Bill Simmons will start his new "multiyear, multiplatform" gig with HBO next month, but that is just one aspect of his new career path as he is also now expected to launch his own website.
Sarah Ellison of Vanity Fair spoke with "many" people who "expect Simmons to soon launch his own content site."
The site would be modeled after Grantland, Simmons' vanity website at ESPN that covered sports and pop culture.
Ellison points out that Simmons' deal with HBO includes a new show, involvement with HBO Sports and HBO Now, and a new podcast. But there's one thing missing from the deal:
"I recognized an unnoticed nugget of Simmons’s deal with HBO: it doesn’t cover the very thing that created the cult of Bill Simmons in the first place — his column."
So it makes sense that Simmons would be, in effect, relaunching Grantland.
It will be interesting to see how many of the Grantland writers and staff make the leap to Grantland II, as there is some feeling that ESPN won't fight very hard to keep the site alive with its modest traffic numbers.
Simmons was effectively fired by ESPN in May when ESPN decided to not renew his contract, and he ceased to work for the company despite his contract running through the end of September.
