The Sporting Tribune, an online publication focused on covering Southern California, Las Vegas, and Hawaii, launched Tuesday night.
Former Los Angeles Times, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated writer Arash Markazi has co-founded the venture alongside Chris Mattman. Mattman is a data scientist who’s Apache Tika software helped journalists break the Panama Papers story, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2017.
“There’s always been a connection between Southern California, Las Vegas and Hawaii when it comes to sports,” said Markazi. “It was never hard to find the Lakers or Dodgers on radio or television, whether I was in Southern California, Las Vegas, or Hawaii. With The Sporting Tribune, we want to build upon that connection and strengthen that bond by covering teams in the region with reporters that have an established relationship with the fans. We’re hoping to build a community and a platform representative of the diverse region we’re covering.”
Markazi and Mattman created the idea for the outlet while working together as adjunct professors at USC.
“I’m excited to establish a platform that will serve the sports enthusiasts in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Hawaii, and also that will amplify fan engagement through the use of digital collectibles that unlock special programming and fan related experiences within the broader Sporting Tribune community,” added Mattmann. “Seeing how big brands like TIME have taken off in the web3 market to enhance and more deeply connect the journalism to its roots is something we are looking to build upon, specifically for the sports fans who are so strongly connected to these regions.”
The Sporting Tribune has already begun adding staffers as Alisha Ricardi and Michael Duarte will serve as editors. Markazi, Steve Carp, and Nick Abramo will write columns for the site. Blake Harris will cover the Dodgers, Ryan Ward will work the Lakers beat, Joey Linn will write about the Clippers, Taylor Blake Ward will serve as Angels beat writer, Fernando Ramirez will work the Chargers, and Ryan Sakamoto will be the Raiders scribe.
