It appears nearly a dozen Major League Baseball teams, including the Twins, will be looking for a new broadcast partner after attorneys for embattled Diamond Sports Group told a federal bankruptcy court it plans to only carry the Atlanta Braves in 2025.
Sportico writer Anthony Crupi reports that Diamond attorneys blindsided MLB officials Wednesday by announcing that the owner of a number of Bally Sports Regional Networks is cutting ties with eight clubs it had agreements with to broadcast for the 2025 season. Those teams include the Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals and Tampa Bay Rays.
Diamond's contracts with three other clubs - the Twins, Cleveland Guardians and Texas Rangers - expired when the 2024 MLB season concluded.
The company's legal counsel, Andrew Goldman, reportedly told the court Diamond's decision will allow the 11 ballclubs to "begin to make plans" for the 2025 season.
It was already unclear whether the Twins would pursue another deal with Diamond Sports Group after a rocky 2024 campaign that saw a disagreement over fees between Bally and Comcast result in a blackout of games from May all the way through August.
"Today’s news was more about the teams with existing contracts with Diamond Sports Group – we do not," said Twins Senior VP of Communication and Marketing Dustin Morse in a statement to KARE 11. "Today's news does not change the Twins' exploration of local media options for 2025 and beyond."
Attorneys for Diamond said during Wednesday's hearing that the company has delivered proposals to the 11 teams that are out of contract, rejected deals or are joint ventures.
Diamond Sports has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the Southern District of Texas since it filed for protection in March 2023. The company said in a financial filing last year that it had debt of $8.67 billion.
“Today marks an important step forward for Diamond with the filing of a baseline plan to enable us to emerge from bankruptcy as a viable, go-forward business before year-end," Diamond Sports said in a statement. "We firmly believe that through our linear and digital offerings we have created the best economic and fan-friendly engine for all of our team partners.”
Diamond attorney Andrew Goldman said during the 30-minute hearing that talks remain ongoing with all teams.
His counterpart, MLB attorney James Bromley, said he was surprised about the reorganization plan and said they were “sandbagged” since they only learned about it less than two hours before the start of the hearing.
“We have no information about what is being done,” Bromley said. “We’ve had no opportunity to review and now we’re in front of the court and being asked to make our comments."
Over the past two seasons, Major League Baseball has had to take over the broadcasts of the San Diego Padres, Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies after agreements could not be reached.
Goldman also said during the hearing that Diamond is “on a path to getting a new naming rights partner, which is a big development for the company as well as a commercial agreement with one or more streaming partners with respect to the digital rights that the company will possess.”
Diamond Sports Group also has the rights to 13 NBA and eight NHL teams, including the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Wild.
Judge Christopher Lopez has scheduled a follow-up session for Oct. 9 with a final hearing on the reorganization plan scheduled for Nov. 14.
Diamond Sports Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group bought the regional sports networks from The Walt Disney Co. for nearly $10 billion in 2019. Disney was required by the Department of Justice to sell the networks for its acquisition of 21st Century Fox’s film and television assets to be approved.