Sports fans are shocked to hear that many big name anchors and numerous writers for ESPN were released from their jobs on Wednesday, April 26. Close to 60 percent of Baseball Tonight’s staff were released due to funding being cut to the broadcasting station. ESPN went as far as to cut 95 percent of the hockey staff, leaving the bare minimum of writers left to report the 30 National Hockey League teams.

ESPN staffers such as Trent Dilfer, Jayson Stark, Jay Crawford, and Ed Werder were among the many that were gutted from the TV station.

Rumor has it that ESPN is lacking the funding to keep these big name anchors and writers on their staff – even reporters that have been with ESPN for 10+ years. ESPN is owned by Disney, a multi-billion dollar grossing industry that has more than enough funding to keep these reporters on their staff. ESPN cut an alarmingly high amount of their staff right in the middle of NHL playoffs and the NBA finals - reasons why these layoffs have raised more than just an eyebrow.

ESPN has branded itself the go-to for reliable sports talk as well as the hub for many major sports games and recaps that range from Tennis all the way to Monday Night Football.

ESPN is looking to revamp their staffing by adding more fresh talent, younger talent, and less demanding salary hungry college graduates.

This brings about the question of what will happen to ESPN as a broadcasting station? ESPN is the top sports network internationally – which makes me wonder as to where ESPN’s talent is looking to do now that they were given the boot out the door. Fox Sports 1 is another big name broadcasting station that is looking into acquiring some of these now jobless anchors.

ESPN has lost over 10 million subscribers over the recent years, which spiked interest in downsizing the station, pushing viewers and readers to alternate means of acquiring their sports information.

Switching gears towards other means of consuming sports content – what about Bleacher Report, Barstool Sports and other online, podcast streaming sites that sports fanatics turn to when they need quick, reliable facts? Many sports fans, like myself, have more than just the ESPN app on my phone to look at when I need a wide variety of sports opinions.

Do I think that most of these on-air personalities are going to look for other employment opportunities within the sports world? Absolutely. I don’t believe for a second that these men and women will take this as their last time being behind the camera or on the keyboard by any means. This just opens more opportunities for other sports broadcasting sites and TV stations to acquire well trained, well mannered, and more than well-informed TV personalities and talent that have been a pleasure to watch and read over the years.

ESPN has yet to release a statement on their recent layoffs, but I don’t think it will take too long for Jon Skipper to take to Twitter or hold a press conference in lieu of the layoffs.