What once looked like a done deal maybe isn’t so close to reaching the finish line. According to Front Office Sports’ A.J. Perez, The Arena Group is now refusing to hand over the Sports Illustrated website and select social channels.
Perez says via his X account,” Arena alleged in an email reviewed by [Front Office Sports] that it was ‘investigating potential unauthorized extraction of data and IP,'” and thus would not yet hand over the sites. Perez continued, saying, “Arena shut down access to Google Suite accounts of SI staffers, who (outside a few) technically remain Arena employees.” However, sources told Perez that the allegations in that email were false.
He also said that Arena tried to unsuccessfully take back the SI.com domain just as Minute Media was migrating content to its side on Thursday. Arena also reportedly tried to take over multiple SI social channels.
What a difference 24 hours makes. Just yesterday, Minute Media was taking over control of Sports Illustrated, The Arena Group would cease publishing under the SI banner, and the company was ready to use its new Athlon Sports site to post sports content. While the remains of SI FanNation and its writers were in limbo thanks to multiple parties (including The Arena Group and its former CEO), all parties seemed focused on a peaceful transfer of power.
However, that doesn’t seem to be the case any longer and we may have a very sticky situation on our hands.
