The St. Louis Cardinals have been in the news this offseason for their finances, with the majority of the talk surrounding their lack of spending. Perhaps the biggest story under review is the Cardinals' current media rights deal with Diamond Sports Group, which appears to be deteriorating as the offseason progresses.
Our own JT Buchheit covered the initial reports of Diamond Sports Group's imminent bankruptcy in December, but recent reports seem to indicate that dark times may be ahead. Bloomberg reported that the team's payments could be at risk in the process, which spells trouble for the Cardinals' immediate financial future.
No, it's not like this will affect St. Louis' finances, but it could be a major reason we don't see the Cardinals taking a significant step forward in payroll anytime soon if things don't clear up. NextTV's Daniel Frankel had this to say about the situation:
“Meanwhile, professional teams that rely on television rights income from their deals with the 19 Bally Sports RSNs will face serious belt-tightening as rights deals with them could be terminated amid the restructuring. For example, the MLB's St. Louis Cardinals have been identified as a franchise likely to take one of the hardest hits since so much of its revenue comes from RSN television rights.”
– Daniel Frankel
While in the long run the Cardinals could benefit from a change of scenery in their broadcast rights, they are in the midst of a 15-year stretch. $1.1 billion deal with Bally Sports Midwest and has an ownership stake in the network. Until a new solution emerges for the club, there will be a dark cloud hanging over the situation.
Derrick Goold captured some of Dewitt's comments about the situation at the Winter Warm Up, as Bill Dewitt III commented on how the situation as a whole is frustrating for owners around the league (excerpt from Goold's story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch).
“The geography of MLB's territorial rights is like 100 years old, maybe,” said Bill DeWitt III, Cardinals team president. “It's been modified with an extension, but you can imagine it creates distortion because of its antiquated nature. There's a lot of talk at owners meetings about cleaning it up. Put it that way. It's a bigger issue than us. I think those blackout areas are really problematic. in baseball and everybody knows it.”
– Bill DeWitt III
The Cardinals have the fan base to warrant starting their own network, similar to the Yankees and their YES Network. Even if they don't go in that direction, they have earned the highest ratings in all of baseball over the past couple of years, making them highly desirable for any network.
We will continue to monitor the situation in the coming months. Let's all hope for not only a quick resolution to this situation, but a win-win situation that entices the DeWitt family to invest more money into the club's payroll moving forward.
Next. Look how far the Cardinals lineup has come since 2018. dark
