With nine MLB teams still likely poised to abandon Main Street Sports Group, three sources said Friday their exit could actually create financial flexibility for Main Street to avoid immediate liquidation and pay NBA and NHL teams reduced rights fees the remainder of this season.
“What is bad from MLB might be good for us,” said an NBA and NHL team source asking for anonymity due to the sensitivity around the topic, which has many industry stakeholders on edge.
The freed-up and redirected MLB money could lead to a wind down of Main Street’s business in April rather than a last-resort Chapter 7 filing next week, although the rights fees paid to NBA and NHL teams the rest of this season are still expected to drop, sources said, somewhere between 20% or beyond.
Main Street declined comment Friday afternoon.
Because Main Street would then cease to exist after April, those NBA and NHL teams would still need to find local broadcast solutions for at least next season — a one-year bridge scenario until, in the NBA’s case, it is expected to launch a national streaming RSN for the 2027-28 season.
Sources Friday continued to maintain that the nine MLB teams (Braves, Reds, Tigers, Royals, Angels, Marlins, Brewers, Cardinals and Rays) are virtually certain to break away from Main Street, if they haven’t already. The company’s 20 NBA and NHL teams expect to hear next week if that freed-up money will allow Main Street to keep its promise — in the event of a wind down — to broadcast games the rest of the season and pay abbreviated rights fees.
As of now, the next set of payments for those 20 teams (the Hawks, Hornets, Cavaliers, Pistons, Pacers, Clippers, Grizzlies, Heat, Bucks, T’Wolves, Thunder, Magic and Spurs from the NBA and Hurricanes, Red Wings, Kings, Wild, Predators, Blues and Blue Jackets from the NHL) are due this Sunday, Feb. 1. Main Street missed its Jan. 1 payments, and the cure period to reimburse those teams has already passed — meaning the 20 teams could technically leave for other broadcast groups.
However, the lure of the rights fees — even if reduced — has NBA and NHL teams willing to accept the wind-down scenario, with sources saying the teams prefer Main Street remain viable at least through this season.
