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Thanks to the judge’s decision on Thursday, Diamond will emerge from bankruptcy court with a plan to keep their regional sports broadcasting business going. There are quite a few details to go over, with more to come, but I’d like a little more time to mull over What It All Means before diving into all of that. So, today, let’s just look at some basics.
Diamond will continue to broadcast seven MLB teams, far fewer than it used to, and all on deals that were restructured to varying degrees. The Cardinals, for instance, worked out a new deal, but will see about a 25 percent drop in annual revenue compared to where they were before. Part of that likely had to do with their severe drop in viewership over the past couple of seasons, though, we’ve already discussed one solution for that. The Braves stayed on the same deal, but granted streaming rights to Diamond. The Royals could still rejoin Diamond, but at this point the two sides are still negotiating.
The big change in the short-term is that in-market, standalone streaming is an option for all of the teams that are sticking with Diamond/FanDuel Sports Network, formerly Bally’s until a recent naming rights deal. These standalone streaming opportunities are very much up in the air in terms of their form, though, but it seems like the games are going to be available in multiple ways, such as through FanDuel’s app, so, Diamond will still be able to make money even from those who cut the cable cord.
We do know some details regarding the pricing and structure of the current Amazon partnership, as it’s going to be a lot like rentals for movies. For $6.99, you can stream a single game, per USA Today. I’m… curious. About how that’s going to end up working in practice, but maybe this is like a movie theater pricing thing, where a small popcorn costs a ton to encourage you to just give in and buy the extra large instead, and the $6.99 is going to look awful compared to just buying a full-season package of some kind.
This is going to be a period of transition, that much is for sure. These deals with Diamond go through 2028, which is also when MLB’s national deals end. Things might be tough now, but MLB is going to get paid come 2028, as every content provider with deep pockets looks to make their platform in a crowded space that much more appealing by way of being the home of MLB streaming. The league wants to do their own streaming, too, cutting out the middleman, but the allure of, say, ESPN wanting to host local broadcasts to populate their own platforms might be too much, depending on the size of the checks.
Part of why I want to think more on all of this is because the current collective bargaining agreement ends after 2026, two years before these deals do: MLB isn’t one to handle risk well, or says there is risk where there isn’t in negotiations in order to force the players to shoulder the potential financial losses, so I imagine all of this is going to be at the center of the next CBA talks. MLB trying to act as if the future is unknowable even as they line up to set some kind of new record revenue deal with [provider] in time for 2029, before the halfway point of the next CBA, things of that nature.
The MLB Players Association announced that they will no longer provide licensing payments to non-players as of 2025. Previously, as Evan Drellich detailed at The Athletic, up to eight non-players — coaches, trainers, and managers — per team were granted these licensing payments, as well as MLBPA-won benefits like healthcare. But that’s going to stop due to concerns over tax compliance.
That’s a shame, as these were “roughly” $50,000 licensing payments, and it’s not like MLB coaches were on player salaries (or, in plenty of cases, ever made big MLB wages during their own playing careers if they had them). But there’s not much to be done as far as tax compliance concerns go. This also isn’t looking like it’ll be an MLB-specific thing, either, as Drellich noted that multiple sports unions were given the same advice on the subject.
What’s going on with the Rays past 2025 remains unknown, thanks to hurricane Milton tearing the roof off of Tropicana Field, but for next season, they’re going to play their home games at the Yankees’ spring training complex. It’s right next door to St. Petersburgh, in Tampa, so at least the trip to Steinbrenner Field won’t be cross-state or anything.
It seats over 11,000, which doesn’t sound like all that much, but the Rays averaged just over 16,000 fans per game in 2024, so it’s also not like they’re being cut down from their usual by that much. (The Angels, as bad as they are and have been, still averaged over 31,000 fans per game last season — being forced to play in a minor-league park would significantly cut into their revenue, comparatively.)
The real issue for the Rays might be that Steinbrenner Field is more convenient to get to than the Trop, so the potential for more fans to attend games would be in place if only there were more seats to fill. This isn’t a knock on Rays fans by any means, but a reminder that a big problem with the Trop is simply its location and proximity to where Rays fans actually live. A problem the new ballpark they’re supposed to move into in a few years is not going to fix.
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