Down for the count? Sports Illustrated fans weigh in as the once-venerated magazine ceases print publication and limps off into irrelevance By: David Sanderson Posted: 3:00 AM CST Saturday, Feb. 10, 2024

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/02/2024 (849 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

American sports magazine Sports Illustrated created headlines of its own in mid-January, when its parent company announced that all union-represented employees, including journalists, photographers and editors, were being laid off immediately, leaving the future of the 70-year-old, award-winning publication seriously in doubt.

Although a company spokesperson followed that up, stating the Arena Group would “continue to produce the Sports Illustrated brand and online content until the situation is resolved,” not everybody was buying it.

In an interview with Time magazine, a former SI staffer commented while it was true not all workers were being relieved of their duties, “it sure does feel as if its writers and producers are taking their last at-bats in the ninth inning trailing by 12 runs.”

The first thing Winnipegger Jeff Krieg did after learning about the mag’s potential demise was dust off dozens upon dozens of Sports Illustrated issues he’s latched on to, through the years. Krieg, whose home-based business Adanac Antiques & Collectibles specializes in sports memorabilia, figures he was in his 20s when he started reading SI on a semi-regular basis. Initially, he purchased fresh copies at the newsstand, but as time went along, he began to keep an eye out for older specimens, too.

“I’ve always been a big Denver Broncos fan so if I spotted ones with (former Broncos quarterbacks) John Elway or Tim Tebow on the cover, I’d buy ’em for that reason alone,” he says, leafing through a pile of magazines on a coffee table, many of which date back to the 1950s and ’60s.

Krieg, 62, always enjoyed a regular SI column titled Faces in the Crowd, which touted up-and-coming high school and amateur athletes. Whenever he scooped up secondhand copies at thrift stores or flea markets, he flipped to that page, to see if he recognized any of the featured athletes as ones who’d gone on to a successful professional or Olympic career.

Krieg, who also collects CFL Grey Cup programs and any and all ephemera associated with the World Hockey Association-era Winnipeg Jets, isn’t sure whether his mags will shoot up in value if SI ceases publishing altogether, the way the worth of a rock star’s old albums tend to do, when the artist heads off to that great gig in the sky.

“Out of curiosity, I did look online and noticed that a few I’ve sold in the past for around $20 — like the early swimsuit editions or old Super Bowl previews — are now priced at between $30 and $40,” he says, noting that a high-grade copy of Sports Illustrated’s inaugural edition from Aug. 16, 1954 fetched thousands of dollars when it came up for auction in 2021.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have anything quite that valuable,” he adds with a shrug.

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Scott Smith of Pompton Plains, N.J., is the self-dubbed “SI King.” Not only does the 59-year-old keep a copy of every Sports Illustrated that’s been published — somewhere in the neighbourhood of 3,500 editions — 95 per cent of his lot boasts the handwritten signature of the person displayed on the front cover.

For example, basketball legend Michael Jordan found himself on SI’s cover 50 times, and owing to a combination of luck and perseverance, Smith has persuaded the hall of famer to personally sign 35 of those covers. And as thrilled as he was to brush shoulders with the likes of Tiger Woods and Tom Brady, his most memorable autograph session occurred in 1989, when he was personally escorted to Muhammad Ali’s New York City hotel room, where the former heavyweight champ graciously added his John Hancock to issue after issue, free of charge.

Smith, a Sports Illustrated subscriber since 1973, wasn’t overly surprised when he read about the periodical’s recent troubles.

“Sports Illustrated had been sold two or three times in the past six years, and had become more of a branding company focused on pay apps, ticket brokering and building a hotel chain,” he says, when reached at home in New Jersey.

In his opinion, another contributing factor was the 2019 decision to shift from a weekly publication to once-a-month. By the time a fresh magazine came out, “yesterday’s news was old news,” he says, adding most people aren’t interested in reading about a football or baseball game that occurred three or four weeks earlier, especially when they can access much of the same information on their phone in a split-second.

When asked the same question posed to Krieg, regarding collectible value, Smith says he believes the monetary worth of his collection will rise if the world has truly seen the last dead-tree copy of Sports Illustrated. (In 2009, Smith created a buzz in sports circles when he unsuccessfully posted his then-collection on eBay, with an asking price of US$2 million.)

“Most things never go down, and with the scarcity of any new publications and collectors snapping up what they can find in near-mint condition, I believe they will only increase in value, over time.”

By the way, if you think Smith will be despondent if and when SI officially calls it a day, even if that’s somewhere down the road, think again.

“Selfishly for me, it’s a small blessing in disguise because after 42 years of doing this, I may finally have an endgame in sight,” he says. “Also, I have a gigantic database of fellow collectors who I help get their magazines signed (and) that won’t stop, as it’s a ton of fun. But new magazines no longer coming out will be a nice thing for me.”

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca