Major League Baseball’s Cardinals are returning to Diamond Sports Group in a revised rights deal. However, the formal stance of the league in the attempted reorganization of the bankrupt regional sports network operator is still uncertain.
The club and DSG announced a new, multiyear agreement that supersedes a prior pact that had been scheduled to run to 2032, and notably, includes direct-to-consumer streaming rights for the first time in that market for Cardinals games.
Like what DSG is attempting to do with most of its other MLB rights deals, the reworked Cardinals pact includes a rights fee reduction, estimated in this case at more than 20%. But even as other teams such as the Brewers, Guardians, and Twins have chosen MLB’s in-house model for production and local games, the status quo was preferable for the Cardinals. Also helping fuel the reworked deal with DSG is the Cardinals’ position as an equity holder in the local FanDuel Sports Network Midwest.
“We valued the continuity of our fans staying on the same network as the Blues, and we are excited that we will now be able to expand access to our games,” said team president Bill DeWitt III.
The Cardinals join the Braves and Marlins in DSG’s known baseball plans for next season. The local broadcast fate of the Angels, Rays, Reds, Royals, and Tigers is still uncertain as the situation continues.
Deadline Looms
MLB, meanwhile, has yet to file a long-expected objection to DSG’s reorganization plan, and a deadline to do so was shifted for the second time this week. After a prior deadline of Tuesday was changed to Thursday, a subsequent filing again moved that timing, this time to Friday afternoon.
While DSG struck revised rights deals with the NBA and NHL, shoring up its fall and winter sports programming, its relationship with MLB has been far more adversarial. For nearly two years, there has been steady rancor between the company and the league, and most recently, MLB pleaded with the court to get clarity on DSG’s full broadcast plans for 2025.
