After saying that the company would continue operating as normal after a bankruptcy filing, a new report claims Bally Sports has failed to pay the scheduled rights fees for the Cincinnati Reds and Texas Rangers.
Diamond Sports, the parent company of the Bally Sports-branded regional sports networks, was scheduled to pay the Cincinnati Reds but failed to do so, triggering a 15-day grace period. If Bally Sports Ohio does not pay the Reds by Saturday, May 6th, the club will have the ability to take back its local television rights, something no other MLB team has done yet.
Bally Sports Ohio and the Cincinnati Reds agreed to a 15-year contract extension in 2016 that would see the club remain with the cable channel through the 2032 season. In the previous contract, the regional sports network paid the club $30 million per season, but the extension moved that number up to a reported $48 million per year.
A previous filing by Major League Baseball, Minnesota Twins, and Cleveland Guardians sought an emergency legal hearing over unpaid fees to those clubs. The Arizona Diamondbacks had also not been paid by the RSN operator.
Bally Sports North pays the Twins a reported $42 million per season, while Bally Sports Great Lakes has a deal that pays the Cleveland Guardians $55 million per year.
After that filing, other teams, including the Diamondbacks, Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers, Tampa Bay Rays, and Texas Rangers claimed they “reserved their rights to join in the motion if Diamond also fails to pay them in the future.”
Now, the Rangers have joined the suit after claims it has also not been paid by Bally Sports.
“That ‘there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch’ is a well-recognized, simple, but axiomatic economic principle,” the Rangers said in the filing, according to a report from The Athletic. “Everyone understands it—everyone, apparently, except [Diamond Sports]. Here, they are getting lunch—using the right to create content based on the Rangers’ baseball games, and in turn, selling that content to distributors—but without paying for it.”
A court hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday, May 31st.
