'Gil's Arena' Is Undergoing a Few Changes, Some That May Include Gilbert Arenas Being MIA

Basketball fans who love hearing interesting takes on the sport, along with fun banter, are likely familiar with Gil’s Arena. Founded and hosted by former Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas, the daily sports talk show offers viewers diverse perspectives on the game from former professional athletes. A far cry from the traditional network model, Gil’s Arena is under Underdog Fantasy Production, a company that gives players the ability to voice their opinions sans the filters.

However, given Gilbert’s recent sentiments online about his relationship with Underdog Fantasy, along with him being MIA from the Wednesday, May 20, episode, fans are wondering if they’ll have to buckle up for some major changes.

As the show has grown in popularity, Gilbert decided to sell 50% of his stake in Gil’s Arena to Underdog Fantasy. As a result, fans have seen a decrease in weekly episodes as the network expands. This change follows the production team changing the name from Gil’s Arena to The Arena.

However, once a partnership is a factor shared and other voices are in the decision room, it’s common for things not to roll out as he expected.

For starters, fans noticed that during the conference finals, Skip Bayless was present and reporting in Gilbert’s seat. As for Gilbert, he was busy streaming on his own in a personal studio. And as online chatter grew, Gilbert decided to speak his peace about everything.

“I’m not sure they like me anymore. I just, I don’t know,” Arenas said via Awful Announcing. “I’m just going to let you all know. No different than the NBA. Just remember this, chat, words are powerful, just like in the NBA. When people start writing, the team is better without them, that player reads it, that player believes it, that player starts acting like it.”

He continued: “If you all saying this show is better without me and the producers say, ‘hey, fans, they don’t care if he’s here or not.’ But I’m on vacation, so I don’t need to be at work. I’m Finals. I think I’m on Finals duty, not this one.”

So while the goal of selling 50% partnership of the channel’s right in effort to scale, he believes that this new environment suggest that the platform can evolve without him in the picture.

Judging by Gilbert’s sentiments, anything is possible. However, while he did successfully create the show and build a fanbase, he wouldn’t be out of a job, per se.

Gilbert has shared that when brokering the deal with Underdog Fantasy, he was able to retain ownership of the name Gil’s Arena, once his contract expires. Additionally, he also owns the studio he built.

That said, if Gilbert is given the boot, he has the ability and the resources to start over. And while it looks like he was hoodwinked into making a deal with scale being the bottom line, his sentiments suggest that conversations behind the scenes may leave him having to part ways with the platform he created.