St. Louis Cardinals’ broadcast future clouded by TV partner’s defaulted payment
Main Street Sports, the corporate entity that operates FanDuel Sports Midwest—the regional sports network that holds local rights to broadcast St. Louis Cardinals games—missed a payment to the team within the last week that was owed as part of the broadcast rights for the 2026 season, a senior Cardinals official confirmed Sunday.
Sports Business Journal first reported the delinquency Sunday morning. It was disclosed over the weekend on a conference call with NBA teams whose rights are also held by Main Street. The company, formerly known as Diamond Sports Group, currently holds the local broadcast rights to 29 professional franchises across Major League Baseball, the NBA, and the NHL, including the St. Louis Blues.
The Cardinals declined to comment on the amount of the missed payment or the schedule on which the rights fees are paid, though that is part of the rights deal renegotiated between the entities last winter.
At that time, the Cardinals explored whether to continue their association with Main Street or to consider voiding their existing deal rather than accept a significant cut to their owed fees. Several teams have taken control of their television broadcasts in-house, allowing MLB Media to distribute the broadcasts digitally as well as on television. The Cardinals restructured their deal while accepting a cut that the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported to be 20%.
The journey through bankruptcy for the regional sports conglomerate has led to significant financial uncertainty across the three leagues in which Main Street has an interest. Curtailed rights fees were one variable to which Cardinals ownership often pointed when asked about cuts to payroll and other spending, and broadcast rights fees make up a significant portion of a team’s annual income.
The Cardinals declined to comment on whether the current uncertainty would result in any changes to the baseball operations budget for the coming season. Through attrition and trades of veteran players, the team expects to have a reduced payroll in 2026. President of baseball operations Chaim Bloom has said he intends to seek further starting pitching depth even after signing right-hander Dustin May to a one-year, $12.5 million contract. St. Louis is also seeking veteran relief depth. Those remaining outlays are expected to be modest.
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that sports media company DAZN (pronounced “da zone”) was in negotiations to acquire Main Street Sports and its regional sports networks, including FanDuel Sports Midwest. That report preceded the missed payment to the Cardinals and the NBA conference call reported by Sports Business Journal. It is unclear whether the later developments are directly related to the former.
The senior Cardinals official who confirmed the missed payment reiterated that fans will be able to watch every game next season via either a television subscription or a direct-to-consumer streaming service. Should the acquisition by DAZN collapse and result in FanDuel Sports Midwest being shuttered, the Cardinals intend to utilize the same MLB Media distribution model used by teams that exited their own rights deals.
Longtime belief in the baseball industry has been that MLB seeks to consolidate the rights of all teams under its umbrella ahead of the 2028 season and sell a rights package directly to consumers. Last month, the league closed a new national rights agreement with ESPN that included the ability to distribute MLB TV, the current all-teams product that is subject to local blackouts. It is unclear whether a true national deal would be distributed through ESPN or other means.
The missed payment is the latest in a series of apparent cash-related moves by the network and its corporate parent over the past six months. The Blues consolidated their broadcasts as a joint product for both TV and radio, declining to bring back longtime play-by-play announcer John Kelly. Team officials have denied that move was made for financial reasons.
The Cardinals also were facing changes to their on-air product in 2026 before the recent developments, with travel being curtailed for some broadcasters and an expected decreased role for longtime sideline reporter Jim Hayes.
