Here we go again!
The Atlanta Braves are one of nine teams in baseball who are currently dealing with a murky outlook when it comes to their TV deals. FanDuel Sports Network is operated by Main Street Sports Group nowadays and as what seems like usual for this particular company, they’re dealing with some serious financial issues. These issues have gone all the way back to when Diamond Sports Group was operating Bally Sports.
Those issues continue to rear their ugly head, as Even Drellich and Katie Woo of The Athletic are reporting that the Braves (along with the other eight clubs under this particular umbrella) are anticipating to end up with “less money than they expected, or with a new broadcast partner, or both.” The reporters got some anonymous quotes from front office-types and executives who expressed a bit of concern that it’s affecting their offseason business.
“You don’t know what your income is,” said one MLB general manager who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about Main Street’s renegotiation efforts. “It does make a difference.”
Said another club executive recently: “In the event we thought we’d make X and now we’re making Y, you can always make decisions independent of that, but I’m sure that’s going to be a reality for all of these teams: they’re going to have to think of that (change).”
Considering how active the Braves have been and also how they’ve recently been considered to be one of the more (if only) profitable teams for the company, this may to end up affecting them as much as it would affect other clubs — especially the Cardinals since Main Street did end up missing a payment to them last month. It’s also a sign of the times that the whole Regional Sports Network model that used to help fill the pockets of a lot of ball clubs is starting to go the way of the dodo bird in terms of it being a reliable source of income for teams across baseball.
As such, the Braves are now in a position where their TV situation is once again up in the air. Considering how this has continued to be an issue for teams for the past few years, I’d guess that it’s only a matter of time before the Braves join the handful of other teams that have MLB handling their broadcasting. I also think that that would be a temporary solution since the Braves are actually an attractive TV product due to their large regional footprint and that we would eventually see the Braves on some sort of TV network — whether it’s an RSN or not.
That’s just me speculating, though. The truth of the matter is that this is a bit of a hot mess for MLB and one of their biggest RSN partners. It sure seems like we’re not going to see a long-term solution to this that results in the RSN model continuing on as it is. This is an issue that affects the NBA (including the Atlanta Hawks) and the NHL as well so this is truly a mess with multiple tentacles to it.
Either way, if you were wondering why things have seemingly ground to a halt for a bunch of teams when it comes to their offseason dealings, this may explain it. The Braves might end up fine in the long run no matter what happens but it’ll definitely have a major effect on the sport as a whole as long as this continues to be unresolved.
Category: General Sports
