Diamond Sports Group’s ongoing bankruptcy could soon impact two more franchises. The Athletic’s Evan Drellich and Mike Vorkunov report that the network is considering terminating its on-market TV deals with the Guardians and Rangers before the 2024 season.
Diamond, which operates the Bally Sports networks, already terminated contracts with the Padres and Diamondbacks during the 2023 campaign. MLB stepped in to take over the in-market broadcast for these clubs. Diamond had also sought to pay reduced rights fees to the Twins, Reds, Guardians and Rangers during the year. The bankruptcy court ultimately awarded these teams their full rights fees.
If Diamond formally terminates two additional agreements, the Cleveland and Texas organizations will need to find alternative delivery routes in their local markets. MLB could intervene to ensure these games are not suspended, as was the case with the Padres and D-Backs. Perhaps the franchises could strike a deal with a new regional sports network in the offseason. In any case, it’s a sub-optimal situation – although one that the team managers certainly expected at the time.
“Our intention is to transfer almost all of (our) Major League Baseball teams next year,” one of Diamond’s lawyers said in today’s bankruptcy proceedings (initiated by Drellich and Vorkunov). “There are some, very few, that we don’t have agreements for. And to be honest, that’s too expensive at this point for us to broadcast without concessions. I have been told that these discussions are taking place and that there have been contacts with both teams involved.”
Diamond has local broadcast deals with 11 teams. At the start of the 23 season, there were 14. In addition to the expired contracts with San Diego and Arizona, Bally’s contract with the Twins expired at the end of the year. The Athletic’s Dan Hayes wrote yesterday that a new short-term deal with Diamond to cover Minnesota broadcasts in 2024 isn’t out of the question.
The Angels, Braves, Brewers, Cardinals, Marlins, Rays, Reds, Royals and Tigers also have existing contracts with Diamond. Yahoo!’s Jonathan Randles and Steven Church Finance writes that lawyers for Diamond and Sinclair – the media conglomerate that acquired Diamond in 2019 – indicated in today’s court proceedings that Diamond may be fully liquidated at the end of the 2024 MLB season. (Sinclair and Diamond now operate independently after Diamond accused Sinclair of siphoning funds from the subsidiary.)
The uncertainty surrounding TV rights could impact the spending habits of these franchises. The Twins are cutting payroll this offseason. Only the franchise’s owners and front office know exactly how much of that is due to television viewing, but Minnesota president of baseball operations Derek Falvey called it a contributing factor.
While the Twins had almost exactly the average player payroll, Cleveland and Texas were at the opposite end. According to Cot’s Baseball Contracts, the Guardians ranked 25th in Opening Day payroll this year. The Rangers started the season in ninth place and have the fifth-highest projected roster for 2024 following their World Series win.
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