{"id":325382,"date":"2025-12-02T04:26:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T04:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/325382\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T04:26:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T04:26:08","slug":"marquee-sports-networks-trouble-doesnt-bode-well-for-cubs-spending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/325382\/","title":{"rendered":"Marquee Sports Network’s Trouble Doesn’t Bode Well for Cubs’ Spending –"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maybe this is just like a school district cutting educational resources after undergoing $200 million in renovations that featured several athletic upgrades, but Marquee Sports Network\u2019s recent cuts don\u2019t look like a good sign. As Jeff Agrest of the Sun-Times was first to report<\/a>, the Cubs-owned broadcast arm has parted ways with GM Diane Penny, director of content Tony Andracki, and reporter Andy Martinez. Marquee is apparently not seeking to replace them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the interim, we will use Cubs and Sinclair resources to fill [Penny\u2019s] role as we assess the future leadership needs of the network,\u201d Cubs president of business operations Crane Kenney explained.<\/p>\n

Agrest reports that Cubs chief commercial officer Colin Faulkner will take over game coverage and production, along with marketing and talent. That\u2019s a lot of responsibility for someone who apparently has little to no experience in television. Several other roles have been rearranged or outsourced in an effort to trim costs and streamline efforts, though it\u2019s hard to see how this will help the production quality of a network that has struggled from the start.<\/p>\n

Since its inception, Marquee has been beset by bad timing and worse decisions. They missed the RSN boom by a few years because they couldn\u2019t buy out existing deals with WGN and CSN Chicago, then hired someone from New York to run everything. There was a very strong feel in the early going that Marquee was trying to synthesize the Cubs experience from an outsider\u2019s perspective, like a local restaurant that loses its charm when it gets franchised.<\/p>\n

Not that the network was ever very critical of the team, but it\u2019s basically become state-run media at this point. And I can\u2019t imagine the questionable quality of Marquee\u2019s app will get better when resources have been cut, which isn\u2019t ideal for those who\u2019ve been spending $20 a month for a stand-alone subscription. Then there are those who have to pay for the highest tier of Xfinity to get access.<\/p>\n

There were some rumblings earlier in the year about a potential merger with CHSN<\/a>, which is run by former Marquee head honcho Mike McCarthy. Yes, the same person who was responsible for launching Marquee back in 2020. Wouldn\u2019t it be funny if the Cubs had to circle back to a partnership with other Chicago teams?<\/p>\n

Even though the Cubs still have plenty of other revenue streams, the money they get from TV is still very important to their operating budget. As such, this Marquee news doesn\u2019t bode well for Jed Hoyer\u2019s offseason spending. Again, though, maybe I\u2019m just seeing smoke and assuming there\u2019s a fire. This is fine, everything\u2019s fine.<\/p>\n

Regardless of whether and how this impacts payroll, it really sucks that Tony and Andy lost their jobs at this time of the year. I hope both land on their feet, and I know both will do well at whatever is next.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maybe this is just like a school district cutting educational resources after undergoing $200 million in renovations that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,95549,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-325382","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-marquee-sports-network","10":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}