders may be pleased even as the real estate transactions could lead to more job losses over the next two years.