38 Studios Collapse Costs Schilling his Baseball Fortune

Curt Schilling, six-time All Star and three-time World Series winner, spoke to WEEI radio in Boston earlier this morning to discuss the collapse of 38 Studios, responsible for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, as well as the loss of his personal fortune. According to Schilling, part of the blame belongs to Rhode Island officials, including Gov. Lincoln Chafee.

Schilling, who used $50 million of his own money to found 38 Studios along with a $75 million loan from the state of Rhode Island, said to WEEI radio that the company could not go on any longer without raising more money from outside investors. Schilling conceded that he was partially the reason the company failed, but said the firm was on the verge of signing a $35 million deal with a major video game publisher for a sequel to Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning when public comments -- made by Chafee last month questioning the firm's solvency --  dealt 38 Studios a major blow as they unsuccessfully tried to raise private capital.

Schilling has also been subjected to a lawsuit filed by Citizens Bank, and has had to deal with the the forced dismissal of his entire workforce. 38 Studios missed its May 15 payroll and reported that its employees were owed millions of dollars in back wages when the state would not grant them tax credits to keep the company solvent in the interim. Schilling admitted that his workforce had no warning of the financial difficulties the company was in, and said he never intended to hurt the firm's workers.

"The employees got blindsided. They have every right to be upset. I always told everybody if something were going to happen, you‘re going to have a month or two of lead time, and I bombed on that one in epic fashion....It's been kind of a surreal 60 days, 75 days. It's crushing and devastating to see it fail the way it did."

Schilling, who has lot most of his baseball fortune with the collapse of 38 Studios, wanted to let the public know that he was not looking for sympathy.

"I put everything in my name in this company. I believed in it. I believed in what we built. I never took a penny in salary. I never took a penny for anything."

He spoke that his family and personal life "will probably start to change and be very different for us" in light of losing so much money. He said that he is completely "tapped out" of financial resources at this point.

Schilling earned $114 million during his 19-year Major League Baseball career, and though unreported, undoubtedly earned a good salary as a baseball analyst for sports behemoth ESPN. He is currently on a leave of absence from ESPN.

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Source: Boston.com