Regional sports broadcaster Diamond Sports Group announced its emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Thursday, a move that comes with a new name.
The company is now operating as Main Street Sports Group, and says it has a “healthy capital structure” and “significantly deleveraged balance sheet.”
“The Main Street Sports rebrand marks a new era for the Company, which will continue to serve as a dedicated broadcast hub for local sports fans,” a spokesperson for Main Street Sports Group said in a statement, adding that its channels will continue to operate under the FanDuel Sports Network name.
Those channels were acquired from the Walt Disney Company several years ago in order to satisfy regulatory concerns about Disney’s purchase of certain television and film assets from what was then 21st Century Fox. Reincorporated as Diamond Sports, the regional sports broadcaster incurred had nearly $9 billion in debt owed to various creditors, including the Arizona Diamondback, the Buffalo Sabres and DirecTV, by the time it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early 2023.
Diamond Sports formulated a reorganization plan last year, and received approval from a U.S. bankruptcy court to move forward on the plan in November. Nearly all of its creditors voted to approve the plan, allowing it to reduce its debt load from $9 billion to a more-manageable $200 million.
Over time, Diamond Sports pulled the trigger on a number of complicated strategies, including the separation of its operations from Sinclair, the resolution of a number of legal matters and effectuating new broadcast TV distribution deals with rights holders at Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Hockey League (NHL).
Today, Main Street Sports has slightly fewer pro sports rights than it did prior to the bankruptcy. But it also has partnerships with Amazon’s Prime Video and FanDuel that will help bolster its overall business, including its emerging direct-to-consumer streaming platforms, a spokesperson said.
“Emerging from this process is the culmination of over 20 months of incredibly hard work to transform our business and position us to better serve passionate local fans across our markets,” David Preschlack, the CEO of Main Street Sports, said in a statement. “I am deeply grateful to everyone who made this restructuring possible – our new owners, partners, advisors, and especially our dedicated employees. With a stronger balance sheet, key partnerships, supportive new owners, we are modernizing our business to thrive in a changing media landscape.”
Sinclair no longer has an ownership stake in Main Street Sports now that it has emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a spokesperson confirmed on Thursday.
“Funds managed by PGIM Fixed Income, Hein Park Capital Management LP, Discovery Capital Management, Hudson Bay Capital Management LP, Alta Fundamental Advisers LLC and others, have received equity for their funded debt claims,” the spokesperson said.
Moving forward, Main Street Sports and its FanDuel Sports Network channels will offer local TV broadcasts from the following professional sports teams:
- Atlanta Braves (MLB)
- Atlanta Hawks (NBA)
- Carolina Hurricanes (NHL)
- Charlotte Hornets (NBA)
- Cleveland Cavaliers (NBA)
- Columbus Blue Jackets (NHL)
- Detroit Pistons (NBA)
- Detroit Red Wings (NHL)
- Detroit Tigers (MLB)
- Indiana Pacers (NBA)
- Kansas City Royals (MLB)
- Los Angeles Angels (MLB)
- Los Angeles Clippers (NBA)
- Los Angeles Kings (NHL)
- Miami Marlins (MLB)
- Minnesota Wild (NHL)
- Milwaukee Brewers (MLB)
- Memphis Grizzlies (NBA)
- Miami Heat (NBA)
- Milwaukee Bucks (NBA)
- Minnesota Timberwolves (NBA)
- Nashville Predators (NHL)
- Oklahoma City Thunder (NBA)
- Orlando Magic (NBA)
- San Antonio Spurs (NBA)
- St. Louis Blues (NHL)
- St. Louis Cardinals (MLB)
- Tampa Bay Lightning (NHL)
- Tampa Bay Rays (MLB)
In some markets, like Atlanta, certain local TV broadcasts produced by FanDuel Sports Network are also available on over-the-air TV stations. In all areas, games are available without cable and satellite via the FanDuel Sports Network app, which is also sold on an à la carte basis through Fubo and Amazon’s Prime Video Channels marketplaces.
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Editor’s note: This story was updated Friday morning to clarify the ownership structure of Diamond Sports and Main Street Sports.
