So the bankruptcy court will be having a "Status Conference" hearing on the MLB's and Teams motions tomorrow. 
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Bally RSN owner Sinclair looking at bankruptcy
- Thread starter Ccook55
- Start date
Prediction: The can gets kicked further down the road. A final ruling on the situation happens the day after the regular season ends, rescuing the affected teams and MLB from trying to patch together telecasts (and firming up carriage agreements with affiliates) until next spring, should the issue STILL be undecided then.
The Regional Sports Network Crisis: Will Diamond Sports Willingly Give Up San Diego Padres TV Rights? - The TV Answer Man!
By Phillip Swann The TV Answer Man –@tvanswerman Diamond Sports, the owner of the 19 Bally Sports regional sports networks, next week could forego its broadcast rights to the San Diego Padres by failing to deliver its regular rights payment to the team, according to a new article by Sports...
tvanswerman.com
Here is more as the MLB season heads to the midpoint.
So according to Law360, the MLB Commissioner is going to testify at next week's hearing. Still waiting for the court to post the audio file from today's hearing into the docket. Haven't seen any news reports out of today's hearing, so I guess nothing important happened.
MLB Commissioner To Testify In Bally Sports Ch. 11 TV Fight
www.law360.com
MLB and Teams jointly filed an emergency motion today asking the court to exclude Diamond Sports expert valuation of fair market value.
MLB, Guardians not expecting verdict Wednesday in dispute with Diamond Sports Group
Diamond Sports Group, bankrupt parent company of Bally Sports, has increased structured contract payments to the Guardians by 75%.
I figured this would probably take a few days. It wouldn't surprise me if this turns into a multi-day hearing. Diamond filed a 874 page exhibit list today and that just the publicly released exhibits. Half of Diamond's 188 exhibits were filed under seal plus MLB filed 112 exhibits under seal. Diamond witness list is made up of Diamond's CEO David Preschlack, COO David F. DeVoe, Jr., and expert witness Leo J. Hindery, co-founder of the YES Network. MLB'S witness list is made up of "1. Robert D. Manfred, Commissioner, Major League Baseball (Fact Witness)
2. Robin Flynn (Expert Witness)
3. Richard Dorffer, Chief Financial Officer, Cleveland Guardians Baseball Company, LLC (Fact Witness; Testimony by Declaration)
4. Thomas Harris, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, AZPB Limited Partnership (Fact Witness; Testimony by Declaration)
5. Neil Leibman, President of Business Operations and Chief Operating Officer, Rangers Baseball LLC (Fact Witness; Testimony by Declaration)
6. David St. Peter, President, Minnesota Twins, LLC (Fact Witness; Testimony by Declaration)"
It official. Diamond will not make it payment to the Padres who are not apart of the Bankruptcy. MLB will take over games for that team starting tomorrow.
www.sportsbusinessjournal.com
SBJ Unpacks: Padres' deal with Bally Sports ends tonight
www.sportsbusinessjournal.com
What happens to the Padres' TV announcing team/dugout reporter? If they are all employees of the Padres, no problem. But many MLB broadcasters are hired by the entity that produces the telecasts with the approval of the team and MLB. If the contract Don Orsillo etc. signed is with Diamond, who calls the Padres' next game? Someone from MLB's huge cast of studio talent, calling the game off a monitor in New York?It official. Diamond will not make it payment to the Padres who are not apart of the Bankruptcy. MLB will take over games for that team starting tomorrow.
SBJ Unpacks: Padres' deal with Bally Sports ends tonight
According to John Ourand of Sports Business Journal, Mr. Orsillo is an employee of the Padres and not Diamond, and most of the production staff are freelancers, and they will be paid by MLB.
The San Diego Padres' website has been updated with what pay TV providers and channels they will be on. Also they are offering DTC steaming through MLB TV for Padres games only for $19.99 a month. Padres Tune In | San Diego Padres
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Cox San Diego no doubt is working behind the scenes to have the Padres back long term.
Arizona's Law on Twitter has started tweeting live coverage of the hearing.
Here are the highlights.
Manfred: "Baseball's on a real high right now."
CFO Thomas Harris "see no reason to continue to work with (Bally) w/o (Bally) making the March '23 Payments in full, and there is no practical alternative."
The Rangers' attorney said this morning that "these are important... 25% of their budget are rights fees." AND, he said Diamond's profits are "9 figures."
Here are the highlights.
Manfred: "Baseball's on a real high right now."
CFO Thomas Harris "see no reason to continue to work with (Bally) w/o (Bally) making the March '23 Payments in full, and there is no practical alternative."
The Rangers' attorney said this morning that "these are important... 25% of their budget are rights fees." AND, he said Diamond's profits are "9 figures."
Meanwhile, back in San Diego, any and all San Diego Padres related programming has been purged from the Bally Sports San Diego schedule. It's all Sinclair produced filler now. Absolutely no mention of Bally's at the start of tonight's game against Miami. Officially, it's now "San Diego Padres Baseball presented by Major League Baseball"
So does Bally sports still exist in San Diego, why would any provider still carry it at this point.
The issue is that people have subscribed. A local RSN is usually $9 a month.
Who wants to watch nothing though? The Padres are why people subscribed.
It'll probably disappear at some point. I think Padres was all they had. Probably why it was unprofitable.
Maybe they can get the rights to reruns of “The Baseball Bunch” with The San Diego Chicken….
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