LeBron James’ Media Company Lost Nearly $30 Million In 2023 And Has Reportedly Never Turned A Profit
From an on-court perspective and with ventures outside of basketball, LeBron James is among the most successful professional athletes in the history of sports. Even the elite of the elite, however, take baths in the form of significant losses, and that’s exactly what James’ media company appears to be.
SpringHill, the media company that James co-founded in 2020, managed to account for $104 million in sales in 2023, but despite that nine-figure number, the company reportedly lost $28 million a year ago.
According to documents obtained by Bloomberg, the $28 million loss comes a year after the company lost $17 million in 2022 and is expected to lose millions more in 2024.
Given these numbers, it shouldn’t come as a shock to learn that SpringHill has never turned a profit.
The media company, named after the Ohio housing complex James grew up in, creates and produces TV programs and movies, most noticeably the remake of ‘Space Jam,’ which was a box-office disaster in 2021.
Among its most recent projects, SpringHill has helped develop the ‘Above The Fold’ series airing on TruTV, which is led by Jemele Hill, one of the most divisive and out-of-touch sports personalities in recent years. It’s a safe bet to assume that Hill’s new project will have a short life.
In hopes of slowing down the bleeding, SpringHill is set to merge with Fulwell 73, a British production company behind The Grammys and ‘The Kardashians.’ The newly-formed company is set to have 250 employees after making a round of staff cuts in hopes of turning some sort of profit by the end of 2025.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect in all of this is the amount of money James and his team have managed to raise for the company. In 2015, well before the launch of SpringHill, James helped raise $15 million from Warner Bros. In 2020, the company raised $100 million from investors including Guggenheim Partners. Fast-forward to 2021, and the likes of Nike, RedBird, and Boston Red Sox ownership jumped aboard the investor group leading the business to be valued at $725 million.
At the time of the incredibly large valuation, SpringHill had less than $80 million in sales and was losing money just as it is today.
We can’t ignore the fact that the pandemic completely shut down the entertainment world for around two years as James was attempting to get SpringHill off the ground and running.
However, it’s hard to ignore the thought that what we have here is simple: a megastar athlete getting into the media world and mega-rich celebrities and companies writing him checks to simply say ‘I’m an investor in LeBron James’ media company too.’
