The Orioles and Nationals announced Monday morning that their yearslong dispute regarding television rights fees from the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) has reached a final resolution.
Per this morning’s press release, MASN and the Nationals have come to terms on a one-year agreement for the team’s 2025 television broadcasts. The Nats are free to explore alternative broadcast opportunities for the 2026 season and beyond. Further, this morning’s announcement plainly lays out that “all disputes related to past media rights between the Nationals, Orioles, and MASN have been resolved, and all litigation will be dismissed.”
The dispute between the two franchises spans nearly two decades, dating back to the network’s establishment in 2005. While MASN is technically co-owned by the Orioles and Nationals, the Baltimore franchise has had the controlling stake in the network since the network was established in 2005.
As part of the then-Expos’ relocation to Washington D.C., the franchise agreed to tie its television rights to the newly created MASN, with the Orioles controlling the majority stake of the network. That split was gradually set to become more balanced over the years, with the O’s currently holding about a three-to-one stake in the network. The arrangement was brokered as compensation for the Expos/Nationals franchise moving into the Orioles’ geographic territory. The two parties have never seen eye to eye on how rights fees should be divided, leading to multiple rounds of litigation over the past decade-plus. Under the relocation agreement, the Nationals have been barred from selling their broadcast rights to another regional network. That’s no longer the case.
That ugly legal battle and the fiscal uncertainty inherently tied to negotiations loomed large over the sale process for both the Nationals and the Orioles. The Angelos family eventually came to terms on a $1.725 billion sale of the Orioles to a group led by Baltimore native and billionaire David Rubenstein anyhow. The Lerner family, who own the Nationals, explored a sale of the team for more than a year but never came to terms with a potential buyer. Uncertainty regarding the team’s broadcast future was reportedly an impediment in the Lerner family’s sale efforts — understandably so.
The MASN saga has been a constant subplot for both franchises for the better part of two decades. There have been legal battles throughout. The first seven years saw the Nats’ television rights locked in at a fixed rate that they’ve since called heavily favorable to the Orioles. Subsequent rights fees were to be brokered between the two parties in five-year periods. None has proceeded smoothly.
The 2012-16 period was still wrapped up in litigation as recently as 2023. An arbitration panel ruled in favor of the Nationals as they sought unpaid rights fees for those seasons, but various waves of negotiations and an eventual elevation of the case to the New York Court of Appeals continually delayed the process. The two teams also went to court over rights distributions for the 2017-21 seasons. As of this January, the Nats had filed a motion with the Supreme Court of New York asking that the court confirm a ruling from MLB’s Revenue Sharing Definitions Committee that the Orioles owed an additional $320MM in fees for the 2022-26 seasons. In essence, the two teams have been in a standstill over the exact amount of television rights to be paid out for more than a decade.
Today’s announcement serves as a watershed moment for both organizations, as messy and near-interminable legal proceedings will no longer be required to continue in perpetuity. Both will have more direct control over their payroll and more understanding of their long-term financial security. Arguments as to whether the MASN arrangement was “fair” to either party or as to which side ultimately came away in the more favorable position will persist among onlookers — particularly as further details surrounding this resolution come to light — but the end result will be greater autonomy over broadcast revenues for both parties moving forward.
Neither team is worth watching anyway.
York – The O’s have a good young team.
Now that the MASN issue has been resolved, no more excuses …. start spending David! The window won’t be open forever.
Payroll is up almost $100 million since the end of the 2023 season. Can we please stop peddling this false narrative?
It is not a false narrative. He is spending like he has $20 million in the bank not $10 billion. Stop justifying more poor decisions by Elias and cheapskate Rubenstein as they fail again while the team drops out of the playoffs.
dank – Don’t know how I missed your post, but I’m re-posting the facts on this subject.
With regard to payroll the O’s were 29th-30th in 2021-2022 and 23rd-27th in 2023-2024.
They were 18th in revenue for 2023.
The lack of spending is absolutely inexcusable for the state with the THIRD-HIGHEST HOUSEHOLD INCOME IN THE COUNTRY!!!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_terr…
Yes I understand the crime that’s infested the city of Baltimore has hurt ticket revenue, but that’s something that is fixable if the O’s put more effort into making their neighborhood safer.
Who exactly would you have spent on that would have upgraded the team? They offered big money to Burns. Fried was the only other pitcher worth pursuing and Yanks radically overpaid. You all seem to forget about Bradish.
I want a team that competes every year not once every 10 years. A team like the Braves and you don’t see them spending stupid money. You have to get over the fact that they will never be able to spend like the Dodgers. It has nothing to do with the net worth of the owner but with Revenue.
tuck
Bradish isn’t back until August. What if the team is 10 games under at that point?
“Big Money” to Burnes…we still don’t know exactly what it was and even if it was competitive with the Diamondbacks’ ultimate offer which wasn’t his best one.
I would like a team to compete to win, not hope to be good enough to hang around and get lucky. They have strong headwinds for 2025 already. They already went through 2023-2024, and were only 2 games out of a wildcard on July 31, 2022 but decided not to go for it.
Until we see extensions for the young core, this team is not trying to compete every year.
@Fever Pitch Guy
Not really. A lot of those guys are overrated and we saw the results from last year. I don’t expect much from the O’s this year. Possibly a WC spot but that’s because the ALE is pretty weak. Their window of contention is coming to a close very soon…
York – The O’s just needed to acquire a few solid veterans to complement the young core last year.
Gunnar is among the top three favorites to win MVP this year, they’ve got a lot of talent. Adley’s offense should rebound.
Just an incredibly ignorant take, even if only in light of how much New York and Boston have improved.
I do expect the Orioles to contend for the division and if Vlad has a great walk year and Tampa does Tampa things every team in the division could be near .500 or better. Again.
There’s no point in even bothering with your closing part.
@Fever Pitch Guy
They did but they didn’t do that. I think they are messing up their contention window just like the Jays did.
@Hulk Stroganoff
I’m not sure how much you think Boston has improved. They signed one declining bat for a few years. If that’s an improvement, I don’t know how you evaluate teams. The rest of your incoherent argument is filled with IFs. Pretty shaky ground you’re on.
@MysteryWhiteBoy13
You’re arguing in generalities instead of addressing the core issue. Yes, some prospects pan out and some don’t, but that’s not the point. The Orioles’ contention window isn’t infinite, and there’s already evidence of it narrowing due to how they’ve handled roster construction.
They didn’t supplement their young core with enough proven talent. Their biggest problem is pitching, and they haven’t solved it.
The Orioles’ current approach looks eerily similar to the Blue Jays’ failure—betting on internal development, not making enough impactful moves, and assuming the window will stay open longer than it actually will. You can argue that the young core still has time, but history shows that if you don’t capitalize at the right moment, the window closes before you realize it.
I’m not saying Baltimore will completely collapse, but treating them like a guaranteed powerhouse for the next 6 years is ignoring how quickly things can change.
No get to reality
Pitching wins. O’s don’t have it.
Their prospects are all over hyped. Can’t trade with anyone.
@MysteryWhiteBoy13
That’s my job to provide the hard reality in evaluating talent for teams. It’s sad to see the O’s on the same path as the Jays.
York – look closer at BOS…
That one declining bat… does that include Buehler? Or Crochet?
Does it include 3 of the top 15 or so prospects in baseball playing in AAA where someone likely joins.the club in ’25, if not 2 of them?
Does it include all the guys coming back from long term rehab for internal brace/TJ to pitch again?
A lot more had changed in BOS than adding ‘one declining bat’
@GASoxFan
I’m not buying on Buehler or Crochet. Buehler is aging and had some injury history and Crochet has had one season of success with limited innings. I wouldn’t be surprised to see both of them on the shelf sometime this season and then all that great change is for nothing.
York – You’re forgetting the biggest and best change of all, the return of a healthy Yoshida.
He is currently batting .667 with a 1.667 OPS and is averaging an RBI for every AB.
York – Well yeah, that’s exactly what I wrote in my first post.
@Fever Pitch Guy
Spring Training always brings out some of the best numbers in players. For example, Curtis Mead is crushing it in Spring Training this year. 436 wRC+, 2.013 OPS. Looks like the Rays will be riding him to the World Series championship. Err… I mean, the Spring Training World Series.
York – Darren Lewis was the ST batting champion one year …..
Wasn’t Moncada the #1 prospect? He turned out well.
Yoshida is a DH. Nothing more. A healthy Yoshida is a 1.4 WAR player with massive platoon splits. That is not an addition to the team. Its just putting another below average player on a roster that more than anything just needs him gone to be the best team possible.
More made up stuff by PadsFans. The O’s don’t get the Nats money from another network & they’ll only leave after 2025.
Take it from a person that’s been watching the Orioles since the last 35 – 40 years, Baltimore has had the same excuse year in and year out “we just need pitching” but they don’t know what pitching is. their issue is not hitting and even if they were short a bat or two, acquiring hitting is much easier than acquiring pitching.
.
Their hitting/prospects are not overrated.. Adley and Gunnar are everything as advertised, Westburg is underrated, Cowser is good, and guys like Holliday – Mayo – Bassalo – and Heston are still a mystery (but let’s say only half of them become solid every day players) that’s still lots of hitting that most teams don’t have
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They still have a lot of time with their bats (and they have opportunities to extend maybe 1 or 2 of them) all that being said, they still don’t know the meaning of pitching (it doesn’t matter who their owner, GM, or Manager is)
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I completely disagree with Comparing them to Toronto. Besides Guerrero & Bichette, the rest of their hitters didn’t pan out the way they hoped and their talent didn’t have as much upside as baltimore does. Baltimore will not win the East – NY has a better chance just because of their pitching – if Boston stays healthy and their pickups from the offseason do what they’re supposed to do, they’ll win the east.
I have to agree with some of the posters Fever. The window is closing in a couple of years. The Orioles needed to add talent why payroll was low to strike quickly within the division. Payroll will begin to quickly escalate retaining their own talent. In not too much time they will be making decisions whether to trade parts of this great crop of players rather then retains them on mega contracts. The O’s aren’t the Yankees or Dodgers.
A roster of cheap great young talent is precisely when you go out and sign elite veterans. It was bad enough not taking the extra steps during the off season the last couple of years to really build a WS caliber staff, but they didn’t take advantage fully of the deadlines either to the extent they could have and needed to.
The Red Sox season boils down to a ton of risky gambles either panning out or blowing up. If they pan out, they will be a contender with glaring flaws. If it blows up (health wise) this will be another boring and ugly season.
how come your not working on an mlb team if your so smart old york?your so smart,how come brian cashman hasnt hired you?maybe your one of those guys living in your moms basement someplace on long island?
old york,your the one trolling.what is a yankee fan doing on here so concearned about the orioles an nationals?
While I do not condone the language and comment that you are replying to, I would posit that you are the troll in this conversation. While that guy is pressing with a lame argument, he is simply defending his team, which this story is about. You on the other hand, came to this story to simply troll Nats and Os fans with your ridiculous comment that neither team is worth watching, which is a comment that you surely knew would upset fans of those two teams. Trolling is defined as when someone posts or comments online to deliberately upset others. That was your purpose. Therefore, you are absolutely a troll.
Pads – I see what you’re doing! Hahaha!! Yes Cora is a pathological liar therefore his stating Yoshida will see a lot of time in the outfield is probably not true. But I do think it’s possible because they want to trade him therefore rebuilding his value as an outfielder makes total sense. At the very least he should be the top backup outfielder against RHP, and if Ref falls back to earth then Yoshida could be the top overall backup outfielder. He’s not as bad against LHP as Cora makes him out to be, he had good success against LHP in Japan.
This is further evidence that WAR in many ways is so useless. It’s *supposed* to value each player based on all players regardless of position, but yet they get an automatic bump up just because of the position/role they play? That makes zero sense.
BTW – Besides being a great hitter and decent fielder, Yoshida is a basestealer as well …. in fact career 31 Stolen Bases and only 10 Caught Stealing!
I haven’t agreed with Old York all the time, but here he and Baseball dude have it correct between the two of them.
The analogy with the Blue Jays stands until the Orioles break from it – they can still make an impactful move but haven’t, and their 2025 roster is that of an incomplete team.
I have been an Orioles fan for nearly 45 years (1981 is the first season I am old enough to remember well). Pitching was their traditional strength – Palmer, Flanagan, McGregor were annual Cy Young worthy candidates, Steve Stone and Dennis Martinez put together some good years.
1984 was the last year you can say they were truly not competitive when they had the pitching but not the offense. They weren’t going to run down the 104 win Tigers, but the defending champs should have put up more than 85 wins and given Murray and Ripken help. They hit the free agency market (Lacy, Wiggins, Lynn) plus Mike Young came up and had his one really good year, and the offense was great in 1985 unfortunately the pitching completely disintegrated. Had 1984’s pitching stood up, the 1985 AL East was up for grabs and could have been theirs.
In the 1992 and 1993 seasons, arguably the pitching was a little ahead of the offense and what kept them from winning the east (especially 1992). They tried to address that with Glenn Davis. They could have just held onto Eddie Murray and avoided 2 huge mistake trades.
In 1997 they had a complete team. Ever since then, the pitching has lagged. They haven’t developed quality, lasting starting pitching (for themselves) since I became a fan with the exception of Mussina. Bradish and GRodriguez are the closest they’ve gotten, and neither has stayed healthy or just gotten all the way over the hump to be that ace they’ve needed. Their 2012-17 run was defined by a thumping offense (free agents supplementing a few young stars and a couple long-timers), a few great relievers, and frustratingly mediocre starting pitching they had to constantly work to overcome.
Let’s also not forget the current team’s situation: very little commitments are signed beyond 2025. ZERO for 2028. None of the young core has been extended. If you are one of the young core and see your team refusing to extend you to give you security or go out and get that ace pitcher to move from fringe competitor to competing from strength, what does this “strategy” tell you? It tells you as soon as you are eligible for free agency, you are worth the big bucks, and the “real fans” will call you a traitor and disloyal for signing for FMV for a team taking things seriously. This team is not positioned to be the dominant competitor the next few years, it is set up to absorb the impact of a 2027 work stoppage.
I don’t like the Yankees and they are not perfect, but season after season they will make a true attempt to fill in the gaps they have to be competitive. If its not a home grown player, they will sign the free agent or make the trade needed.
@Thornton Mellon
Thank you for sharing. Well written.
Mellon – One thing I disagree with both you and York is the similarity to Toronto.
The Jays have amped up their spending. They were 10th-11th in 2021-2022 and 6th-7th in 2023-2024.
The O’s haven’t. They were 29th-30th in 2021-2022 and 23rd-27th in 2023-2024.
As of this morning, per Cora, Yoshida is is still only throwing soft toss from 45 feet. It will take a minimum of 6-8 weeks for him to progress to throwing at a game level if he ever gets there. The earliest he could see game time in the OF would be in May. Remember, the surgery was to his throwing shoulder, so not a single player that has had that surgery has returned to have throwing velocity or accuracy as high in their first year back. Yoshida didn’t have a good arm before the injury, he was in the 52nd percentile in 2023. He definitely won’t throw anywhere close to that well at any point in 2025.
If you don’t understand why there is a positional adjustment in WAR, maybe you should research that before commenting on the stat.
Yoshida is NOT a great hitter. He has been an above average hitter against RHP and a far below average hitter against LHP. In Japan he had a .341 BA against RHP and a .273 BA vs LHP. Roughly the same split as the .300 vs RHP and .239 vs LHP he has in MLB. He was then and is now a platoon player.
Yoshida has a sprint speed in the 21st percentile over the past two seasons. He is one if the slowest players in the majors and only Casas is slower on the Red Sox. Yoshida’s sprint speed is 26.1 ft/second. Let me put that in perspective. The World Record for 55+ yr old women in the 60 meter and 100 meter sprint is 27.0013 ft/sec. As for men, at 70 years old Damien Leake ran faster than Yoshida in a 60 meter sprint and the same speed in a 100 meter sprint. 70 years old. Yoshida has 10 SB in 2 seasons. There are multiple players with less than 200 PA that have more SB.
When he actually played in the field in 2023, before the injury to his throwing shoulder, Yoshida was 2nd percentile in fielding run value. 98% of players were better on defense. He was one of the worst in baseball on defense. Out of LF, only 3 were worse in 2023. Soto, who was playing out of position. Profar, who was playing in Coors field most of the year (his sats in Petco at the end of that season were much, much better than Yoshida), and Schwarber who is now a full time DH. His defensive statistics in Japan also put him in the bottom 5% in the NPB over his career there. Yoshida is a TERRIBLE defensive player at his best.
I can’t find anything you said that is based in facts other than Yoshida could DH against RHP.
I know you love Yoshida, but at some point you have to cede to reality on him. He is just all around bad.
Pads – You do realize 6 weeks means he misses 2-3 weeks of the regular season, not a big deal. Having a weak arm is not a big deal for a left fielder, especially in Fenway. Where did you see 6-8 weeks anyway, you have a link?
He wouldn’t be taking fielding drills in ST if he wasn’t expected to play OF for a long time.
“On Wednesday, Yoshida ran through fielding drills with the outfielders in left, working against the Green Monster at JetBlue Park. He even played a carom perfectly off of the wall, working back toward the infield after recognizing the ball was going to scrape the Monster to put himself in the right position to play the ricochet.”
If WAR is supposed to rank a player against his positional peers (hence the use of the “R” in “WAR” which represents “Replacement”) then a completely average player should have a zero WAR regardless of the position he plays. So a completely average shortstop should have a zero WAR just like a completely average DH. If you don’t understand the absence of logic in formulas such as WAR, maybe you should engage in critical thinking instead of assuming everything the for-profit baseball analytics community provides is logical.
A .960 OPS hitter in 3,189 AB’s in NPB is not a great hitter to you? Well you’re entitled to your opinion no matter how biased and absurd it may be.
What I don’t respect is you calling him a “platoon player then (NPB)” when his stats prove you are 100% wrong.
They play 143 games a season in the NPB.
Guess how many games he played in?
143 in 2018
143 in 2019
120 in 2020 (only 120 games scheduled due to Covid)
112 in 2021
121 in 2022
Platoon players don’t play in 92% of their team’s games over a 5-year period, and they certainly don’t get $90M contracts in MLB.
Can’t believe you actually acknowledge you don’t know the difference between being a fast runner and being a good basestealer. It takes intelligence to steal bases, not just speed.
Vazquez led the 2021 Red Sox in stolen bases, does that mean he was a fast runner? Plenty of players in baseball history were good basestealers despite being slowfooted.
In Yoshida’s one MLB year as an outfielder he wore down physically, but even still he had a better DRS than guys like Soto, Profar, and De La Cruz. He also had a better Def than 10D.
fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?season1=2023…
So no, he hasn’t proven to be a terrible fielder.
I know you hate Yoshida, but at some point you have to cede to reality on him. Writing him off after just two health-plagued seasons, only one of which he played in the outfield, is extremely ignorant.
Fever – Orioles showing as 15th currently, at league average. That’s ramping up for them. But very little committed for 2026 and nothing committed for 2028
You are so ridiculous
Why? Because I am stating facts about the payroll status?
Wasn’t intended for you. Hadn’t read your post. Not sure how it got placed there.
FPG, you are missing main point. The Orioles STILL own the right to receive the vast majority of the TV money the Nationals receive. That is in a contract with MLB and its in perpetuity.
All that has happened here is that the Nationals now have the right to sell their TV rights to another broadcast entity, but only if it values them higher than MASN did in this agreement for 2025. The Nationals STILL have to pay the Orioles the lions share of the revenue they receive.
Old York – Intelligent comment. If they aren’t worth watching, stop trolling and go watch your own team.
Yea that’s true York – the team with the most wins in the league over the last two years is not worth watching. Where do these comments come from.
@tuck 2
That’s not true. The team with the most wins in the past two years is the Dodgers not the O’s.
York, the Dodgers have the most wins in the National League in the past two years. Orioles have the most in the American League.
Last time I checked they were in the National league. If I meant all of baseball I would have said that. I think you understood my point – you just don’t want to hear it.
Nobody forcing you to watch.
What a dumb comment. The Orioles have returned to be a contending team and will continue to be so in the foreseeable future. They have a great core and a pipeline that any team would kill for. They have put together an enviable player drafting and development system and have started roots in the international market with their Dominican facility.
The nationals are an up and coming team that has a lot of great talent as well.
I’m sure both organizations fans would vehemently disagree with this ignorant take and fans of other clubs would as well.
Old York: Baltimore has a YOUNG & VERY COMPETITIVE team. While the Nationals are in a rebuild, it wasn’t that long since they WON the World Series. So, I believe your just trolling for comments and you SUCCESSFULLY got one from me.
@Prospectnvstr
I don’t think I’m trolling or trying to get comments from you. Just my opinion that I backed up. I honestly could not care less if you disagree with me. I’m glad you disagree with me actually as that shows that there are many different views on the topic.
What the heck are you even talking about? Both the Orioles and Nationals are brimming with young talent. They’re two of the more interesting teams in baseball to watch. James Wood, Dylan Crews, CJ Abrams, Luis Garcia. Gunnar Henderson, Colton Cowser, Jordan Westburg, Jackson Holliday.
Simple. The dude is a troll.
I’m glad SOMEONE in DC knows how to reach a peaceful resolution.
Seriously? So Orioles will get nothing from future television rights of Nationals after they give up territorial rights to area and were assured they would be compensated? Seems unbelievable unfair to me.. what am I missing? I’m assuming Orioles were left off hook for any money they claimed they were owed because of not receiving enough compensation but not getting anything from future telecasts is crazy.. this probably due to television rights going I. Toilet now though
Why should they? They’ve fleeced the nats for 2 decades of TV rights. Boohoo there’s another team in the region they’re acting like there aren’t 2 teams in close proximity in any other city or that Baltimore and DC don’t have two teams in any other major sports.
Natty — Your acting like it’s just about DC.
No team in MLB is as squeezed as much as Baltimore. Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and D.C. encircle the Baltimore area.
When there was no team in DC, at least they had the Southern area for growth.
You have another team that has 4 MLB franchises in 300 mile radius?
Cincinnati is well over 400 miles from Baltimore, so it doesn’t count.
Meanwhile, 300 miles is rather specific. If you increase it to just a max 400 miles, there are other examples of 4 franchises clustered together.
LA, LA, San Diego, Phoenix
Chicago, Chicago, Milwaukee, Twin Cities
NY, NY, Boston, Philly
Philly is really the only one in an overlapping region (plus of course DC). Being in South central PA I know some Pirates fans but not many at all, it’s logistically very inconvenient. Factoring in population density yeah it’s not ideal for Baltimore but the area of fan base for Baltimore is still quite dense
Lanidrac — Thank you for making my point exactly. All those are the 3 largest population areas of the country.
Baltimore is not. Even with DC…the population is still 1/8th of NY.
…and so your arbitrary 400 mile radius means Cincinnati…and thus it’s 5 teams in a 400 mile radius. In a substantialy smaller market.
The specific 300 is to show HOW small the area the Orioles have…even larger market teams have greater markets to divide. See.
Cincinnati is well OVER 400 miles away. It still doesn’t count even with a MAX of 400.
Off the top of my head, the Phillies have 5 teams within 300 miles (air, not driving) – New York x2, Baltimore, Washington, and Pittsburgh (260 or so as the crow flies).
Cincinnati is 430 air miles from Baltimore, so your math is off. In fact, Philadelphia is closer to a SIXTH city (Cleveland) than Baltimore is to Cincinnati. Honestly, New York is much better for your argument, sitting right at about 300 miles by air from Baltimore, though the markets have absolutely no relation.
Baltimore has
1 team with 50 Nats
2 within 100 Nats and Phillies
4 within 200 Nats, Phillies, both NY
5 within 250 Nats, Phillies, both NY and Pirates
O’sSayCanYouSee
Teams in southern CA have many teams close to 300 miles away. The Dodgers for instance have the Angels, Padres, Giants, Dbacks, and until this season the A’s all within 380 miles.
Sure, you said 300 but an additional 70-80 miles isn’t huge. O’s ownership really doesn’t look good in this situation to anybody outside of Baltimore.
Doesn’t seem to hurt the Ravens at all. Put a quality product on the field, show fans the team is serious about winning a championship, and OPACY will fill. The Wash-Balt area has plenty of fans, and plenty of money, to have two teams. There’s still many Os fans in DC and Northern VA. And now that this travesty is over, many Nats fans will eventually stop hating the Os and be more supportive….especially those who liked the Os pre 2005.
Top — It’s about population density AND proximity. LA and NYC are both about/roughly 10 Million peeps.
Baltimore + DC is about/approximately 2.5 million.
I’m sure the math is obvious.
((Re: Cincinnati inclusion — Maryland’s Western portion is much closer to Cinc, and many Western Marylanders and West Virgininians root for the Reds. Baltimore is Eastern in the state, and the western area is mountain chains like Pittsburgh, WVa, and Eastern Ohio. It’s much like it’s own state that area of Appalachian.))
Lanidrac — Not sure how familiar you are with the region, but, Western Marylanders tend to be Reds fans. West Virginians are Reds fans. Western Virginias are Reds fans. It’s a cultural Appalachian thang.
And again, it’s proximity AND population.
Dividing NYC or LA in half still means all of those teams are still more than double the populations of every other team. All for LA and NYC have about 2 million more fans than every other team.
The Baltimore & DC area are about 2.5 million.
LA and NY areas are roughly 10 Million.
Baltimore is sharing a grossly smaller pie. It’s apples and oranges.
but you’re changing your criteria now. the initial post just referenced distance and when people responded you decided to make it about population instead.
Top — apologies, I assumed that was inherante/assumed to my claim. Should have made that clear, fair point. Maybe just my Regional biases based on the MASN topic being super regional issue/topic.
Because it was agreed upon before allowing thrm in their market area that’s why
Former Expos Tim Raines and Andres Gallaraga have agreed to send the poor Orioles a few dollars each month.
That’s just silly.
Absolutely Ra.
More than suspicious that MLB would chose DC as the landing spot for the Expos. What a lousy baseball history. Twice the local team left for greener pastures. Actually, quite odoruous. So odorus that MLB knew it was odorus to the point of approving this MASN thing to, in their minds, help compensate for rev lost by the team 30 miles down the road.
Oh, to have been a fly on the wall in that backroom when all the power brokers involved decided that DC was the best landing spot and not another city. Fishy.
My first thought too. The only reason that makes sense is that it gets the Os off the hook for past stuff and both teams can just move on. It’s no doubt the Orioles took a financial hit when Nats moved in. Also, Masn sucks and I doubt they make it much longer
Agreed I don’t really care much for masn either way so something different would be fine by me
There will be a streaming service soon and MASN will be history
When expansion happens again, Nashville and/or Charlotte will get a team. The Braves will take a hit. But both those cities deserve a baseball team. DC deserved a team. With all the money and fans in the entire DC-Balt region, it is hilarious that Os fans feel so entitled. There never should have been a deal to begin with. MLB had every right to put a NL team in DC. They should have let Angelos whine and fight it in court. Like nearly all the other court battles over this nonsense, Angelos would’ve lost that one also.
I feel like this speaks volumes regarding the current state of RSN’s. I wonder if Rubenstein felt future earnings were not as valuable as the debt owed. At least against the remainder of his lifetime.
The Orioles negotiated a decreasing stake in the deal. If anything it’s good for them to rid themselves of this, the payments to the Nationals were only going to keep increasing. They made out like bandits in the beginning, you couldn’t have expected that to last forever. Especially in a deal they negotiated themselves.
The O’s didn’t have territorial rights over DC – certainly none that could have prevented the move. They just didn’t. What Angelos could have done is dragged out litigation against the move and potentially held it up for years, leaving the franchise in limbo. He also could have uncovered through discovery some dirty laundry around the Marlins/Expos/Red Sox ownership shuffle that MLB did NOT want to get out. So MLB caved to avoid that.
Ironically avoiding one set of endless litigation merely spawned a different endless litigation.. But MLB didn’t care, because they weren’t directly involved. This litigation involved the O’s consistently trying to avoid complying with the agreement that they insisted on. The argument was ultimately, and rightly, a loser. But it took a long, long time to get there.
The Orioles deserve a lot-less-than-nothing. They were never entitled to any territorial concessions. Unless the rule ever changed— a ‘territory’ was 40 miles within the SAME league.
The forty miles is close— but certainly not same league. Dirtbag/Greasebag Angelos swindled the feeble Commissioner with an illogical sob story. MLB owned the Nats at the time—so there was no interested party to advocate for the Nats. The entire agreement has ALWAYS been 100% one-sided towards Baltimore. Had the Nats had an actual owner at the time (not MLB) that owner would have told Angelos, ‘eat $hit, you won’t get a penny from us— you have ZERO claim to any territorial rights concerning our franchise’ Baltimore has been STEALING from Washington for twenty years.
Hallelujah, this is fantastic news. Hopefully the Nats end up on Monumental.
Easier said than done, especially with the collapse of linear TV.
Bottom line is when the Os agreed to move downtown they were promised there’d be no team in DC. MLB reneged and Os fans have been screwed ever since.
Move to Oakland?
Promised by who? Can you substantiate that claim?
The House had a committee looking at Baseballs anti trust exemption. To make the inquiry go away, MLB agreed to put a team in DC. Baltimore took the hit for the good of the league. Yes. Promises were made.
That’s a second claim, not substantiation of the first.
Kevin Frandsen may be the worst color guy I’ve ever heard. Shamelessly roots for them all game and whines non stop about every call. I’m not a Nats fan but live in their coverage area and have to watch my team away games against the Nats on mute. I know it’s not relevant to this resolution but MASN needs to add someone else to Carpenter.
Many Nats fans would agree he is bad, but would disagree on him being a homer.. Watch any game against the Phillies, and it is clear who Frandsen is rooting for.
What happened to F.P.?
F.P. got #metoo’ed.
You must never have heard his predecessor.
Most teams have massive homers on their home team networks. News at 11.
The fact that multiple commissioners allowed this nonsense to continue is embarrassing.
Other shoe to drop is the financial compensation… I thought there was a chunk of O’s $ being escrowed in case the Nats won the court case.
Let’s connect the dots here. When Leonsis was trying to buy the Nationals his partner was David Rubinstein. Rubinstein ends up buying the Orioles ( and MASN). So there’s a relationship between the two owners. I can see a merger between Monumental Sports and MASN. It will be called Monumental Mid Atlantic. It will stretch from Pennsylvania to the Carolinas. It will carry Orioles/Nationals/Wizards/Capitals/Mystics. And with streaming services all the teams will prosper financially. Let’s be honest Rubinstein didn’t spend 1.7 billion to lose money. And don’t be surprised if Leonsis ends up with the Nationals
Your fanboy fantasy fails for territorial reasons. North Carolina is out of market for Washington’s NHL/NBA/WNBA/G League teams. Central Pennsylvania too is out of market.
I’m in central PA and get it
But MASN is carried in PA and the Carolinas. If MASN merges with Monumental they could remain in the area. As for the NHL/NBA their national contracts allow for streaming. So the territorial rights arguments are pretty much obsolete. I live in Baltimore and with ESPN+ can pretty much watch all NHL teams local broadcasts. The new NBA contract will likely be similar. And even if there is no merger it’s possible that the Nationals stay on MASN provided they get fair compensation. They still have ownership in the station. Rubinstein isn’t waving the white flag
The reason for the Nats to leave MASN goes beyond Money.. MASN refuses to sell streaming rights to anyone but Direct TV and Cable Companies. Monumental is on all major streaming services which is the current format not the Legacy Formats. That gives Monumental more potential ad revenue as The Nats a better deal for the TV rights
MASN and Monumental Sports Network are not available on Dish or Sling. MASN isn’t available on Spectrum either.
Also, a combined MASN/Monumental Sports Network would not have NBA or NHL in North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
Very well a combined regional sports network might be the future for all non NFL pro teams. Cable revenue is drying up. 11 pro teams add in smaller regional college conferences and you have the heft to get good steaming deals done.
Tell that to DC United, whose league Major League Soccer has a global contract for all clubs with Apple TV+.
With this settlement, the Nationals no longer have ownership of MASN, will get paid for their broadcast rights for 2025 like any other team in 2025, and are free to seek another broadcast agreement locally in 2026.
Pitch perfect take. Nice.
MASN already stretches from PA to NC. It doesn’t have to do anything to have that broadcast area. Because the NBA and NHL broadcasting rights are owned by the league, not the teams, very little money is earned for local broadcasts compared to what MLB teams earn the RSN.
The Orioles sale never would have been agreed to unless the framework for this resolution was already in place.
Actually I think the overall solution [the key part being the Nats Are TV Free Agents after this season] would not have happened until after the Angelosis sold the team
Well that’s unbelievably generous of the Orioles?! What gives? The Nats leaving town?
My guess… Rubenstein is pro Cap, thinks the Cap is a done deal, in which case revenue streams like Nats broadcast $$ is moot.
Potentially devastating news for the Baltimore franchise IF a Cap is NOT instituted.
I’m hoping there’s more news to come, but this is a Baltimore set-back.
Taking things to court is expensive. As a cap is unrealistic, I think this is just making an expensive problem go away.
Technically there’s a bad faith claim related to the withheld rights fees and the whole protracted litigation despite multiple rulings and findings against the Os. Then the explored sale of the Nats franchise was muddied by the protracts rights issue.
So, to the extent it interfered with the sale being explored, that’s yet another exposure.
Businessman being a businessman, i suspect he probably negotiated a release of all claims from both sides in exchange for dissolving the shared rights arrangement.
He may also want to do something different than the way masn is set up now, however, the current model and method of operation would be required to handle and broadcast the Nats rights. This also gets them off the hook long term from having to maintain the infrastructure and assets needed to produce/broadcast for the Nats, even if they’re not doing it for the Os.
The fact that the Orioles got tens of millions of dollars every year in essentially free money and still didn’t just buy a top-5 starting rotation…. Go Nats.
The Orioles went from being a “big market” team with most games close to sold out to splitting their fan base so Angelo’s wouldn’t have to be Baltimore’s version of Jack Kent Cooke and greedily block DC fans from having their own team to root for. The inequity of the MASN agreement was to compensate him for ceding a ton of deep pocket fans to the new team. I didn’t agree with Angelo’s much but I did agree that a deal’s a deal. MLB management never forgave Angelo’s for pressuring them to not play scab games so Ripken’s streak would be intact. They refused to allow Baltimore to host an All-star game at one of the best parks around out of pettiness. Baltimore was not the villain here, but they were bitter enough at the deal being “renegotiated” by MLB and DC that they stubbornly dug in their heels. Pretty salty owner, feeling he’s been wronged.
Not a happy negotiation.Glad it’s over.
^ Facts.
It’s a long time ago, but I thought the Orioles stopped being a big market team at the 2000 trade deadline and subsequent rebuild. At that deadline day, there was some prankster in the O’s front-office that had leaked a pals email address as the contact to receive complaints from fans at that trade deadline, and the poor guy was getting bombed with angry emails. I sent one myself and the guy was begging everyone to stop, hahaha.
If the O’s had just put together decent teams after that point, they could have saturated at least the DC market north of the Potomac while the Nats were awful. No need to speculate because the Ravens did that while the Skins sputtered.
Geographic location is the biggest determination of fan base.
There were plenty of Redskins converts when the Colts left town. Tougher to convert a Baltimore fan to a Dc team but there was certainly a shift. Nats definitely ended up draining the O’s fan base in the DMV area but I don’t care.
DC is a big market and should have a baseball team.
The NFL is a whole different dynamic. Try understanding that instead of doing Sportsball Mash-Up.
This is Monumental for the Nats – in more ways than one!
You did it well.
They may yet remain with MASN, but, they will know how much they will be paid, at least.
I’m a Huge Nats fan living in the Heart of South Philly…
I have no idea what just happened I just wanna know Two things:
1.Do the Nats and the Learner family now have More $$$ to spend on their roster??
2.Do I have any chance of watching My Nats living in Philly???
~Thanks~
First: Financial terms were not disclosed.
Second: You’ll still need the MLB.tv out-of-market package.
iceman,
1. The Nationals will get a large chunk of money that they haven’t received because it was tied up in court cases, so in that regard, yes.
They will get less in 2025 than the $58.3 million they would have received under the RSDC ruling, so in that regard, no.
2. No. Blackouts will still apply unless the new TV agreement in 2026 gets the same territories that MASN controls. MASN did not lose any territories in this agreement. That may not be the case if the Nationals are forced to find a new broadcast partner for 2026.
Possibly in 2027 if Manfred is able to convince 100% of owners to cede control of heir broadcast rights to the league so they have a unified negotiating power with the cable, satellite, and OTA local TV outlets.
Its about time.
I see it as the Orioles are liquid and set up for a work stoppage. They have not committed and extended any of the young core (not all are Boras clients!). Its a Frankenstein team in that it is a monster of one year spare parts. They have very little committed for 2026 and ZERO for 2028 – one of 3 teams at zero.
If its another fast start like 2024, then they’d be in a favorable playoff position and look to make moves on players on expiring deals or at most 2026 commitments, like they did in July 2024.
If they stumble out of the gate and are say, 36-44 after 80 games, there’s nothing stopping them from trading away all the players not trapped in pre free-agency, spinning it as a “reload” when it is in fact salary dumping. Most are only on deals for 2025. Don’t think they won’t do it – that window can slam shut this July. They can reopen it for one year again in 2026 and wash, rinse, repeat. All that without making the long term commitment to being a contender or enough of a push to be a top contender.
They were fine with spending enough just for this year to be “good enough”, though their rotation is certainly not what I’d consider to be that of the division favorite.
If there is no 2027 season due to a stoppage, they’ll only have their arb/pre-arb guys to worry about. Oh, and still paying Chris Davis.
Didn’t they renegotiated & paid-out the Davis contract before the sale?
He keeps showing up on the books and pretty much every contract site I’ve seen w/ deferred money until 2032 I believe.
This is actually good for both teams. The O’s are getting some degree of financial compensation as the value of baseball TV programming continues to decline, or at least relief against what they still owed the Nats. The Nats will be able to control their own TV rights. Hopefully the future networks for both teams will also offer more extensive programming that markets the teams besides just covering the games. MASN production values are awful and everything is run on the cheap.
Finally, resolving this issue will prompt more Nats fans, like myself, who used to be huge O’s fans, to further support the O”s as well. Angelos’ actions had prompted people like me to only support the Nats, in terms of attending games, except for O’s home games against the Nats. The improved goodwill will go a long way to growing support for both teams, hopefully.
Totally agree with everything you said.
Good things happen when the Angelos go away.
Lots of O’s fans seem pretty bent out of shape that they no longer get to screw DC over. Very sorry guys. Hopefully Baltimore can stand on their own without screwing another franchise over. Good luck going forward!
The whole point of the agreement was to get a good deal to relinquish the DC tv rights.
You can argue that it was stupid that MLB had set the O’s territory where they did but the O’s controlled the DC market. That was a lot of TV revenue that the O’s gave up to allow that.
I think DC absolutely should have a baseball team and they clearly have the market for it. But with the way the MLB rules were written it had to be a favorable deal for the O’s.
There was nothing that prohibited a NL team in DC. MLB just elected to stay out of the courts with Angelos, who would surely have sued otherwise, but would have eventually lost.
Never bet against Peter Angelos in court.
The Nationals now have the right to sell their TV rights to another broadcast entity, but only if it values them higher than MASN did and STILL has to pay the Orioles the lions share of the revenue they receive.
Do I have that right?
What happens when the National’s can’t get a TV deal that is larger than what MASN has valued it at? Does MASN retain the rights?
No, you don’t have it right. Why would the Nationals agree to give the Orioles “the lion’s share” of their future TV revenue?
The deal is this: the Nationals get their TV rights back and will almost certainly leave MASN in a year. The Orioles get to keep a tiny percentage of the $300+ million that MASN currently owes the Nationals. That’s it. The gravy train has stopped for the O’s.
If you’re thinking “That seems like a bad deal for the Orioles!” you’re correct. Take it up with David Rubenstein, who apparently thought recouping a small percentage of the money MASN owes the Nationals and better odds of an All-Star Game at Camden Yards, was worth tearing up the agreement. Peter Angelos is rolling over in his grave.
None of the financial details have been reported yet. For all you know, the Nationals left the entire judgment on the table to escape the deal.
From the Washington Post:
“The Nationals recently asked a court to affirm a decision by an MLB committee to award them $320.49 million in rights fees to cover the period from 2022 to 2026. According to a person with knowledge of the settlement, the Nationals will receive most of the money the committee awarded them.”
If that’s true, I have to wonder if Rubenstein is intentionally driving MASN to bankruptcy.
That the Nationals won’t be receiving all the money is interesting. They won it in court. Why give it up? Also the amount they will be paid in 2025 is 70% of what they had been claiming in those arbitration filings.
The lawsuits are over, but it seems the agreement with MLB saying that the Orioles still own the majority of the media rights to the DC area is still in place. None of the articles about this have said otherwise.
The Nationals have been given the right to find another TV deal in an era when most teams are losing theirs. They were 30% owners of MASN, which has long term distribution agreements in DC and the entire region. Now they have nothing. Not a huge win for the Nationals.
As of this morning, all we know is that the Nationals can go out and negotiate a TV deal elsewhere after 2025.
I wouldn’t blame him. Aside from the baseball, MASN programming is an absolute wasteland. The Orioles have not been particularly good stewards of MASN. The production values are terrible.
You’re misinterpreting the original deal. The Orioles own 70% of MASN, which the Nationals have been forced to use for the past 20 years. They don’t own 70% of the Nationals’ broadcast revenue forever and ever. No more joint MASN, no more deal.
The agreement was for the Orioles to receive 90% of the total media revenue in the combined market to start with that number eventually dropping to 77% in 2032. I have seen nothing saying that has changed. That was an agreement with MLB.
MASN was created as a vehicle to make that process easier. It was not the agreement itself.
All that has changed is that the Nationals and Orioles have resolved past litigation with the Nationals receiving most but not all that was awarded them in arbitration and through the courts, with the Nationals receiving 70% of the $58.3 million the RSDC ruled they would be due in 2025, and with the Nationals being able to seek out an alternate broadcast agreement for DC area only TV broadcasts. The Nationals will not be able to broadcast into Balrimore and many of the other areas that MASN is already in and will be able to continue to broadcast in. Just into the DC DMA.
If you’re a Nationals fan in Baltimore and want to watch the team, you’ll be able to do so on either the Monumental app or whatever streaming service MLB sets up, depending on who the Nationals make a deal with. And the Orioles won’t get a penny of it.
The agreement says that the Nationals can only get a broadcast partner in the D.C. area. They will not be allowed to broadcast in any manner in Baltimore including on MLB.tv. They will be blacked out anywhere other than in what is known locally as the DMV.
The Orioles on the other hand will be available on the MASN app in all the areas where MASN is available now including in DC.
So they left up to 49% on the table. Most means 50.1% or more.
Because MASN still owns the rights to the DC area. The Nationals can find another broadcast partner locally, but the Orioles will still be broadcast by MASN in DC and 7 surrounding states.
In 2025 MASN is paying the Nationals less than the $58.3 million the RSDC had previously ruled they should get. After 2025, Rubenstein owns 100% of MASN, one of the few solvent RSN’s. MASN has broadcasting agreements across 7 states (Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, parts of North Carolina, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and DC) for the foreseeable future. Rubenstein still has the right in perpetuity to broadcast and market in the DC area as well as all the same areas as the Nationals. None of that changes.
Since all indications are that the Nationals are receiving a majority, but only part of the money owed, the Orioles are saving a huge amount of the past money owed that was tied up in the litigation started by Angelos. Possibly hundreds of millions out of the $800+ million owed to the Nationals. $296.8 for 2012-2016 that was in escrow, $304.1 million for 2017-2021, $203.9 million for 2022-2024.. The Nationals are also receiving less than the $58.3 million for 2025 that the RSDC had previously ruled they should get because of the “deteriorating economics of regional sports networks.”
If you are thinking this is a bad deal for Rubenstein, you are out of your flipping mind. He saved huge amounts of money and now owns 100% of a solvent RSN that has broadcast agreements in DC and 7 states.
If you are thinking this puts a large chunk of money, but less than what they had previously been owed, in the Lerner children’s pockets that had been tied up in court and clears things so they can sell, you are right.
Peter Angelos doesn’t give a rat’s patootie what happens now. He is dead.
There’s a huge flaw in your thinking: by 2026 or 2027, MASN will no longer exist. In all likelihood, both the Nationals and Orioles will be part of the streaming package that MLB is putting together. Or maybe the Nationals join Monumental and the O’s join MLB. Or maybe they both join Monumental, but that seems unlikely.
Regardless, the Baltimore “territory” you described will be moot.
MASN is profitable. One of 6 RSN’s in the nation that are. They will still exist unless Rubenstein, who now owns 100% interest in MASN, chooses to sell those broadcast rights to MLB the corporation.
The territory stays the same. The Orioles can still broadcast in DC and the same 7 states they are broadcast in now. MASN has carrier agreements that were just renewed for 7 years at the beginning of 2024 according to Broadcasting & Cable magazine so they are guaranteed to be broadcast in all those areas for at least that long. Again, unless Rubenstein chooses to sell his broadcasting rights to MLB.
MLB cannot force the teams to put their broadcast rights into a streaming package. They want them all too. It’s highly unlikely that the successful RSNs like YES, NESN, MASN, Marquee Network, and those that broadcast the Dodgers and Mariners will voluntarily choose to give up the profits they gain unless they get something in return. Streaming is not enough to compensate the Yankees, Red Sox, or Dodgers for their local TV revenue.
Do you watch MASN? It’s absolutely not profitable. They’ve eliminated the pregame and postgame shows for both the Nationals and Orioles. They kept the pandemic-era policy of having broadcasters call away games from the studio in place as long as they could, just to save money. The Orioles have constantly complained that the court-ordered payments to the Nationals would drive MASN into insolvency.
MASN currently consists of two channels. Once the Nationals leave, it’ll be cut down to one. So that’s half the money from cable deals gone in a puff of smoke.
It’s not a successful RSN. If you want to pretend otherwise…well, good luck with that.
According to Broadcasting & Cable and Sports Business Journal, MASN was one of only 6 profitable RSNs in 2024.
Nats Xtra and O’s Xtra are the pre and post- game shows. You must watch games on MLB.tv from out of market.
MASN had 2 channels because they had two teams that played at the same time most of the season. You are making zero sense.
washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/04/26/national-orio…
You are wrong about the announcers not traveling.
Off topic. The Orioles finally got their Ace back.
The Orioles are the Islanders to the Nationals Rangers. Washington is a tremendous market.
This ain’t an NHL blog!
Streaming services can’t come fast enough. Viewers need options in several languages including excuse my French versions with more live graphics and to follow and cleaner video. Dirty language cleaner video. Charles Barkley and Apple. Got it.
Os owner looking longer term. In his mind, making this move now will not negatively effect the value of the franchise when he eventually puts it up for sale lets say 10 years from now. Plus, one less headache to address when negotiating with a buyer.
In 2025 MASN is paying the Nationals less than the $58.3 million the RSDC had previously ruled they should get. After 2025, Rubenstein owns 100% of MASN, one of the few solvent RSN’s. MASN has broadcasting agreements across 7 states (Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, parts of North Carolina, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and DC) for the foreseeable future. Rubenstein still has the right in perpetuity to broadcast and market in the DC area as well as all the same areas as the Nationals. None of that changes.
Since all indications are that the Nationals are receiving a majority, but only part of the money owed, the Orioles saved a considerable amount of past money owed that was tied up in the litigation started by Angelos. Possibly hundreds of millions out of the $800+ million owed to the Nationals. $296.8 for 2012-2016 that was in escrow, $304.1 million for 2017-2021, $203.9 million for 2022-2024.. The Nationals are also receiving less than the $58.3 million for 2025 that the RSDC had previously ruled they should get because of the “deteriorating economics of regional sports networks.”
You are absolutely right that clearing those debts off the books for less than Angelos owed makes it easier for Rubenstein to sell when the time comes. It will also make it easier for the Lerner’s to sell now.
Quick geography lesson: MASN is not available in New Jersey and has limited availability in North Carolina.
MASN is available in southern New Jersey and to 4 million households in Eastern and Central North Carolina. Source: Broadcasting & Cable Magazine.
Not according to MASN’s own website. MASN is not — repeat, NOT — available in New Jersey. I should know because I’ve lived in the Garden State all my adult life.
As to North Carolina, MASN has limited carriage because Spectrum dropped the channel at the beginning of the 2023 season. Spectrum is the largest TV provider in North Carolina.
I just completed building a high end apartment complex in Cherry Hill New Jersey that is opening 3/15/25 and one of the selling points was getting MASN free for term of lease. They paid me to put up the signs.
I have no idea about the rest of New Jersey, but in Cherry Hill, just across the river from Philadelphia they get MASN. Maybe that is considered southern PA TV market?
I call bulls#!t on this. Developers of high-end/luxury housing don’t brag about access to an out-of-market TV station. That holds true in New Jersey, Manhattan, Miami, or anywhere.
Cherry Hill is within the Philadelphia TV market, thus the RSN with the Phillies, Flyers, and 76ers is the only RSN legally available in that township. Talk to the Phillies or Comcast if you don’t believe me.
Hearing folks complain about losing regional influence over TV rights is annoying how silly it really is. The team can represent a region of fans, however, it is a city based organization. The League certainly would benefit by expanding and TV rights money is getting in the way. There are many people who deserve to watch games without having to go through the incredible circus these protected teams get to leverage against the fans.
Linear TV is in terminal decline, there’s rumblings of a lockout when the union contract expires … and you want more teams in the major leagues? There’s barely enough ballplayers to fill 30 big-league ballclubs already.
I understand the TV deal will shift things, but it depends on the direction which wins out. Either nationalizing the coverage like other sports or the opposite. There are arguments for both, but it will be influenced by the union dispute. That dispute I can’t say I have a good grasp at what are the sticking points.
As for expanding the league, I don’t think there is an appetite for the owners to do so. Mainly because they’re monopolists. If the Supreme Court changes the anti-Trust exemption precedent, there may be an argument.
But as for your last point, there are plenty of players to fill out spots, you just don’t realize the expanded rosters have been serving this purpose to pacify the players. I think you’d be hard pressed for the players to be upset at more jobs. As for the effect on the product, this may not be a bad thing. For the fan experience, instead of a virtual at-home dominant one, going to the ballpark won’t be so ridiculous.
Ideally, the greater number of teams, the better chance they have of creating a multi-tiered system like the premier league.
I kept reading article after article about this subject because I cannot understand why the Nationals would do this. After 11 articles from everyone from the Baltimore Sun and New York Times to CBS sports and The Athletic I just don’t get it.
They have given up some of the $800+ million there were owed and took only $41 million for their broadcast rights in 2025. They gave up an ownership share in MASN. They did all that for just getting a lump sum payment of the money that has been held up by the lawsuits and the ability to look for a new TV partner in 2026. Why?
They didn’t even get exclusive rights to D.C. The Orioles still hold the rights to the region. DC and parts of 7 states surrounding D.C. They can broadcast Orioles games in D.C. in perpetuity and now don’t have to pay the Nationals a penny after 2025.
Most teams have already lost or are in the process of losing their TV contracts altogether or renegotiating much lower carriage rates after this season including the Angels. So why would the Nationals take a chance on their being any TV deal available. The RSN model is failing.
The Nationals had already seen the arbitration panel, the RSDC, rule that because of the“deteriorating economics of regional sports networks” that the Nationals would only receive $58.3 million in 2025 and 2026 instead of the $72 million they had ruled they would receive in 2022-2024.
So please explain to me in small words why the Nationals would do this.
Is having that cash right now so important to the Lerner kids? Do they want a resolution of this so bad to enable a quick sale of the team that that they would give up at a minimum tens of millions of dollars and likely hundreds of millions that they had already been awarded by the courts? Most of the money, over $620 million, was in escrow prior to the Orioles being sold. It wasn’t like they would not get all of it if they waited a few months.
So help me understand.