Gilbert Arenas says he’ll own ‘Gil’s Arena’ name when Underdog contract expires

Gilbert Arenas spent last week warning his audience that words are powerful. This week, he’s putting his where his mouth is.

The former Washington Wizards guard fueled speculation about his relationship with the platform after Skip Bayless, fresh off his First Take comeback, was spotted sitting in his seat during the conference finals while Arenas streamed separately. Bayless was originally brought in to work on a football show alongside Arenas, not to host the basketball operation that made Gil’s Arena what it is. But there he was, in Arenas’ seat, during the biggest series of the NBA postseason.

“I’m not sure they like me anymore. I just, I don’t know,” Arenas said at the time. “I’m just going to let you all know. No different than 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.”

Now, Arenas is back on stream from a new personal studio, and the comments that felt emotional last week suddenly carry a lot more weight. His deal with Underdog is almost up, and when it ends, the Gil’s Arena name goes with him.

“I think I said this like a couple of months ago that my contract is up this year, and then after my contract’s up, I will own the name of my show,” Arenas said on stream. “I thought I said that, and I think they purposely nobody wanted to listen.”

When Arenas first partnered with Underdog, he sold 50% of his show to the platform, handing over meaningful ownership of what he was building in exchange for the distribution, resources, and business architecture he needed to operate at that scale, while the full cast signed multi-year contracts with the company. He needed a partner who understood the machinery of running a media operation. Underdog was that partner.

“I did fifty-fifty ownerships to get the foundation because I had no idea what it took to run shows,” he said. “Now I understand how to run shows. So I don’t need to do fifty-fifties no more. It’s called growth.”

The channel Arenas sold to Underdog is now called The Arena. The name everyone actually knows — Gil’s Arena — belongs to Arenas when his contract expires, along with the studio he just built and two years of experience running one of the most watched shows in the space. He is one of the rising stars in sports media because of what he built with Underdog. It remains to be seen whether he builds the next thing with them or without them.