Curt Schilling to be Featured in ESPN Documentary on Broke Athletes Tonight

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Tuesday, October 02, 2012

Dan McGowan, GoLocalProv News Editor

The collapse of former Red Sox ace Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios will be featured in a documentary set to air tonight on ESPN.

The Billy Corben-directed documentary, titled “Broke,” is part of ESPN’s “30 for 30” series and features former pro athletes who have squandered their fortunes through reckless spending, bad investments or in Schilling’s case, poor business ventures.

Schilling’s video game company went bankrupt earlier this year less than two years after the state’s Economic Development Corporation signed off on a $75 million loan guarantee to bring the company from Massachusetts to Rhode Island. Now taxpayers may be on the hook for approximately $100 million.

Schilling, who earned more than $114 million in salary alone while playing in the big leagues, maintains that he has lost nearly $50 million on the company he launched near the end of his career. The goal was to create a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) known as Project Copernicus, but Schilling was never able to secure proper financing to develop the game.

The World Series hero had poured millions of his money into the company before it ever moved to Rhode Island, according Harvard Business School case study that was published in March 2010, just a few months before he reached an agreement with the state/

"I have put the majority of the money I've earned in my life on the table," Schilling said at the time. "If I make another investment, I will have crossed the point of no return from a personal investment and company standpoint."

Schilling has consistently blamed Governor Lincoln Chafee for playing a major role in the company’s downfall, suggesting the company was close to securing additional financing, but that it needed state film tax credits to seal the deal. After the company received initial approve for the credits, the state balked when 38 Studios defaulted on a $1.125 million payment due to the EDC in May.

The circumstances regarding the tax credits and an $8 million bank loan secured earlier in the year had caught the attention of federal authorities, but the U.S. Attorney’s office announced last week that it had completed its investigation and no charges will be filed.

The documentary, which airs at 8pm, also features former NFL stars Bernie Kosar and Andre Rison as well as several other former pro athletes who have fallen on hard times.

 

Dan McGowan can be reached at dmcgowan@golocalprov.com. Follow him on Twitter: @danmcgowan.

Related Articles

• Is Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios Going Broke?
• 38 Studios Bankruptcy: Executives Say Tax Credits Could have Saved Company
• 38 Studios Tried to Keep Public in the Dark, E-Mails Say
• E-Mails Reveal 38 Studios’ Desperate Attempts to Secure Tax Credits
• INVESTIGATION: Secret Documents Reveal True Risks of 38 Studios
• Insider Lawyer Paid $232,000 as 38 Studios Went Belly Up
• Insiders Had Hands All Over Schilling’s 38 Studios Deal
• Schilling has Invested ‘Majority of Money I’ve Earned in My Life’ in 38 Studios

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