What Bally Sports bankruptcy would mean for Timberwolves, Twins and Wild
The future of Bally Sports North, the television home of the Minnesota Timberwolves, Twins and Wild, is cloudier than ever with news Sinclair Broadcast Group-owned Diamond Sports Group, which operates the Bally Sports Regional Network, may be on the verge of bankruptcy.
According to Bloomberg, Sinclair is likely to skip a $140 million interest payment in mid-February, which would trigger a 30-day grace period that could lead to the restructuring of $8.6 billion in debt.
Bloomberg says the debt restructuring process could linger into May or June.
The longer the process goes, the longer MLB, NBA and NHL franchises have to wait to receive massive payments owed as part of broadcasting rights agreements with the company.
From afar, it appears the current NBA and NHL seasons won't be impacted as Bally Sports only carries local broadcasts through the first round of the playoffs, at which point all games are nationally televised. First-round action in the NBA and NHL will be over before the end of April.
MLB will be in the middle of the regular season when the potential restructuring is resolved. What happens then is anyone's guess.
Bally Sports North is not available on YouTubeTV or Hulu Live. In fact, outside of FuboTV, it's not available on any streaming services other than DirecTV Stream. For cable cutters who don't have a streaming service that carries Bally Sports North, the only other option is paying $19.99/month or $189.99/year to get Bally Sports+.
Bloomberg says Sinclair is considering a new streaming service that would give fans the option to pay for individual games, or even just the last few minutes of a game. Pricing for that possibility is unknown.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.