On Monday, Barstool Sports officially unveiled its new office in Chicago.
Dan Katz a.k.a. Barstool Big Cat opened up a Barstool office in Chicago and brought a sizable number of employees over from New York with him. On Monday, he gave stoolies a first look at the company’s new “fantasy factory,” just west of the Fulton Market District of Chicago.
Katz, who has been working at Barstool for 11 years, started as a blogger in his apartment in Chicago.
“Now we’re back in Chicago, and it’s been my dream since Day 1 to have a fantasy factory,” Katz said on Barstool’s Viva TV, as an ode to Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory. “Now, my dreams have come true.”
The 8-minute video showed the tour of the multi-millionaire dollar, state-of-the-art facility, which features multiple kitchens, several podcast studios, a basketball court, and a golf simulator, among several other amenities.
After selling minority and then majority control of Barstool to gambling company Penn Entertainment (in 2020 and 2023 respectively), founder Dave Portnoy bought back 100 percent of the company for $1 (and some non-compete and future sale division clauses) this August ahead of Penn’s deal with ESPN.
Following Portnoy’s re-acquisition of the digital media company he founded, the company experienced a significant layoff process. In August, The New York Post reported that Barstool was bracing to lay off nearly 25 percent of its employees. Media reporter Andrew Marchand said a figure of 100 people were set to lose their jobs.
To be fair, the move to Chicago and the building of this state-of-the-art new facility came prior to the layoffs. But if you were wondering, this is what the new-look Barstool looks like a couple of months later, as the company goes all in on its move to The Windy City.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.