The Cleveland Guardians, Minnesota Twins, and Texas Rangers are expected to stay with Bally Sports for the 2024 season.
The three MLB teams will remain with Bally on one-year deals, according to MLB Trade Rumors via The Athletic (a paywalled publication). League sources told The Athletic that no contracts have been finalized yet.
While the Twins’ TV deal had expired at the end of 2023, Diamond Sports Group — Bally’s parent company — threatened to drop the still-contracted Guardians and the Rangers unless they could renegotiate at a lesser fee.
This comes after Diamond and Amazon struck a deal to help Bally exit bankruptcy. Going forward, Amazon will be the new home of Bally Sports streaming for direct-to-consumer packages. Prior to the deal, MLB reportedly rejected Amazon’s $150 million proposal that would see the e-commerce giant take over streaming the league’s games from Bally.
So far, the Guardians and the Rangers each are expected to take a 15% cut, the report said. This would take a significant chunk out of the teams’ respective revenues: the Guardians would lose about $8.25 million, and the Rangers would lose about $17 million, according to MLB Trade Rumors‘ calculations.
It’s unclear what cut Minnesota’s team will take in its renegotiated contract.
Last year, Cleveland reportedly made $55 million from its TV deal, Texas made $111 million, and Minnesota brought in $54 million.
Bally Sports wasn’t immediately available for comment.
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