Bally Sports Regional Networks promised the NHL and NBA as part of their recent extension deals that the media company would emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy by April 1, 2025, or the leagues can terminate the contracts.  That timeframe, however, is objectionable to MLB, which all but plead with a judge in a hearing this afternoon to accelerate the timetable, otherwise the league would seek “drastic relief.”

“I simply implore Your Honor, as we’re going forward, to keep in mind there are substantial issues at risk here and at play that need to be addressed, and we cannot allow the timelines that has existed in the past, that exists going forward,” said James Bromley, MLB’s outside counsel. “We need to bring these issues to a point, and we need to do that with alacrity, speed and frankness among all the parties.”

MLB’s big issue is the ability to plan now for 2025 alternate broadcasting options for the 11 Bally Sports MLB teams if the company, owned by Diamond Sports Group, decides months from now its plan won’t work and winds down operations.

“What is happening right now is that notwithstanding the good news for the ‘24 and ‘25 seasons for basketball and hockey, the three sports leagues and their fans are the ones that are bearing the burden of allowing the debtors to try to find a way to reorganize,” Bromley said. “We applaud the professionals in everything that they’ve been trying to do, but we have to stand for our rights, and we cannot find ourselves going into the off season with an impression that we have until April 1. We do not. What happens in the last month of, just so your honor understands, in the last month of the Major League Baseball season is careful, extensive planning with respect to the next season.”

Judge Chris Lopez said he took MLB’s concerns “seriously,” but did not change the schedule.

Diamond Sports filed Chapter 11 in March 2023, so an April 2025 exit would mean it would have been in bankruptcy for over two years. The confirmation hearing, one of the last steps toward an exit, has twice been delayed, with the most recent cancellation occurring in late July.

Then, Diamond was on the verge of a new deal with Comcast, and the NBA and NHL extensions, all of which occurred. But Diamond declines to make the financials of those deals available to MLB, which Bromley has long argued makes it difficult to assess Diamond’s reorganization plan.

“I think most of the parties here on the phone have seen everything,” Bromley said. “Perhaps the NHL hasn’t seen the NBA deal, and the NBA hasn’t seen the NHL deal, but the creditors, as far as we understand and the debtors, have all seen the deals and understand exactly what is being contemplated on what timeframe and in what context. So when faced with a question of whether or not it’s in the debtor’s business judgment to enter into these transactions, it is very hard for the only other major sports league, the largest provider of sports programming to the debtors, to have anything logical or practical to say.”

MLB though is fighting an uphill battle. They were on an island today, with creditors groups all voicing support for the NBA and NHL deals and the modification to Diamond’s credit that accompanied the transactions.

And Andrew Goldman, counsel for Diamond, said, “Our DIP (debtor in possession) loan matures on November 30. That is an important date, as your honor will know, and Mr. Bromley represents enough DIP  lenders and secured creditors to understand the implications in a capital structure as complicated… as this that without requisite approvals, we don’t want to find ourselves in an event of a default situation. So we are moving very quickly at this point.”

DIP loans are a type of loan extended to debtors in bankruptcy. Goldman’s point is if Diamond can’t pay off the DIP, then MLB will know by November it needs to make alternate arrangements.

November is also the month Diamond is now targeting for the confirmation hearing, where the reorganization plan is vetted in a public forum and objections are heard.

At today’s hearing, Judge Lopez approved the NHL and NBA deals, as well as Diamond’s rejection of the Dallas Mavericks and New Orleans Pelicans contracts.  The Mavs deal was set to run through to ‘29-’30 season, and the Pelicans’ through the ‘26-’27 season  

Diamond also pledged it had enough money to pay its MLB teams the remainder of what they are owed this season. Underscoring the vitriol that has long plagued the MLB-Diamond relationship, Bromley snarked at that news from the lawyers of the Bally Sports parent company.

“I don’t know that congratulations are necessary to thank folks for complying with their contractual obligations,” Bromley said.  “But we do appreciate it.”