Nearly a year after emerging from bankruptcy, regional sports network operator Main Street Sports is once again teetering on the brink of financial calamity.
The company is in advanced talks on a deal to sell itself to DAZN, the London-based sports streamer. If an agreement for DAZN to take majority control does not happen by January, however, Main Street Sports is planning to shut itself down entirely, industry sources said. Such a move would revert the local rights of nine Major League Baseball teams, 13 in the NBA, and eight in the NHL back to those respective leagues and franchises.
Resolution on the future path of Main Street Sports is expected by early January.
MLB’s Cardinals did not receive a scheduled December rights payment from Main Street Sports, and there is a chance that several other teams, particularly in the NBA, could suffer the same fate in the coming weeks. St. Louis, however, has not terminated its rights agreement.
“Main Street Sports Group is in discussions with certain team partners around the timing of their rights payments as we progress discussions with strategic partners to further enhance our long-term capital position,” a company spokesman said in a statement to Front Office Sports.
The impending situation with Main Street Sports was first reported by Sports Business Journal.
A combination between DAZN and Main Street Sports would give DAZN a much greater presence in the U.S., building on its larger foothold in several other parts of the world, notably Europe. The existing FanDuel Sports Network, carrying a naming rights agreement with the sports betting giant, would be folded into the existing DAZN platform.
DAZN, however, has had its own financial issues, posting in October a pre-tax loss of $935.6 million for 2024, itself an improvement from a 2023 loss of more than $1.4 billion.
Larger Considerations
The entire RSN business continues to be under significant stress as cord-cutting continues to accelerate. Although Main Street Sports posted a strong viewership increase during the 2025 MLB season, has begun to do so again in the current NBA and NHL seasons, and retooled its production under former ESPN executive Norby Williamson, the aim is to provide greater long-term stability. A potential combination with DAZN would do just that.
If a deal with DAZN isn’t completed and Main Street Sports shuts down, each of the three leagues would need to develop alternate plans to show the games of the affected teams. MLB particularly has experience in having to manage the local rights of some of its teams on minimal notice. Main Street Sports, formerly Diamond Sports Group, abruptly dropped the Padres in early 2023, the first team it did that with early in its bankruptcy reorganization. MLB’s local media department, developed to respond to RSN turbulence, remains in place and is prepared to take on more teams if necessary.
Most recently, the Mariners voluntarily opted into MLB’s in-house model for production and distribution of local games, winding down Root Sports Northwest.
