On the eve of a hearing that could finally conclude Diamond Sports Group’s long-running bankruptcy process, the picture of which Major League Baseball teams will remain with the broadcaster became a lot clearer — all except for one team, the Kansas City Royals.
In a filing Wednesday, Diamond, which runs the FanDuel Sports Network channels, said it had reached revised agreements with the Tampa Bay Rays and Detroit Tigers. Those clubs were televised by Diamond previously, but before Wednesday, it was unclear whether they would be returning. They make a group of six along with the Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Angels, Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals as teams going back to Diamond in 2025.
A person briefed on discussions between the Royals and Diamond said talk of a return remained ongoing.
With the other deals in place, MLB and the Braves also withdrew an objection to Diamond’s plan they had filed on Friday. The objection didn’t seem particularly strong considering several MLB teams were already known to be planning to return to Diamond. After it had been filed, Angels owner Arte Moreno publicly discussed his team’s new deal with the Los Angeles Times. News of the Angels’ return was first reported over the weekend by the Orange County Register.
Diamond’s filing described the Atlanta Braves’ deal as “amended,” which was also new information. Every other team returning to Diamond is known to have struck a revised contract, but that was not previously understood to be the case with the Braves. It wasn’t clear what is changing in the Braves’ agreement, however.
Diamond’s confirmation hearing, which might take two days, is set to begin Thursday morning in federal bankruptcy court in Houston. After 20 months, Judge Chris Lopez is expected to rule on whether Diamond has a viable business plan to escape Chapter 11 status.
If Diamond successfully emerges from bankruptcy, the conversation for baseball moves more long-term: what’s in the amended deals? Are they all timed to potentially expire around 2028, when MLB’s national TV contracts are up? The Cardinals’ contract is set up that way. Commissioner Rob Manfred has an ambition of putting together a national streaming package.
The Cardinals newly granted in-market streaming rights to Diamond, as did the Angels. Diamond already had those rights for the Marlins, Rays, Tigers. That means those teams can be watched via a standalone subscription Diamond will sell via its own platform and also through Amazon Prime (but at additional cost on top of Prime’s standard fee).
Last season began with a dozen MLB teams in Diamond’s broadcasting portfolio. Five are known to be going elsewhere.
Three of them left this offseason to be broadcast by the league itself: the Cleveland Guardians, Milwaukee Brewers and Minnesota Twins. Another, the Texas Rangers, is trying to launch its own network, and has announced they will not be returning.
In court last week, Diamond revealed the Cincinnati Reds also were going elsewhere.
Diamond also broadcasts 13 NBA teams and eight NHL teams.
Thursday’s stakes might be lower after a flurry of court activity Wednesday evening. Another objection, one brought by Sinclair over an alleged outstanding debt of $6 million, was also withdrawn, removing two of the three that were in Diamond’s way.
Only one objection still hangs in the balance: The U.S. Trustee, the arm of the Department of Justice that oversees bankruptcy cases, believes the legal releases in Diamond’s plan are too broad. Diamond said Wednesday that those releases are “narrowly tailored … following long-standing precedent in this jurisdiction.”
“In short, the objections should not derail confirmation of the Plan and the Debtors’ emergence from chapter 11,” Diamond wrote.
(Photo: Chris Coduto / Getty Images)
