Cleveland Guardians Receive Payment from Diamond Sports Group, Keeping Games on Bally Sports Great Lakes for July
Once again, Diamond Sports Group (DSG) has beaten the throw home and is safe at the plate. According to Crain's Cleveland, DSG —which owns all 19 Bally Sports-branded channels — has officially made its broadcasting rights payment to the Cleveland Guardians that was due on July 1, which ensures the team’s games will remain on the Bally Sports Great Lakes regional sports network (RSN) for the rest of the month.
Currently, cord cutters can find Bally Sports Great Lakes on DIRECTV STREAM and Fubo. None of the other live TV streaming services offer Bally Sports RSNs at this time. If the Guardians had not received their payment from DSG, the team’s broadcasts would have been taken over by Major League Baseball. DSG has been in bankruptcy proceedings since March, when it first filed for Chapter 11 protections.
The payment does not mean that Guardians games are safe on Bally Sports Great Lakes for the rest of this season. The team’s contract with DSG is structured differently than the company’s deal with the Minnesota Twins. That team got its most recent rights payment from DSG late last week, and that payment covered the remainder of the 2023 regular season; Diamond’s deal with the Guardians goes month-to-month, so the team is due more rights payments in August and September.
That means MLB has more chances to reclaim the team’s broadcast rights from DSG, which is a goal the league cherishes highly. MLB has no interest in remaining in business with Diamond after this season is over, and has been anxious to start pulling back the local broadcast rights to its teams so it can plan for its future. But thus far, DSG has only been willing to part with the San Diego Padres, and has done everything in its power to keep the other 13 teams it now has the rights to broadcast.
It looked highly likely that the company would also surrender its contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks in late June, as it filed a motion in bankruptcy court to give up the team’s broadcasting rights. But a last-minute breakthrough in negotiations occurred, and the two sides agreed that a deal could be reached to keep Diamondbacks games on Bally Sports Arizona. The new arrangement is still being finalized, and it’s not known if it will cover any years past the 2023 season.
It’s no doubt frustrating for MLB representatives to see their hopes raised and dashed with such regularity. Every time a payment due date approaches, justifiable speculation arises that this time, Diamond won’t pay. That will happen again with the Guardians on August 1 and September 1, though it seems less likely that DSG would make its July payment to the club if it didn’t think it could scrape together the cash for the rest of the season as well.