The St. Louis Cardinals are preparing for life after Bally Sports and are ready to get back into the broadcasting game. Bally Sports Midwest pledged to pay the Cardinals for the 2024 season but will likely relinquish the rights back to the Cards, meaning they need to find a new broadcast home or create one themselves.
According to a report by the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the Cardinals are ready for anything when it comes to their broadcast future. “There are multiple scenarios out there that could be in play, and we need to be ready for all of them,” club president Bill DeWitt III said to the paper. “If we’re ready to do it ourselves, then we’re ready for anything. That’s sort of my philosophy.”
The Cardinals have a few options at play based on precedent from other teams. They could team up with their neighbors, the NHL’s St. Louis Blues, and create a joint venture to seek subscribers. The team could also go the Cubs/Yankees route and dedicate an entire channel to the team in the same vein as Marquee Sports Network/YES. Lastly, the team could partner up with the other wayward toys that have been abandoned by Bally Sports and find a local distributor along with them. According to Dewitt, the end goal, regardless of which option they choose, is an in-market, direct-to-consumer option that should eliminate blackouts.
“This is happening everywhere, and we are an example,” DeWitt said. “That’s why we have to fix the eyeball problem first, and then the economics will flesh out. But we’ve got to fix that problem where somebody wants access to our games and can’t get it.”
I live in Iowa and bally was atrocious for us, watching and/or listening to the games are one of the few things my Pops and I have. Please find some resolution, for all us lifelongers outthere that live our RedBirds!! Thanx and go Cardinals!!
So in order to watch the Cards I still have to purchase Fubu or Direct Tv at $80/mo.
Please remember us Redbird fans in Memphis – we only got got BSSE and BSSO but if Atlanta or Cincinnati games didn’t conflict then xfinity would take the BSMW broadcast abd we’d get to watch and cheerfor the cardinals.
PLEASE include Memphis in your broadcast area map.