New Minnesota Twins TV Deal with Bally Sports North official

Judge Chris Lopez says he "happily approves" the Guardians, Rangers, Twins agreements to stay with Diamond and Bally for 2024. "A huge step forward," Lopez says. Now it's official.

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) February 9, 2024

Unfortunately for cord-cutting Twins fans, streaming rights are expected to remain the exact same as they were last season, which we touched on in more detail last week, when news of this agreed-upon contract first came to light.

Related: Derek Falvey Says Twins are Still Working on More Potential Moves

In summary, unless you have the regional sports network as part of your cable, satellite or catch-all streaming provider (like Fubo TV), you will not be able to stream Twins games this summer, if you live within the local broadcast market.

Twins, Diamond request financial documents be sealed from public

As unfortunate as the bad streaming news is, it’s not new. What was new this morning, and what certainly caught the attention of Evan Drellech (The Athletic) was an unusual request made in the courtroom via one of Diamond Sports Group’s attorneys, who asked the judge to make sure that all financial information or any documents containing terms of the new agreements be sealed from the public.

Diamond’s attorney claims that the financial information contained in those records is “highly confidential” and that “the teams would not like [the terms of the agreements] in the public forum”.

I will translate: "Please don't tell fans or the media how much we are paying the teams."

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) February 9, 2024

As of now, it has not been made clear whether or not the judge accepted Diamond Sports Group’s request to seal the terms of this new agreement, or if he’s expected to.

Pohlads don’t want you to know how cheap they are being

It is very interesting, though. I’ve written recently about reports that the Minnesota Twins do not plan to increase the shrunken player payroll budget, which they announced at the beginning of the season, no matter how much of the lost TV revenue (~$65 million) they recovered in this new Bally Sports North contract.

Related: Will Carlos Santana Play 1st Base or DH for Minnesota Twins?

Thus, it would make sense that the Pohlads do not want us to know how much of their TV revenue they were actually able to save. Team presidents Dave St. Peter and Derek Falvey have talked incessantly the last few months about how much TV revenue uncertainty negatively impacted their ability to spend and make moves this offseason.

But of course, now that there is no more TV uncertainty, and even if they recouped most of that money back, they still aren’t going to bump payroll back near where it was in 2023. So it makes sense they wouldn’t want us to know how much TV money they are putting into their billfold this season, instead of back into the roster.

If were doing shady baseball owner things, I wouldn’t want anyone to know the details surrounding my inexplicable actions either.

Earlier this year, when Diamond Sports Group — the parent company of Bally Sports — filed for bankruptcy it threw the future of many sports franchise’s television rights into limbo.

One of those teams was the Minnesota Twins and the lack of a major TV partner heading into 2024 meant the organization was expected to lose a huge amount of revenue for next season.

Related: Minnesota Twins Sign Relief Pitcher Josh Staumont

The contract Minnesota had with Bally Sports reportedly put $54 million in the Twins cophers for 2023. Without that money, the organization would be unable to improve on a roster that won the American League Central this season. However, that unfortunate financial situation could change soon.

Minnesota Twins in talks with Bally Sports for 2024 season

Late last week, the Star Tribune reported that Bally Sports North and the Twins have been negotiating over broadcast rights for the 2024 season, keeping their long-standing relationship together for at least one more summer.

Bally Sports’ parent company has a “strong and sincere interest” in renewing their ties for one more season, according to the Strib’s sources. The Twins organization and BSN were negotiating on a deal as recently as last week and rumor has it an offer was made by Bally.

Bally Sports North and Diamond Sports Group have expressed “strong and sincere interest” in renewing their ties for one more year, according to two sources with knowledge of the talks. Discussions took place this past week, though neither source would confirm published reports that the network made a formal offer, nor reveal the funding being proposed.

Phil Miller – Star Tribune

Related: TV Blackouts Will Not Exist in Minnesota Twins New Broadcasting Age

A new deal is far from assured, however. Bally’s offer to the Twins is expected to be substantially lower than the $54 million they were contracted to pay for the same job just one summer ago, due to the dire financial situation of its parent company.

The Minnesota Twins must make a decision soon, with Spring Training only seven weeks away. Fans need to know where they can watch the team next season, and I’m sure the front office would be better suited for the rest of this offseason if ownership can get a firm number on how much payroll they plan to shed from their $154 million total this past season.

Texas Rangers cutting payroll too

Recently, we found out they aren’t the only MLB team using payroll slashing practices to ease stress on their 2024 pocketbook. It turns out the Texas Rangers – whose games are also broadcast on TV by Bally Sports — are unlikely to pay top starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery for the same reason.

The Rangers seem unlikely to bring back Jordan Montgomery due to the financial uncertainty of losing local TV deal.

Per, @Ken_Rosenthal pic.twitter.com/ndI8VWuzf1

— Texas Rangers Insider (@RangersInsiders) December 8, 2023

Over half of Major League Baseball has Bally Sports as their TV broadcasting partner. While the Twins contract with Diamond Sports (Bally’s parent company) expired after last season, it’s expected they will drop all contracts with pro sports teams after the 2024 MLB season, due to their ongoing bankruptcy.

Related: Jorge Polanco, Max Kepler Drawing More Trade Interest, as Twins Wait…

I’d be hard-pressed to believe the Twins and Rangers are the only MLB organizations tweaking future roster and staff payroll decisions based on future television revenue uncertainty. There will be others, though most won’t say it publicly like these two have.

Do not accept Minnesota Twins excuses, no matter how many other teams use the same ones.

But this news doesn’t vindicate the Pohlads. There’s no need to make excuses for the Twins or other billionaire MLB owners. Why do the business people operating these organizations choose to harm their relationship with local fan bases just to save a quick buck in the short-term?

Having $50+ million in flux seems like a lot, until you factor in all the numbers. Like the numbers showing major professional U.S. sports teams jump $100s of millions in value every year, lately.

Related: TV Blackouts Will Not Exist in Minnesota Twins New Broadcasting Age

The Minnesota Twins latest valuation (Statistica) has them worth about $1.4 billion, more than double what they were worth less than 10 years ago in 2014 ($605 million) before they moved into Target Field, which local citizens paid half of.

In all reality, the Twins would be worth more than what this valuation says. According to Sportico, the average MLB team is worth closer to $2.5 billion. The Kansas City Royals sold for $1 billion in 2020 and the Mets went for $2.4 billion the same year. The Marlins sold in 2018 for $1.4 billion.

But tell MLB teams like the Twins and Rangers that they will have to work a little harder to make their standard $50-100 million in TV revenue for a season or two and owners start panicking and cutting payroll, among other things. Classic.

No more TV blackouts for Minnesota Twins

We still do not know the organization’s plan to broadcast their games over TV and streaming devices next season. But according to new TV play-by-play announcer, Cory Provus, who was officially introduced on Friday morning, local blackouts of Minnesota Twins broadcasts will no longer exist in whatever new viewing age we’re about to enter.

No clarity yet on where Twins games will be broadcast, but Cory Provus did share this encouraging news: "Blackouts are going away. Twins games are going to be more accessible."

— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) December 1, 2023

How does Provus know what the plan is? Sure, he’s going to call games from a different broadcast booth but that doesn’t mean he has insider knowledge on their plans to bring live games to the eyeballs of fans outside MLB stadiums next summer, right?

Related: Twins and Bally Sports North are Done; Wolves and Wild are Next

Wrong. Provus told reporters today that the end of local TV blackouts was a major factor in why he took the job and left his play-by-play position in the radio booth.

Cory Provus said that accessibility of the Twins TV broadcast for more fans was a very important factor in making his decision to move to TV. He says he's been told there will be no blackouts of the broadcast moving forward.

— Do-Hyoung Park (@dohyoungpark) December 1, 2023

What is a TV sports blackout?

For that day when your kids ask, here’s the definition of sports TV blackout, according to the FCC:

A “sports blackout” occurs when a sports event that was scheduled to be televised is not aired in a particular media market. A blackout may prevent transmission of sports programming on local broadcast networks and/or non-broadcast platforms such as cable and satellite television.

Blackouts were made a thing long before the internet existed. Until the late 90’s, they were a big problem for NFL football games, in regions where stadiums struggled to sell out games. Prior to Randy Moss’ arrival back in 1998, it was a real problem for the Minnesota Vikings and their fanbase.

Regional Sports Networks + MLB blackouts

But more recently, it has become a problem for regional sports broadcasts in the MLB, NBA and NHL. Essentially, regional sports networks (like Bally Sports North) own the rights to broadcast games of the teams they own viewing rights to (like the Twins).

Related: Derek Falvey Admits Twins Plan to Cut Payroll Next Season

If your cable, satellite or streaming provider decides not to carry said regional sports network, for whatever reason, then their customers are not able to view games locally.

“Locally” is a very key word. Because regional broadcast rights only apply to local viewing areas. That means, if you are a Twins fan living outside of Minnesota, it’s been way easier to stream their games over the last handful of years, than for someone living two blocks away from Target Field.

The MLB offers a variety of different packages to watch non-local market teams of your choosing. You want to stream directly from the MLB.TV app or website, or if you’d rather buy an additional package (Extra Innings) through your cable/satellite provider. In other words…

• If you live outside of the Twins local viewing area and you’re willing to pay a reasonable monthly fee, watching your favorite baseball team was no problem.
• If you live in Minnesota (or anywhere in the Bally Sports North viewing area), however, you can buy whatever MLB package you want, the Twins games were blacked out.

Related: Twins Plan to Upgrade Roster via Trade and Free Agency, Despite Payroll Cuts

You think you have it bad? If you’re in the wrong area of Iowa, you might be blacked out from streaming up to four different teams thanks to local viewing areas that bleed into others.

Assuming Cory Provus knows what he’s talking about, though, those days are over. At least for Minnesota Twins fans. If I can make a recommendation to any Minnesota sports fan… get Fubo.TV.

Fubo offers Bally Sports North right now and will until they no longer hold rights to the Twins, Wild and Timberwolves. And they’ll offer those teams in whatever future broadcasting plans those teams have.