How Tigers fans could be affected by ongoing Diamond Sports Group lawsuit

Bally Sports Detroit's Jason Benetti has only been the TV play-by-play voice of the Detroit Tigers for one season, but it already feels impossible to imagine Tigers broadcasts without him. But given Bally Sports' plan to drop MLB coverage, could there be a world in which we may have to?

In short, no. (Phew!) Benetti's contract is directly with the team. His calls, however, may very well be heard on a different network as soon as 2025.

According to Jared Ramsey of the Detroit Free Press, Diamond Sports Group (Bally Sports' parent company) said Wednesday in a status conference for bankruptcy court that it plans to continue a broadcasting partnership with just one MLB team – and it's not the Tigers.

Unsurprisingly, given that Bally Sports is headquartered in Atlanta, the network plans to continue its partnership with the Braves. Diamond dropped its contracts with two of the eight teams they are renegotiating with — the Tigers and Tampa Bay Rays, both of whom will have to find a new broadcast partner if they are unable to renegotiate a new deal.

How Tigers fans could be affected by ongoing Bally Sports bankruptcy drama

Diamond filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2023. The Tigers were already under contract to have their games broadcast on Bally in 2025 before Wednesday's surprise announcement, but that appears to be in jeopardy now.

If their current deal with Bally falls through, the Tigers still have a few options to broadcast games in 2025 and beyond. First, they can still renegotiate the terms of their deal with Bally (which the network is likely hoping to get done at a much lower annual rate). They could also sell their broadcast rights to a different vendor entirely, if they can find one.

The Tigers also have the option to start their own regional broadcast network or follow in the footsteps of the San Diego Padres, who were dropped by Bally last year, and partnered with MLB to package their games on MLB.tv as part of a direct-to-consumer streaming package. This might be the most realistic option; plus, as a bonus, it would mean the end of blackouts on regional broadcasts.

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