Nine MLB Teams Terminate Television Contracts With Main Street

The Main Street Sports Group appears to be on the verge of collapse before it can be sold to any other entity, as all nine Major League Baseball teams it had television rights for have terminated their contracts with the distributor Thursday.

The Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewsers, St. Louis Cardinals, and Tampa Bay Rays have all announced that they have backed out of their deals after the distributor, who owns the FanDuel Sports Networks, reportedly missed rights payments to both the Cardinals and as many as 13 of the NBA teams they have rights deals with.

Alden Gonzalez of ESPN was first to report on the terminations.

Main Street Has Been Teetering On Brink Since Emerging From Bankruptcy

Main Street, formerly known as Diamond Sports Group, has been down this road before.  The company, who went into $9 billion of debt to purchase 21 regional sports networks from Fox, emerged from two years of bankruptcy proceedings in early 2025.  During that time, they were able to restructure the rights deals they had, and dumped other deals they didn’t want to keep.  Upon emerging from bankruptcy they had television rights for 29 clubs across Major League Baseball, the NBA, and the NHL, and new sponsorship deals from both Amazon and FanDuel.

Sports Business Journal reported in December that Main Street was trying to organize a sale to British streaming service DAZN, and that it could shutter at the end of the NBA and NHL seasons if it was not sold by the end of January.  According to SBJ, DAZN’s agreement to purchase Main Street was contingent on clubs it owned broadcast rights for agreeing to accept smaller deals.  Teams have reportedly balked at the offer of smaller rights payments, and so DAZN appears ready to walk away from any potential deal.  Tom Friend of SBJ reported on Wednesday that Main Street has been telling teams that FuboTV has now entered as a possible second bidder for the distributor, though spokespeople for the streaming service, owned by Disney, have declined to comment and other industry sources tell Friend that possibility is not true.

“We remain in active dialogue with all of our MLB team partners regarding potential revised terms of our agreements going forward,” a Main Street spokesperson told ESPN in a statement.

As for the nine teams now in television limbo, they could return to Main Street if a buyer is found and this also gives them the opportunity to join the six (soon to be seven) teams who have their television broadcasts run by the league: the Diamondbacks, Guardians, Rockies, Twins, Padres, and Mariners (plus the Nationals, whose television deal with MASN reportedly expires at the end of February).  MLB commissioner Rob Manfred says the league has the capacity to take on as many teams that want to have the league running their broadcasts, and that fans will not have to worry about not being able to see their team’s contests on television.

“No matter what happens, whether it’s Main Street, a third party or MLB media, fans are going to have the games,” Manfred told The Associated Press Thursday at a news conference pledging 250,000 volunteer hours to support charitable organizations leading up to the United States’ 250-year anniversary.