Dave Portnoy’s ‘Barstool Union’ stance despite AOC | Sports News

Dave Portnoy has reaffirmed his stance that Barstool won’t ever have a union, pointing to the successes of Alex Cooper and Pat McAfee as proof for why.

The Barstool founder, who was lately taunted with anti-semitic slurs whereas doing a pizza review, has beocme a common determine at Indiana Fever video games to watch Caitlin Clark, and hit out after the WNBA launched an investigation into racism in opposition to Angel Reese.

Portnoy based and created Barstool within the kind of a free newspaper that Portnoy would hand out to people on the streets of Boston, earlier than he constructed it into a media empire, which he then offered to Penn Entertainment in a structured deal price a complete of $551 million.

Portnoy purchased Barstool back from Penn for a greenback in 20123, after insisting pre-sale that he would by no means comply with let his employees unionize. That message back in 2019, which got here off the back of Bill Simmons’ The Ringer employees unionizing, prompted the New York State Department of Labor and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez to concern firm responses.

Ocasio-Cortez stated on the time: “If you’re a boss tweeting firing threats to employees trying to unionize, you are likely breaking the law & can be sued,in your words, ‘on the spot,’ ALL workers in the US have the protected freedom to organize for better conditions.”

Now, Portnoy has doubled down on his stance, whereas admitting that Barstool expertise has executed effectively after leaving his company. He pointed to Cooper, who based the ‘Call Her Daddy’ podcast earlier than making a deal price $60 million with Spotify. McAfee, who joined Barstool after his NFL retirement, lately signed a deal price $85 million at ESPN.

Speaking to NPR, Portnoy stated: “No. No. We definitely shouldn’t have a union. You know what our union is? Talent. If I look at the people that have come and gone, just briefly, like Alex Cooper left Barstool, made $70 million from Spotify. I think [Pat] McAfee got about $100 million at ESPN. Bussin’ With the Boys, a podcast, just got $60 million from FanDuel.

“Also, I don’t fire people. We pay great. And if you’re great, we use a model — I look at us like an athletic team. If you are a great player, and we sign you to a two-year contract, at the end, you’ll have the option.

“You can go get more money, because we can’t pay you, or you stay with us, and we pay you. But talent, for us, we’re in a talent business. So, talent pays. We pay well. We do well.

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“If you look at the history of our company, almost nobody leaves. We don’t fire anybody. So, we absolutely do not have a union.

“But I find it interesting, all the companies that kill us for that debacle, they all have unions. And all their people have been laid off and gone out of business. We haven’t. We’re thriving, and have for 20 years. People love working for Barstool.”