NY Times turns displaced sports reporters into … sports biz reporters?

Editor’s note: Once again, the New Your Times has redeployed staff from its shuttered Sports desk — with coverage taken over by the non-unionized Athletic — as Business reporters to cover “the big-money world of sports.” We can presume that will not include the big-money world of cost-cutting in sports journalism, however.   

New York Times business editor Ellen Pollock sent out the following announcement:

We’re happy to announce that five talented colleagues who’ve done a range of impressive work on the Sports desk are joining Business. They will ambitiously examine the power, economics, institutions and personalities that drive the big-money world of sports, among other topics. Ken Belson, Joe Drape, Kevin Draper, Tania Ganguli and Jenny Vrentas recently started with us, working with Connor Ennis. We’re also pleased to have welcomed Santul Nerkar, the fellow in Sports, to our desk.

For Ken Belson, this is a return to an old home. Ken covered media and telecommunications in BizDay earlier in his two-decade career at The Times. He reported on business from the Tokyo bureau (and sometimes sports — ask him about the ancient and dangerous sport of botaoshi),  and also did a stint in Metro. On Sports, his relentless reporting on the National Football League has detailed how team owners undermined the league’s efforts to curb racism and sexism, and broke ground on the league’s measures to handle the ongoing issues of brain injuries. Among his many deep dives into business and culture, he’s an author of “Hello Kitty: The Remarkable Story of Sanrio and the Billion Dollar Feline Phenomenon.”

Joe Drape has reported about sports and money at The Times for more than 25 years. He is known for his coverage of horse racing and this spring wrote about the mysterious deaths of a dozen racehorses and the shadow that cast over the Triple Crown season. Joe has written about football, basketball and e-sports, high school athletics and the impact of the pandemic on the sports economy. He’s also the author of seven nonfiction books, his most recent being “The Saint Makers: Inside the Catholic Church and How a War Hero Inspired a Journey of Faith.” Last year, he worked with Biz on our informative series on sports betting, reporting with Rebecca Ruiz and Kenneth P. Vogel on lax state oversight.

Kevin Draper joined The Times in 2017, and has reported about the business of sports, media, litigation, league investigations, discrimination, sexual harassment and doping. In the last year, he has written about the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, sports betting, and the curious case of the Kansas City superfan known as Chiefsaholic. Kevin has recently collaborated with Biz on stories about the challenges facing ESPN and the national uproar over the raid on The Marion County Record, a small newspaper in Kansas. Before coming to The Times, he worked at Deadspin, where he reported on ESPN and sports media.

Since Tania Ganguli joined The Times less than two years ago, her beat has been the National Basketball Association. In the last few months, she has written about Bronny James after he suffered a cardiac arrest and the Denver Nuggets’ victory over the Miami Heat for their first N.B.A. championship. Her recent features include a look at the crew that transformed Crypto.com Arena from ice rink to court and back again this spring, and the story of Sonny and Uno, canine friends separated when one of their people was traded by the Phoenix Suns. Tania came to Sports from The Los Angeles Times, where she covered the Lakers, and previously worked at ESPN and several other papers.

Jenny Vrentas has spent her two years in Sports writing on topics such as health and safety issues, sexual misconduct, and more. She reported on accusations that Deshaun Watson had harassed or assaulted dozens of women and that the Houston Texans had enabled his behavior. In a story that won a New York Press Club award in May, she revealed that Watson’s contacts with massage therapists were far more extensive than he had admitted. Last year, Jenny also worked with Ken and Kevin on what was described as “stone age” dysfunction inside the Las Vegas Raiders. Jenny came to The Times from Sports Illustrated, where she covered the N.F.L.

There is one more person we’d like to officially welcome: Santul Nerkar. As the Sports fellow, Santul covered everything from the rise of the N.B.A. prospect Victor Wembanyama to Jets training camp.

Please join us in welcoming our new colleagues.