Twins Video
Among the many dramas that filled the Twins season, perhaps the strangest one was where fans might be able to watch the games. After its declaration of bankruptcy, the Diamond Sports Group—a subsidiary of Sinclair that broadcasts Bally Sports North among many regional sports networks (RSN)—announced to a number of MLB teams they were unlikely to pay out their contracts for the year. As legal fights jockeyed throughout the courts, two teams (the Padres and Diamondbacks) were forced onto MLB Network. Somehow, the Twins were able to receive full payment from Diamond.
That contract, however, is over, and the Twins now face a $50 million deficit going into the next season. The question is what would be next. Most RSN companies—such as the AT&T networks run by Warner Bros. Discovery—are attempting to get out of the business. ESPN’s own future has become perilous for its parent company, Disney. Streaming seems ideal, but the costs involved to make it profitable might not necessarily attract the number of fans necessary.
But out West, a few non-MLB teams are trying a different method: rather than replace the money for streaming, why not work on expanding the fanbase first?
In what might seem like a truly radical move, four teams have already made a decision to not abandon cable and return to free local broadcasts. This includes the Las Vegas Golden Knights, the Utah Jazz, the Arizona Coyotes, and the Phoenix Suns (alongside their WNBA team, the Mercury). The idea is simple: fewer and fewer households have cable, and various fights over retransmission fees have even blacked out those who do. So rather than prioritize profits, the plan is to get as many eyeballs onto games as possible. According to ESPN, “The shift could cost the Suns tens of millions in guaranteed money per year in the short term, but it will boost the number of households the games are available in from around 800,000 to more than 2.8 million.”
These deals will certainly cost the team in terms of revenue—the large winners will be the giant broadcast companies like Nexstar, Scripps, and Gray—but the idea could work toward expanding the fanbase. Regulated under licenses by the Federal Communications Commission, they are essentially still public utilities and must remain free to consumers. The Suns even offered fans free HDMI connected antennas. And while many might think local broadcast is more dead than cable, new technologies such as ATSC 3.0 will increase connectivity and allow for 4K broadcasting once the technology is ready for ballparks (currently most 4K broadcasts in sports are simply upscaled). For those who would rather just stream, teams like the Suns offer the broadcasts either at $15 a month or $110 for the entire season (lower than the $20/month for Bally's attempt at streaming).
The question on the other side is money. For the Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia, going local is “the biggest no-brainer of them all." Rather than prioritize his own financial wealth, Ishbia declared, “It’s the right thing to do and that’s our job as stewards of the organization.”
That’s all well and good, but this is also a curious financial gamble. If the problem of streaming as currently constructed is there are not enough fans willing to pay for a service, the goal is to build more fans. Rather than continue to diminish their fanbase under an RSN, these owners are hoping to lose a little money now in the hope to gain it later.
Will the Pohlads feel the same way? The organization has created some goodwill by generally increasing spending in recent years. And President Dave St. Peter’s goal to increase attendance 2 million came true thanks to four packed-to-the-rim playoff games that only Citizens Bank Park has matched in energy so far.
Like the Suns, the Twins are ripe for more eyeballs. As Nick Nelson wrote, they are essentially guaranteed to become a dynasty within the AL Central with very little fight for the next few years. The Minneapolis-St Paul Metro Area has grown by 4% over the last five years and is only due for continued increases. Each one of those is a potential Twins fan in the making. Requiring they buy into cable is one way to make sure they never will be.
As numerous studies have shown, the problem with attracting youth to baseball has less to do with the sport than its actual ability to access fans. Rob Manfred has suggested as much as well.
Of course, Manfred might have the final say with his own plans for what might be next for baseball on TV. That might be simply an expanded MLB.TV with more options than simply a full season subscription, and even the possibility of purchase of individual games (something the Knicks will be trying this year). That would likely give it pretty high revenue—especially as the league continues to connect with gambling and expands globally—but lessen the impact of the sport in every local community.
Diehard Twins fans might worry also about what a lessened TV deal might mean for the team. For this organization, less revenue from broadcast has always meant less payroll. It would be an unfortunate turn of events as the team enters this window of contention, coming off a year of record spending.
But that isn’t a hard rule, and why the plans in the NBA and NHL remain so exciting. More fans, more jerseys, and more playoff games will bring in money. And just because the rule has been to put 50% of revenue toward payroll, this is perhaps a moment to throw out the rulebook and redefine this team.
When the government of Minnesota finally gave in and gave the Twins their needed subsidy to stay in the state, they signed an unofficial pact to remain part of the community. If the Twins want to honor that pact, going local could be a path forward that ensures the team succeeds not just on the field, but across the state.
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