re: Sources: ESPN laying off hundreds

A few takeaways from this thread:

1. I agree that we all should use every tax loophole available to us. It's designed that way and if you don't take advantage, it's foolish.

Brings me back to the Warren Buffet story about paying less in taxes (by percentage) than his secretary and saying there's something wrong with that. Many on the right, possibly many on this thread, suggested he should volunteer to pay more if he didn't like it.

Are you fricking crazy? If there are stupid tax loopholes that benefit me, I'll call them stupid, but you damn sure better believe I'm going to take advantage of them as long as they are still on the books and legal. Advocating tax law changes and making the most of the current format are two separate things.

2. ESPN may have overpaid for its broadcast rights. They have had record profits. Their increased cost came from overpaying for the college football playoffs and possibly the US Open, among other things. The SEC Network won't be cheap either.

For ESPN to go from RECORD profits -- from being the most profitable entity in media, period -- to needing to cut back to meet their profit margins tells me they paid too much and know it. They think they aren't going to get the return they want on these recent deals. College football, as much as we all love it, looks like a bad deal for them.

ESPN was/is paying $125 million for its BCS bowl rights. When the playoff starts, that goes up to $608 million. That's a 386 percent increase.

These cuts tell me they are realizing that they cannot monetize those games 386 percent more than they did the BCS games.

3. There may be shifting: I bet some of these guys get rehired and moved. The SEC Network will be in Charlotte? I bet some laid off Bristol folks end up there. Others will land at Fox's expanding properties, like their new car racing network. I bet most of these folks land on their feet, maybe within the company, eventually.

4. I bet that by 2015 or so, the headcount at ESPN will be higher than it was before the layoffs, just shifted around. They'll maximize their current deals, find some profit somewhere and get back rolling.