Bally Sports bankruptcy imminent

[Lobot]

For those who depend on Bally Sports RSNs for Reds, Indians, Cavs, etc., they are about to enter bankruptcy proceedings and debt restructuring. They owe 2 Billion in Broadcast rights fees that they can't currently pay to sports franchises nationwide.

[Lobot]

This is going to happen this week it looks like. For those who are Reds fans, this paragraph from and Athletic article is not a good thing.

"How many teams get flung into that world right away is unclear. Of Diamond’s 19 RSNs, a person close to MLB said the Sinclair Broadcasting subsidiary has indicated to the league that it plans to walk away from the ones that carry the Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Guardians, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Texas Rangers. In a bankruptcy, Diamond is looking at the RSNs the way a bankrupt retailer would look at store leases: discarding the ones that don’t work economically and keeping the ones that do."

[longtimefan]

The Reds did this to themselves, they’ve been spiraling downhill for a decade, refusing to spend, refusing to compete. No WS appearance in 33 years, and no hope for the future. Before this, the previous long span between WS appearances was 21 years between 1940-1961.

[bearcatbret]

This has a similar feel to the PAC 12. lol.

[Rufus]

When the Reds did spend money on three sure bets only one actually panned out. Mike Moustakas was paid millions to virtually wear the bench on his a$$. Akiyama was a seven million dollar a year bust. They are the very definition of dyslexic.

[Lobot]

For those of you who are also Reds fans it looks like Diamond Sports, the owner of the Bally Regional Sports network channels, might get saved from bankruptcy by Amazon. Amazon is in talks to buy the media rights for the remaining team partners from Diamond.

I'm not sure whether it would be available on Prime Video as a part of the existing bundle with Amazon Prime or whether it's going to be a seperate package but it looks like this is where this mess is headed.