Matt Ishbia cannot put Bally Sports in his rearview just yet. After the new owner of the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury announced a new TV deal last month that will put the NBA and WNBA teams’ games on local stations owned by Gray Television, Diamond Sports, the owner of Bally Sports Arizona filed a lawsuit to stop the deal. On Wednesday, Diamond got some good news from the court.
The deal between Gray and Ishbia’s teams has been voided. The court ruled that a new TV deal violated the right of first refusal in Diamond’s contract with the teams. It also ruled that the Suns and Mercury violated the automatic stay in bankruptcy law that protects debtors’ assets from being modified or seized without their consent.
Sports Media Watch points out that the ruling does not guarantee that Diamond can match the offer from Gray Television. It simply recognizes that Diamond has the contractual right to match any offer to the teams that is worth less than the current TV contract and that the teams did not give Diamond the opportunity to make a counterproposal.
The Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury have argued that while the proposed deal with Gray is worth less money than the teams generate from Bally Sports Arizona, being on free, over-the-air television would make it easier to generate more advertising and sponsorship revenue.
