Sports Illustrated's layoffs come at discouraging time amid growth of women's sports coverage

This past week, I was in London, England for an event and happened to be invited by my friend to the Football Writers Association Gala dinner.

The event was awarding Emma Hayes, legendary Chelsea Women's FC coach an award for her years of service. Hayes will start her new role as the head coach of the USWNT after the season is over.

In her acceptance speech which was witty and emotional, Hayes thanked former and present players, the club and media — with whom she is said to have a good relationship, she also spoke to the women in sports media.

"To all the women in broadcasting, press, and beyond the WSL press pack," she said tearfully with sincerity, "keep demanding, keep pushing, even though there's dark days, you know you're working and you're brilliant!"

Hayes was speaking to women in the room who have been working for years in men and women's sports in various roles. As someone who is in the minority gender in sports media (… in Canada and most of the world), her words resonated and I have been thinking about the role of sports writing in society.

WATCH | The  Sports Illustrated changes seen  over the years: 

That's why I have been saddened by the announcement last week of Sports Illustrated laying off all of its staff (unionized staff have three months and non-union staff fired immediately) and essentially shuttering. While The Arena Group had a license from Authentic Brands Group to publish, it missed a payment and that broke the agreement made in 2019. 

It's terribly discouraging that a magazine with so much potential and one of the greatest publications on sport in the U.S., is coming to an end. Like many, I can romanticize what Sports Illustrated meant to me and how their iconic covers influenced