At least six Major League Baseball teams are poised to sever ties with their regional sports network, Main Street Sports, and instead partner directly with MLB for game production, effectively ending lucrative local media contracts, sources confirmed Monday.
Teams Ditch Regional Networks in Landmark Shift
A growing number of MLB franchises are opting out of existing deals, signaling a major upheaval in local sports broadcasting.
- The Milwaukee Brewers, Miami Marlins, Kansas City Royals, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, and Tampa Bay Rays have decided to partner with MLB.
- The Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Angels, and Detroit Tigers are also expected to join MLB, according to reports.
- The move comes after all nine of Main Street Sports’ baseball teams terminated their contracts on January 8, citing financial instability.
- MLB aims to control local rights for all 30 teams by 2028, eliminating blackouts and creating a national package.
- This shift could significantly impact team revenues, as traditional cable deals represent 20-30% of income.
The Milwaukee Brewers, Miami Marlins, Kansas City Royals, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, and Tampa Bay Rays have decided to partner with MLB, which will produce their games beginning in the 2026 season, as first reported by Puck’s John Ourand. The Cardinals, Royals, and Brewers have formally announced the transition.
The Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Angels, and Detroit Tigers, the remaining baseball teams in Main Street Sports’ portfolio, have yet to publicly announce their plans. However, a report from Sports Business Journal indicates the Angels and Tigers will also join MLB. The Braves released a statement saying they are “well on our way towards launching a new era in Braves broadcasting” and will share their plans in the coming weeks.
On January 8, all nine of Main Street Sports’ baseball teams terminated their contracts as the company struggled to find a buyer amid ongoing financial difficulties—just one year after emerging from bankruptcy proceedings. The teams continued negotiations with the company but, with spring training looming, set a deadline of the end of the month for a resolution. These departures suggest Main Street Sports may be headed for liquidation, though previous reports indicated it would continue broadcasting NBA and NHL games through the end of their respective seasons.
Main Street, currently broadcasting games under the name FanDuel Sports, began the year with 29 NBA, NHL, and MLB teams in its portfolio. A spokesperson for Main Street Sports stated, “FanDuel Sports Network is continuing to broadcast NBA and NHL games, and we appreciate the leagues’ engagement in ongoing discussions on our go-forward plans. We appreciate the relationships we have had with these MLB partners and their fans over many years, and we wish them the best.”
MLB—which hopes to possess the local rights for all 30 of its teams by the end of 2028 and sell them as a national package, a process that would help to eliminate blackouts—also holds the rights to the Arizona Diamondbacks, San Diego Padres, Cleveland Guardians, Colorado Rockies, Minnesota Twins, Seattle Mariners, and Washington Nationals.
Two years ago, MLB established a local-media department to address the growing turmoil in regional sports networks, driven by significant cord-cutting rates nationwide. Under this model, MLB broadcasts games, negotiates cable and satellite distribution agreements, generates advertising revenue, and provides local streaming access through MLB.tv—owned by ESPN under a new media rights agreement—for teams that lose their local media contracts.
However, this arrangement doesn’t generate the same revenue as traditional cable deals, which account for 20 to 30 percent of team revenues and provide a stable income source. The potential loss of this revenue for nine additional teams could significantly impact spending in the near future, potentially widening the gap between high- and low-payroll teams as the traditional cable model continues to erode.
In 2024, MLB and the MLB Players Association agreed to use funds generated from luxury tax overages to help teams offset local-media losses up to $15 million. This was a one-time measure.
Main Street Sports was formerly Diamond Sports Group, a subsidiary of Sinclair that acquired 21 regional channels from Fox for nearly $9 billion, leading to its bankruptcy filing in March 2023. Twenty-two months later—after missed payments, legal battles, and a three-month period where Comcast removed its channels—the company emerged from bankruptcy.
By January 2, 2025, the company had secured a new naming rights deal, maintained a substantial portfolio across three leagues, and established a commercial agreement with Amazon. There was renewed optimism, but it proved short-lived. Sports Business Journal reported in late December that Main Street Sports had missed a payment to the Cardinals and was seeking a last-minute sale to streaming platform DAZN. That deal ultimately fell through.
Main Street Sports currently holds local rights for the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets, Miami Heat, Oklahoma City Thunder, Cleveland Cavaliers, Indiana Pacers, Detroit Pistons, Minnesota Timberwolves, Orlando Magic, Milwaukee Bucks, San Antonio Spurs, LA Clippers, and Memphis Grizzlies. In the NHL, it owns the rights to the Minnesota Wild, Nashville Predators, Detroit Red Wings, Los Angeles Kings, Carolina Hurricanes, Columbus Blue Jackets, and St. Louis Blues.
