LL Cool J and Ice Cube are a step closer to purchasing 22 sports channels after several outlets reported the two received several billion dollars in commitments of financial backing for their bid.
News of the actors trying to buy the channels came in November after the Justice Department forced Disney, which already owns ESPN, to sell them because it would have too much monopoly power in sports channels.
Ice Cube (left) and LL Cool J. (Photo: Instagram)
Others joining Cube and Cool J’s bid include the founder of Alex and Ani jewelry, Carolyn Rafaelian, who designed the championship rings for Cube’s BIG3 basketball league in the past.
The channels up for grabs include the New York based YES network, which broadcasts Yankee and Knicks’ games, Fox Sports Detroit, Fox Sports San Diego and Fox Sports Arizona. Disney is meeting regulators’ demands to sell the sports channel as a condition completing an acquisition of a major slice of 21st Century Fox properties.
Cube has already reportedly met with Rafaelian and the other financial backers last week to iron how much they’ll actually bid. And if the rappers-turned-actors are successful in getting the channels, they’ll cater to younger sport fans, which is something Cube alluded to last year.
“It’s time for the world to get sports and culture presented to them in a fresh new way,” he told XXL.
People seemed extremely proud of both rappers after the news of the bidding plans surfaced, and they called it inspiring. But some believed that others will try to ruin their plans by creating some sort of scandal.
“Come on black excellence, im just soaking it all in for when its my time,” one person wrote.
“Tell them be careful someone probably waiting in the shadows waiting to destroy what they have going,” wrote another.
Both Cube and Cool J have remained silent about the bid so far.
