The nine Major League Baseball teams whose games have been carried by the FanDuel Sports Network RSNs have opted out of their deals with the networks’ operator Main Street Sports Group, according to multiple reports Thursday.
According to Alden Gonzalez of ESPN, the MLB teams could still strike new deals with Main Street if it is able to find a buyer. The RSN operator has been in negotiations to sell a majority stake in its business to DAZN, but all indications are that the prospect of a sale is dimming. On Wednesday, Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal reported that Main Street has been telling MLB teams about a second buyer, with some sources saying that the interested party is Disney-owned Fubo.
What has kept Main Street Sports Group in business despite a prolonged run of instability is the simple fact that teams make more money from the RSN model than from any of the alternatives. In the event that Main Street is able to convince leagues and teams that it can stay afloat and consistently pay even a reduced rights fee, it would not be surprising to see teams agree to new, short-term deals.
But per all the recent reporting, the only way for that outcome to occur is a deal with DAZN — or another buyer — and any such agreement would require teams to agree to onerous terms. Friend reported Wednesday night that a Main Street-DAZN deal would require teams to sign away their digital rights through the final year of this decade, agree to a 50-50 profit sharing agreement, and accept multiple rounds of rights fee reductions. Among other things, those requirements would conflict with plans by both the NBA and MLB to pool their local rights and create a centralized distribution model by the end of this decade.
Add to that the fact that Main Street was already supposed to be on solid ground following its exit from bankruptcy last year, only to begin missing payments a year later. It is easy to imagine teams simply running out of any remaining trust to give.
If the nine MLB teams who were with Main Street — the Angels, Braves, Brewers, Cardinals, Marlins, Tigers, Rays, Reds and Royals — choose not to return, they will have the option to cede production and distribution of their games to Major League Baseball, opt to handle those responsibilities themselves, or find another third-party partner.
Currently, there are six teams whose rights are controlled in-house by MLB, the Diamondbacks, Guardians, Mariners, Padres, Rockies and Twins. The Nationals are expected to join them. Those teams, and any others who join them, will eventually have their games distributed in-market via the ESPN app as part of ESPN’s recent MLB rights deal. But while ESPN acquired exclusive in-market digital distribution rights to those MLB-produced games, it is not expected to exercise that option until 2027 (instead continuing to distribute those games through MLB platforms this coming season).
Most teams who have left Main Street Sports Group have opted to cede their production and distribution to MLB, but there have been some noted exceptions. The Brewers and Reds were both set to shift their rights in-house to MLB before last season, but opted for new deals with Main Street at the last minute. The Rangers opted to create their own RSN, Rangers Sports Network.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred assured earlier Thursday that there will be no interruption to the game broadcasts: “No matter what happens, whether it’s Main Street, a third party or MLB media, fans are going to have the games.”
Of the three major leagues with RSN deals, none generates a larger local audience than Major League Baseball. Even if the NBA and NHL wanted to continue with Main Street Sports Group — and that is a big ‘if’ — it is unlikely that the business could withstand the loss of its MLB rights.
