Next season’s television income for nine Major League Baseball teams — close to one third of the league — is up in the air, adding a new wrinkle to an offseason where free agency has already moved slowly.
Main Street Sports Group, the financially troubled operator of the FanDuel Sports Network regional sports channels, is attempting to re-negotiate what it pays 29 partner teams across MLB, NBA and NHL. People briefed on the company’s finances who were not authorized to speak publicly said Main Street lost approximately $200 million in 2025 across its portfolio, which includes baseball’s Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals and Tampa Bay Rays.
Regardless of whether Main Street survives or is ultimately sold or dissolved, the same outcomes are possible: Teams could wind up with less money than they expected, or with a new broadcast partner, or both. The start of spring training is a little more than a month away, and a revenue change can affect roster building.
“You don’t know what your income is,” said one MLB general manager who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about Main Street’s renegotiation efforts. “It does make a difference.”
Said another club executive: “In the event we thought we’d make X and now we’re making Y, you can always make decisions independent of that, but I’m sure that’s going to be a reality for all of these teams: they’re going to have to think of that (change).”
Main Street missed a payment to the St. Louis Cardinals last month and the Cardinals are now deliberating whether to return to FanDuel SN next season, people briefed on those discussions said. The Cards, like many teams, have been negotiating with Main Street in recent days and are expected to soon decide whether to remain with FanDuel under a reworked agreement or to leave the network altogether.
“Main Street Sports Group is in dialogue with its team and league partners around the timing of rights payments as we progress discussions with strategic partners to further enhance our long-term capital position,” Main Street said in a statement.
MLB itself stands as the most likely home for any teams that leave Main Street in the near future, including the Cardinals. The league has handled TV production and distribution for multiple teams in each of the last three seasons, and has an expected roster of at least seven teams for 2026.
Revenues for regional sports networks have dropped this decade amidst cord-cutting and the rise of streaming. Main Street asked MLB teams to take cuts heading into 2025 as well, and local TV stations have been struggling long enough now that the league office will no longer provide a form of short-term aid to clubs that it once did.
For the 2024 season, MLB made a one-year agreement with the players’ union to create what the parties dubbed a “media disruption distribution.” Commissioner Rob Manfred last winter allotted money from the sport’s luxury tax — the overages teams pay when their payroll climbs to certain levels — to teams that took a hit to their TV revenues, up to $15 million per affected club, with a total limit of roughly $75 million.
The league didn’t try to bring those payments back this winter, however. Giving some clubs money over others is always a tricky maneuver for a commissioner, and it would have been politically difficult for Manfred to repeat, people briefed on ownership thinking said.
“The 2024 agreement with the MLBPA was a one-year stopgap meant to assist the clubs first affected by local media disruption,” MLB said in a statement. “Unfortunately, this is now a reality that most clubs are dealing with and requires a longer-term solution.”
Main Street’s troubles most immediately affect the 13 teams it has in the NBA and its seven in NHL, leagues that are both currently in-season. Sports Business Journal reported Monday that Main Street has missed payments to NBA teams in addition to baseball’s Cardinals. But baseball teams feel they need a plan quickly as well.
Main Street has been in talks to sell a majority stake to another broadcaster, DAZN, which is more prominent outside the U.S. The money offered to teams for their rights could change depending on whether Main Street completes a sale.
Beyond that, the longer a club waits before jumping to MLB’s broadcast set-up, the less time the league will have to sell streaming packages and arrange distribution deals prior to the start of the season.
“This has to get resolved,” the club executive said. “If we don’t have clarity on the Main Street side, it starts to become an issue in that you erode your alternative by waiting. There’s a lot of work that has to happen to get it set up.”
Main Street and other traditional RSNs promise teams a fixed amount per season for their TV rights, typically tens of millions for most teams. Teams carried by MLB, however, are not promised a fixed fee by the league. Instead, MLB pays them whatever their telecasts wind up bringing in, via streaming subscriptions and traditional TV distribution fees.
Ultimately, this is the third straight offseason that some baseball teams have faced significant uncertainty about their TV future. Briefly, though, this winter had a different sheen.
When asked if he began the offseason expecting the Main Street drama, one GM said, “I don’t think anybody did.”
The trouble kicked up late last month with the missed Cardinals payment.
“We are currently working with FanDuel Sports Network, Major League Baseball, and other stakeholders regarding our alternatives for local media distribution,” the Cardinals said in a late December statement. “We remain committed to ensuring that Cardinals games continue to be available to fans throughout our broadcast territory on cable and through direct-to-consumer streaming options in 2026.”
The Angels, Braves, Brewers and Royals declined to comment Tuesday. The Marlins, Rays, Reds and Tigers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Main Street Sports Group is the latest name of a collection of stations that were sold with a valuation greater than $10 billion in 2019. Last winter, the company — then known as Diamond Sports Group — emerged from a messy 20-month bankruptcy process.
In the summer of 2023, Diamond dropped a pair of MLB teams in the middle of the season, the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks. Thus began MLB’s turn as a broadcast producer and distributor.
MLB this year is in line to handle telecasts for those two teams plus the Cleveland Guardians, Colorado Rockies, Minnesota Twins and Seattle Mariners. The Washington Nationals are newly likely to join the group as well.
The teams MLB manages broadcasts for are eventually expected to be accessible through ESPN’s streaming service. MLB sold those rights to ESPN in a deal announced in November, but ESPN likely won’t actually carry local MLB telecasts on its services until 2027.
The end of the Main Street bankruptcy process at the start of 2025 led to a little less public chatter about the health of the stations this past year and in the early days of this offseason — despite plenty of skepticism MLB offered in court about Main Street’s go-forward plan. The past two weeks serve as a reminder that the issues that led Main Street to bankruptcy in the first place haven’t been solved.
“The math doesn’t work anymore in this traditional model,” said one industry observer who was granted anonymity to speak candidly Tuesday.