Simmons' new site to debut in June

ESPN announced yesterday that "The Sports Guy" Bill Simmons' new sports/pop culture website will be called www.Grantland.com and will officially launch in June.

Simmons: “As we planned it over the last 18 months, my No. 1 goal was to figure out how to capture the spirit and creativity of 30 for 30 and transfer it to a website. We wanted original voices, and we found a bunch of them already. We’re going to take chances, come up with a few premises and ideas that you haven’t seen before, and be consistently entertaining day after day. You will never know what to expect when you come to the site – in a good way. That’s our ultimate goal.”

The name honors legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice and Simmons' site will be home to his columns and podcasts and feature a diverse lineup of contributors including Chuck Klosterman and Malcolm Gladwell. Contributing writers will be: Michael Weinreb; Katie Baker; Molly Lambert; Chris Ryan; Robert Mays III; Bill Barnwell; and Patrice Evans.

www.Grantland.com will also feature a wide range of full-time writers, contributors and celebrity guest writers, who will be announced prior to launch.