Bally Sports parent company Bally Sports is in bankruptcy, and now they want to use that to pay some MLB teams less than their contract says they should.
According to a report from The Athletic, Bally Sports wants to cut what they pay the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Guardians, and Minnesota Twins.
In total, Sinclair owes $55 billion in sports-media rights over the life of their contracts, according to Bloomberg. Since Sinclair bought Fox Sports RSNs, payouts from cable networks are reportedly drying up as companies are refusing to pay the high price Sinclair wants for its Bally Sports RSNs.
Other reports say that Sinclairs’ Diamond sports group has about $585 million cash in hand but owes about $2 billion in fees to teams this year. Now they are hoping that MLB teams will agree to let them pay less, helping them through bankruptcy.
Right now, Bally Sports owes the Diamondbacks about $30.8 million. Bally Sports wants to put the money in escrow and not pay the team right now. MLB has countered by asking Bally Sports to pay everything up front with a possible repayment if the contract change.
This fight could result in Bally Sports losing rights to multiple MLB teams, depending on what the Judge does. Though these fights take time, and it is unlikely we will have a result anytime soon. For now Bally Sports will keep airing games as MLB teams wait to get paid.