Oct 2 (Reuters) - Regional sports broadcaster Diamond

Sports Group said Wednesday that it will likely cut ties with

all Major League Baseball teams other than the Atlanta Braves in

an attempt to complete a bankruptcy restructuring by the end of

the year.

The company's decision could leave about a dozen baseball

teams scrambling to reach new broadcast agreements before the

2025 season begins in late March.

Diamond Sports is attempting to negotiate new deals with

those teams, but it filed a new bankruptcy plan Wednesday that

would end most of its remaining MLB contracts.

"The amended plan now puts the decision in the clubs'

hands," Diamond attorney Andrew Goldman said at a bankruptcy

court hearing in Houston, Texas. "If they can't reach an

agreement with us, they can go ahead and make other plans for

broadcast for next season."

Diamond entered bankruptcy with contracts to broadcast

regular-season games for 14 baseball teams, but it has said

those agreements are no longer profitable. Diamond has sought to

renegotiate those deals to reduce the amount that it pays MLB

teams and gain more rights to stream games online to fans.

MLB's attorney, James Bromley, told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge

Chris Lopez that MLB teams had been "sandbagged" by the

announcement that Diamond intended to keep its contract with

just the Atlanta Braves.

"At least some of our clubs are being left out in the cold

once again," Bromley said at the hearing.

The baseball teams that could be forced to find new

broadcast arrangements are the Tampa Bay Rays, the Detroit

Tigers, Miami Marlins, Cincinnati Reds, Kansas City Royals, Los

Angeles Angels, St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers.

Diamond canceled its contracts with two teams in the midst

of the 2024 baseball season, and it truncated its contracts with

three others so that those deals terminated at the end of the

just-concluded 2024 baseball season. Diamond Sports' contracts

do not include the television rights to MLB playoff games, which

are instead broadcast on national TV channels like Fox, ESPN,

and TBS.

Goldman said that Diamond's new bankruptcy plan was an

important step forward, building on previous agreements with the

National Basketball Association and National Hockey League,

major cable distributors, its owner Sinclair, and creditors who

are owed over $8 billion.

The company is also close to a new naming rights agreement

and in discussions with potential streaming rights partners

including Amazon.com ( AMZN ), which had previously offered to take a

partial ownership stake in the company.

The bankruptcy plan includes a liquidation option that could

shutter the company in 2025 if the company cannot complete its

restructuring by the end of this year. That option would ensure

that Diamond could continue to broadcast hockey and basketball

games for the next season even in a worst-case scenario,

according to court filings.

Diamond filed for bankruptcy in March 2023, caught between

its expensive legacy contracts with sports teams and a decline

in revenue from cable TV due to sports' viewers cable-cutting.

Before its bankruptcy filing, Diamond broadcast about 40% of

regular-season baseball, hockey and basketball games in the U.S.

through its Bally Sports-branded television channels.

In Re Diamond Sports Group LLC, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the

Southern District of Texas, No. 23-90116

For Diamond Sports Group: Andrew Goldman of WilmerHale;

Brian Hermann of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; John

Higgins of Porter Hedges.

For MLB and its teams: James Bromley and Alexa Kranzley of

Sullivan & Cromwell.

Read more:

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