Signaling a major thaw in the icy relationship between Major League Baseball and bankrupt regional sports networks operator Diamond Sports Group, lawyers for the league on Friday said they have agreed, through mediation, on a framework to keep 11 MLB clubs on Bally Sports channels through the 2024 season.
Attorneys representing MLB commissioner Rob Manfred told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Chris Lopez that they were dropping their motion to have Diamond accept or reject the existing local TV rights deals for each club.
Also at Friday’s hearing, lawyers for the World Series champion Texas Rangers told the Houston bankruptcy court that the team might agree to reduce its contractual rights fees with Diamond to keep the Rangers on Bally Sports Southwest for one more season.
Keeping the Bally Sports channels around for another year would give the teams more time to figure out their post-RSN local TV plans.
The detente between the league and the Sinclair RSN subsidiary reportedly emerged during off-site mediation on Thursday. Lopez set a January 10 follow-up hearing.
Lopez also on Friday dismissed a motion filed by Sinclair to compel Diamond to accept or deny its management service fees arrangement with the broadcast group.
Currently, Diamond owes its estranged parent company around $160 million and pays an additional $4.5 million each month for a range of operational services. Sinclair wants Diamond to pay more, but Lopez ruled the subsidiary can first figure out its restructuring before addressing the management service fees issue.
While Sinclair and third parties, the leagues included, are operating under the assumption that Diamond will liquidate following the 2024 MLB regular season, lawyers for the subsidiary said they’re still hopeful a pathway to a future can be carved out via the long, torturous, still-ongoing restructuring process.
