On Thursday afternoon, nine major league teams, including the Detroit Tigers, terminated their contracts with FanDuel Sports, per Evan Drellich of The Athletic.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve seen this show before, of course. FanDuel\u2019s parent group, Main Street Sports, was formerly the Diamond Sports Group. As Diamond went through bankruptcy from 2023-2025, teams terminated their deals with the now defunct Bally Sports under Diamond, but ultimately renegotiated those deals.<\/p>\n
With Main Street Sports now under threat of going into bankruptcy as well, the termination of contracts is ultimately the nine teams away of avoiding getting caught up in those proceedings. Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred informed reporters in New York on Thursday that the league is ready to take over those broadcasts and move them to MLB Media should the teams decide that\u2019s in their best interest.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, reports have emerged in recent weeks that Main Street has already missed payments to the Cardinals and the Marlins. The spector of getting caught with no broadcast revenue no doubt hastened the decision from teams to end their contracts and start re-evaluating how they can best generate broadcast revenue for the 2026 season and beyond.<\/p>\n
The nine teams who have ended their contracts and will either move elsewhere or renogiate once Main Street\u2019s status become more clear are the Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals and Tampa Bay Rays<\/p>\n
The Tigers have already taken some defensive steps to protect themselves, such as signing play-by-play announcer Jason Benetti as a team employee rather than a FanDuel one.<\/p>\n