Well, That Was Quick – The Sportsquake of 2023 Has Started

On March 5th, a wrote a blog titled “Major League Problems With Sports Play-By-Play” In it, I wrote about what I call the “Sportsquake of 2023” and how several Regional Sports Networks (RSNs) are in big trouble financially. Here is a quote from my blog – “Things are changing so quickly as I write this on March 5, 2023, that it may be out-of-date by the time the Chicago River turns green.” One of those RSNs that I wrote about was Diamond Sports.

Well, I missed it by one day as yesterday (March 11th), they turned the Chicago River Green and today, the spreadsheet at Diamond Sports turned red. Several media outlets are reporting that Diamond Sports is on the brink of bankruptcy. Diamond Sports is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group and in a naming rights deal, they have branded their 19 wholly owned RSNs as Bally Sports Networks. They broadcast MLB, NBA and NHL teams in those 19 markets. In 2019, Sinclair/Diamond paid Disney 9.6 billion dollars for all 19 of those networks and to say the least, things have not gone very well. Sources close to the situation say that company is expected to file for bankruptcy March 17, just a couple of weeks before the MLB season opens.

Diamond is expected to use the bankruptcy proceedings to reject the contracts of at least four teams to which it pays more in rights fees than it collects back through cable contracts and ads. The teams in the red include the Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Guardians, San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks, according to a source. Diamond stands to lose $20 million annually on San Diego alone, the source added.

Major League Baseball is not going to sit around and wait for that kind of business error to happen, so commissioner Rob Manfred is stepping-up to the plate to save baseball on TV in those and perhaps other markets. MLB has not finalized plans for how fans in those areas will be able to view the games, but the word is that they will be available through the MLB.TV app for around $15 a month. As for NBA and NHL games, their seasons are coming to a close and most playoff games are broadcast on national networks. So, chances are, those leagues will be OK - for now. It should be noted that another sports broadcaster, AT&T SportsNet already announced plans to shut-down their four RSNs at the end of March.

For now, this doesn’t affect Chicago sports fans as our two RSNs, NBC Sports Chicago (Bulls, Blackhawks and White Sox) and Marquee Network (Cubs and Sky) are not playing a role in this mess. However, Sinclair is a partner with the Cubs in the Marquee Network, so there is a chance that Marquee could end up as collateral damage.

To say the least, this is a fluid situation and even more confusing than the balk rule. Over the next few days and weeks, things will start to clear-up but for now, we may as well take cover because the sportsquake is here. For those of you who remember the great Jack Brickhouse, between games of a doubleheader, he used to say, “That’s it for a little while.” I guess I’ll go with Jack’s quote until more information becomes available. Stay tuned.