Six teams leave regional sports network Main Street to join MLB

On Monday, six teams officially parted ways with their regional sports network, Main Street Sports, and entered a partnership with Major League Baseball, thereby nullifying their local-media contracts.

The Milwaukee Brewers, Miami Marlins, Kansas City Royals, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, and Tampa Bay Rays have chosen to collaborate with MLB, which will handle the broadcast of their games for the 2026 season and beyond, as reported first by Puck’s John Ourand.

The Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Angels, and Detroit Tigers—the remaining teams under Main Street Sports—are yet to disclose their future plans. yet, a report from Sports Business Journal indicates that the Angels and Tigers are also expected to join MLB. The Braves released a statement saying they are “well on our way towards launching a new era in Braves broadcasting,” and will share their future plans in the coming weeks.

On January 8, all nine baseball teams under Main Street Sports terminated their contracts as the company struggled to find a buyer amidst financial issues, just a year after exiting a lengthy bankruptcy process. even if those teams committed to ongoing negotiations, they set a deadline for resolution by the month’s end due to the impending start of spring training. This exodus suggests that the RSN provider might be nearing liquidation, despite earlier reports claiming it would continue broadcasting NBA and NHL games until the end of those seasons.

Main Street, which operates under the FanDuel Sports name, began this year with a portfolio of 29 NBA, NHL, and MLB teams.

“FanDuel Sports Network remains committed to broadcasting NBA and NHL games, and we appreciate the leagues’ involvement in our ongoing discussions regarding future plans,” stated a Main Street Sports representative. “We are grateful for the relationships we’ve built with these MLB partners and their fans over the years, and we wish them the best in their endeavors.”

MLB aims to secure local rights for all 30 teams by the end of 2028, intending to package them as a national offering, which would help eliminate blackout restrictions. As it stands, MLB already holds the rights to the Arizona Diamondbacks, San Diego Padres, Cleveland Guardians, Colorado Rockies, Minnesota Twins, Seattle Mariners, and Washington Nationals.

In response to the local-media landscape’s challenges due to widespread cord-cutting, MLB established a local-media department two years ago. This department oversees game broadcasts, negotiates cable and satellite distribution agreements, generates advertising revenue, and facilitates local streaming via MLB.tv—owned by ESPN under a new media rights deal—for teams losing out on local media contracts.

although these efforts, this arrangement pales in comparison to the revenue from traditional cable contracts, which typically contribute 20% to 30% of team revenues, providing a stable income source. The potential loss for the nine teams could significantly impact their spending capacity, worsening existing payroll disparities as the traditional cable model collapses.

In 2024, MLB and the MLB Players Association agreed to allocate some luxury tax revenue to aid teams facing local media losses of up to $15 million. yet, this was a one-time provision. still, seven of the nine teams that might lose their Main Street Sports contracts—excluding the Angels and Braves—receive revenue sharing and might qualify for a portion of the luxury-tax funds, which amounted to around $400 million for the 2025 season.

Main Street was formerly known as Diamond Sports Group, a Sinclair subsidiary that accrued nearly $9 billion in debt to acquire 21 regional channels from Fox, leading it into bankruptcy in March 2023. Twenty-two months later—after missing payments, enduring legal disputes, and a three-month blackout by Comcast—the company emerged from bankruptcy.

By January 2, 2025, the company had secured a new naming rights deal, maintained a strong portfolio across three leagues, and entered into a commercial agreement with Amazon. While there was optimism for continued operations, it did not last a full year. By late December, Sports Business Journal reported that Main Street Sports had defaulted on a payment to the Cardinals and that it was making one last attempt to sell to the streaming platform DAZN to salvage its business.

This potential deal with DAZN eventually fell through, leading to further missed payments and all MLB teams terminating their contracts. No new investors appeared on the horizon.

Currently, Main Street Sports retains local rights for the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets, Miami Heat, Oklahoma City Thunder, Cleveland Cavaliers, Indiana Pacers, Detroit Pistons, Minnesota Timberwolves, Orlando Magic, Milwaukee Bucks, San Antonio Spurs, LA Clippers, and Memphis Grizzlies. In the NHL, they hold rights for the Minnesota Wild, Nashville Predators, Detroit Red Wings, Los Angeles Kings, Carolina Hurricanes, Columbus Blue Jackets, and St. Louis Blues.