TV Cliffhanger! Texas Rangers Could Learn DSG Bally Sports Offer This Week
The Texas Rangers will reportedly receive an offer this week from Diamond Sports Group for its 2024 broadcast rights — but it could be at a reduction of the current deal.
Per Sports Business Journal, DSG is set to make offers to three teams by the end of the week — the Rangers, Cleveland Guardians, and Minnesota Twins.
If the teams accept the DSG offer, their Bally networks will broadcast those games for 2024 before the rights revert back to the teams in 2025. If not, their rights would revert back to Major League Baseball for 2024, and the Rangers, the Guardians, and the Twins would seek their own deals, likely in partnership with MLB.
For the Rangers, the amount could be a critical decision point for its free agency needs. The Rangers are owed $111 million in rights money for 2024 as part of a 20-year, $3 billion deal they signed with Fox Sports Southwest in 2010. DSG bought the Fox regional networks in 2019.
In bankruptcy court last week, DSG and MLB revealed they had a “framework to move forward” to finalize deals for nine of the teams it holds rights for — the Braves, Reds, Tigers, Royals, Angels, Marlins, Brewers, Cardinals, and Rays.
A bankruptcy judge in Houston still needs to approve the deal, which likely won’t come until January. The agreement means that DSG will pay those teams their full rights fees in 2024, and then those rights would revert back to MLB in 2025.
The Rangers and Guardians are the two teams that DSG either wants to drop or pay a reduced fee. The Guardians are expected to get $50 million in 2024. The Twins are the odd team in the arrangement since, technically, their agreement with DSG has lapsed.
Two other factors could influence what happens. MLB wants to purchase DSG’s 20% stake in the YES Network, which is the broadcast home for the New York Yankees, if DSG doesn’t pay every team in full. It’s seen as an incentive to force DSG to pay everyone what they’re owed.
Furthermore, Amazon has talked with DSG about investing in the business, which some see as an opportunity to make Amazon the streaming home of the games DSG owns the rights to broadcast.
For the Rangers, however, they’re still waiting for DSG to show them the money.
You can find Matthew Postins on X @PostinsPostcard.
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