With the puck dropping Jan. 2 at the NHL Winter Classic in Philadelphia, NBC Sports Group launched a new era as it works to complete its new Stamford studios in time for the NHL season next fall.
In informal queries this fall, local businesspeople cited the planned NBC Sports Group expansion at the former Clairol factory in Stamford as the most significant deal in Fairfield County this year, ahead of Bridgewater Associates”™ move to sublease 225,000 square feet of space in Wilton.
Over the next few years, NBC Sports will add at least 450 people in Stamford under Gov. Dannel P. Malloy”™s First Five incentive program, with the NHL Network adding to that number. ESPN similarly took incentives under First Five to build a new digital studio in Bristol at an estimated cost of $300 million.
If ESPN remains Connecticut”™s leader in sports, as ranked by jobs, NBC is not far behind given its “Sunday Night Football” and Super Bowl powerhouses coupled with the Olympics, the NHL and the Golf Channel, among others. The Golf Channel is the only major NBC Sports unit that will not be consolidated to Stamford, remaining in Orlando, Fla., “at this time” in the words of Mark Lazarus, chairman of NBC Sports Group.
“We investigated many areas around the tri-state area. The experience we”™ve had here, and some of the inducements, make more sense,” Lazarus said, speaking in October at a Stamford press conference.
“Our company ”“ that”™s Comcast and NBC Universal ”“ is growing in leaps and bounds and part of the ability for us to come here is we”™re simply out of space in many of those facilities,” he added. “We are in an acquisitive mode looking for content that makes sense to build our brands around.”
With Chelsea Piers building a massive sports entertainment complex at the Clairol site, the overhaul of the Clairol property will top $200 million, estimated Steve Wise, who along with Clayton Fowler and Kevin Segalla acquired the property in 2009 from Procter & Gamble.
Another 150,000 square feet remains unclaimed at this point. While NBC Sports Group has hinted it might need additional space there, the developers say they are considering other tenants.
“There is still space available in the building, so there could be someone else interesting as well,” Segalla said.
Jack Condlin, president of the Stamford Chamber of Commerce, opined that in the hubbub of NBC Sports few people have fully grasped the significance of the NHL Networks deal, which is creating its first true headquarters in Stamford, with the league office itself to remain based in New York City.
Meanwhile, like a Zamboni machine Comcast on Jan. 2 erased the identity of its longtime Versus sports network whose production facility had long been based in Stamford, less than a year after Comcast completed its acquisition of NBC Universal from Fairfield-based General Electric Co.
“People talk about ESPN and other things ”“ I think we have a long-term opportunity to take these brands ”¦ between The Golf Channel and NBC Sports and bring it to another level it”™s never been before,” said Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast, in a conference call with investment analysts last year. “We have some long-term agreements in place. The Olympics is in a category by itself.”
That will be the case with NBC Sports Group”™s new Stamford headquarters, Lazarus promised.
“Our plan is to ”¦ build what we think is a work environment that is ”˜cool”™ and sports-like and make it a place that people love to come to work, and a place that people when they drive in the area are excited to see,” Lazarus said. “The facilities, the equipment that comes in here ”¦ will be state-of-the-art, second to none ”“ and we”™re thrilled to do that here.”
