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Pelicans Executives Detail Negotiations With Bally Sports

Dennis Lauscha (President) and Greg Bensel (Vice Pres.) gave an inside look into negotiations with Bally Sports Sinclair

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New Orleans Pelicans
New Orleans Pelicans

The New Orleans Pelicans broke the news of a new regional television deal just hours before the 2022 NBA Draft. President of the New Orleans Pelicans Dennis Lauscha provided an outline of the process in the official press release. Senior Vice President Greg Bensel gave a few more details on a call with Pelicans Scoop to explain how the team landed back with Bally Sports.

The Pelicans have been working on a better deal since the playoff run ended. The on-court product has become a hotter commodity thanks to that postseason momentum and fans deserved better from a broadcast partner. The team heard the complaints, “it was hurting the product and unacceptable to our organization” according to Bensel. The team even considered broadcasting games themselves.

New Orleans called up NBA Headquarters and asked other teams how they approached new deals in the streaming era. The Pelicans contracted Endeavor to help gauge the broadcast rights market. Karen Brodkin, Executive Vice President of Endeavor said, in the end, “We examined a number of options that were taken into consideration, but Bally Sports New Orleans, with its new Bally Sports+ platform and high-quality production, proved best for the Pelicans and their fans.”

CJ McCollum

Bensel further detailed plans that will keep Antonio Daniels and Joel Meyers in their broadcast roles. The popular broadcasters have their salaries covered by both the team and broadcaster. Now with the main contract in place, the sides can sit down to talk about retaining one of the most “beloved” courtside duos in the NBA.

Still, the broadcast will “have a different feel” next season. Bensel explained the negotiations towards the new deal included “enhancements from a production standpoint” including the camera and graphics packages.

Bensel set some new standards for the broadcast partner. "The message to Bally was: Frictionless as possible. No extra obstacles to see our games."

Zion Williamson

Lauscha said, “When we constructed this new agreement with Bally Sports New Orleans the main priority was distribution and the ability to deliver our games directly to our fans. With the upcoming launch of Bally Sports+, Bally Sports’ direct-to-consumer platform, any Pelicans fan will be able to have access to Bally Sports New Orleans in the team’s local territory. This partnership allows us to continue to deliver unique, compelling Pelicans content across multiple platforms with the highest production quality.” 

“We are still working on every option with Bally Sports New Orleans to improve the accessibility, ancillary content, and distribution of Pelicans programming to all of our fans across Louisiana and the Gulf Coast region.”

Lauscha added, “We will continue to work with Bally Sports New Orleans to produce more unique and exclusive Pelicans content to build around the game and deliver it directly to our fans. The excitement about the team grows daily and it is our job to not only bring that content to our fans but also unfettered access to watch our games.”

“It was imperative that we do a deal that would bring ease and accessibility to Pelicans games directly to our fans. In addition, we want to enhance the broadcast; we want our fans engaged with our team, our players, and our games. We believe this partnership accomplishes that. We stressed our concerns and the concerns of our fans during the negotiations not only to Bally Sports but also with other providers that wanted to broadcast Pelicans games. Our fans deserve and need to be able to access our games, without any issue or obstacle.”

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