The San Diego Padres have a payroll of around $250 million. What they don’t have is a regional sports network to broadcast their games.
Diamond Sports Group, the parent company of Bally Sports San Diego, missed a payment to the Padres a week ago, and the grace period expired, which made Tuesday’s broadcast of the Padres’ victory over the Marlins the last on the bankrupt RSN.
“While DSG has significant liquidity and has been making rights payments to teams, the economics of the Padres’ contract were not aligned with market realities,” a Diamond Sports Group spokesperson said in a statement to Front Office Sports and other outlets. “MLB has forced our hand by its continued refusal to negotiate direct-to-consumer streaming rights for all teams in our portfolio despite our proposal to pay every team in full in exchange for those rights.”
Padres CEO Erik Greupner said in a statement the club has been “preparing for this groundbreaking moment,” and the games will be carried on DirecTV, AT&T U-Verse, and fuboTV — and MLB.TV without blackouts that typically shut local fans out from watching their local teams.
“The Padres are excited to be the first team to partner with Major League Baseball to offer a direct-to-consumer streaming option through MLB.TV without blackouts while preserving our in-market distribution through cable and satellite television providers,” Greupner said. “Our fans will now have unprecedented access to Padres games through both digital and traditional platforms throughout San Diego and beyond.”
Even before Diamond Sports Group — a subsidiary of Sinclair — filed for bankruptcy protection in March, MLB geared up for the possibility that it’d have to step in to produce and broadcast the 14 teams carried by DSG.
The Padres became the first to utilize that roadmap. Diamond Sports Group — a subsidiary of Sinclair — has made payments to other teams since the bankruptcy petition was filed it seeks to restructure $8 billion in debt.
The Padres must find a way to replace the roughly $60 million per season it had reaped under its deal with Diamond Sports.
