The Orioles and Nationals reach a settlement in the MASN dispute

[JimGinSP]

Coincidence or not that Ted Leonsis’ Monumental Sports announces their rebranding of NBCSports Washington on the same day the MASN settlement is announced?   Renaming it Monumental Spotts Network.
Are dominoes starting to fall? 

Here’s a bit of light reading to consider.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/apr/19/ted-leonsis-made-least-2-billion-offer-nationals-r/

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2022/08/25/Franchises/MLB-Fran-Notes.aspx

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2023/06/21/Media/monumental-sports-network-zach-leonsis-capitals-wizards-mystics.aspx

[24fps]

6 hours ago, justD said:

I've got a friend who lives in Ashton MD and was an Orioles fan until the Nationals came to town.  He said he'd become disillusioned by what Peter Angelos was doing to the team (or was it just from losing?), so he switched over, and did so passionately.  

Last off-season, he wrote out a long, 7-page letter to me, explaining why I would be so much happier being a Nats fan, and all the reasons why I should let go of the Os.  Funny thing is that I don't recall him encouraging me on philosophical grounds, more just his prediction/assumption that the Os would never be the championship-caliber organization that he felt the Nationals were.  Maybe something about how much the Lerner family was willing to spend on the team?

I was so offended, it actually set our friendship back.  His idea of fandom is so foreign to me.  We've been friends 30 years and it was like seeing a new side of him I'd never known.   

(Of course, I'm kidding about the friendship....kinda?)

It sounds like a textbook example of radicalization.   A true friend would call the deprogrammer. 

[InsideCoroner]

22 hours ago, Frobby said:

Me too.   It occurred to me, I wonder if MASN’s contracts with the cable companies preclude it from offering competing services (i.e. streaming) in those areas served by the cable providers.   It seems like that would have been a reasonable ask from the cable companies.   It also would explain why mlb.tv doesn’t show the games in the local area.  So, MASN may be contractually precluded from offering streaming except to its cable subscribers.  

I suspect you're right on each of these counts. There was little other reason to explain the local mlb.tv blackouts in the times when relatively few people were going to Camden Yards. Honestly, if they offered the chance to subscribe to "MASN+" from afar, I would probably do that and give up my long-standing mlb.tv subscription, since 99% of what I watch is Orioels and especially now that mlb.tv removed access to all postseason games. If this is indeed the truth, we can only hope those cable contracts run out sooner rather than later. 

[LTO's]

Hyperbole aside, the Nationals do not have a great fanbase. They are a relatively new team which should is a factor but we don't need to be giving credit to them that they don't deserve. Having lived there briefly and been around there my entire life I know that the Nationals are nowhere near the favorite team in a city that is already known for being a pretty crappy sports city. Every team besides the Capitals is in the bottom half of attendance in their leagues with some at or near the very bottom.

The Nats have a new stadium in a great location in a highly populated/rich area of the country. They will always have a decently high floor for attendance in the near team because of that. But people don't really follow the team all that well. Their TV ratings are never good and frequently lagged behind the Orioles during the stretch in the early-mid 2010s when both teams were very good. In my experience, a decent pct of fans in that stadium at a given time are opposing fans, tourists or DC transplants who bought Harper of Soto shirshey and very loosely follow the team.

[Just Regular]

22 hours ago, JimGinSP said:

Coincidence or not that Ted Leonsis’ Monumental Sports announces their rebranding of NBCSports Washington on the same day the MASN settlement is announced?   Renaming it Monumental Spotts Network.
Are dominoes starting to fall? 

Here’s a bit of light reading to consider.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/apr/19/ted-leonsis-made-least-2-billion-offer-nationals-r/

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2022/08/25/Franchises/MLB-Fran-Notes.aspx

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2023/06/21/Media/monumental-sports-network-zach-leonsis-capitals-wizards-mystics.aspx

A little extra Leonsis liquidity for a baseball bid?

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/37899964/qatar-buying-stake-wizards-capitals-mystics-source-says

[Chavez Ravine]

3 hours ago, Just Regular said:

A little extra Leonsis liquidity for a baseball bid?

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/37899964/qatar-buying-stake-wizards-capitals-mystics-source-says

Imagine the liquidity possibilities for MLB. Screw London and Mexico City, how about some games in Doha? You could play them in a dome kept perpetually mid-October.

[Beetlejuice]

On 6/21/2023 at 7:57 AM, Sports Guy said:

You would think this is the hardest part and that further negotiations should be much easier.

I do think it’s fair to wonder what will become of MASN long term. The RSNs are in big trouble all over right now. If MLB takes things over and finally goes to streaming while eliminating the blackout rules, that could be it for MASN although you would think they would still leave some kind of a network for people who don’t want to cut the cord.

Since the value of both teams are tied up with MASN, I still can’t imagine anyone purchasing either team without knowing that value.  And another fly in the ointment; the 22-27 revenue period.  How can anyone, predict what this will be?  With RSNs biting the dust across the league who knows what the landscape will look like one year from now much less five.  Manfred could use the “in the best interest of the game” powers and shorten the period so as not to stick MASN with a payment out of line with current market conditions.  He could also nix the entire settlement agreement, but I don’t see him doing that while Peter is alive.  Having both franchises unsaleable has got to stick in the craw of the owners, many of whom were not pleased with Selig’s arrangement.  They probably want to be shut off this whole thing.  But at the rate things are going, broadcast rights are trending towards essentially worthless.  67% of zero is zero.  Maybe the Angelos boys won’t balk if MLB offers to buy them out and awards them an All-Star game.  Or we could see if the Commish’s power is really that absolute.