Bally Sports Reportedly Drops Contract With Tampa Bay Rays Amid Bankruptcy Drama

With Diamond Sports Group declaring bankruptcy, the Tampa Bay Rays are among a handful of teams whose broadcasting future with Bally Sports remains up in the air.

Jun 8, 2022; St. Petersburg, Florida, USA; Tampa Bay Rays right fielder Randy Arozarena (56) is interviewed by Bally Sports sideline reporter Trisha Whitaker and Tampa Bay Rays interpreter Manny Navarro after the Rays defeated the Cardinals at Tropicana Field. / Dave Nelson-Imagn Images

The Tampa Bay Rays' season is over, and their days playing on Bally Sports Sun might be over too.

Diamond Sports Group, which owns and operates the regional Bally Sports networks, revealed its plans regarding future MLB coverage in bankruptcy court on Wednesday. That left 12 franchises – and 12 fanbases – waiting with bated breath to find out where their fate lied heading into 2025.

The Tampa Bay Rays, along with the Detroit Tigers, had their contract dropped, according to The Athletic's Evan Drellich.

Technically, that doesn't mean the Rays and Tigers are done playing on Bally Sports networks. Instead, Diamond claimed it is open to negotiate new deals with the teams, presumably for lower rights fees.

The Cleveland Guardians, Minnesota Twins, Texas Rangers and Milwaukee Brewers, meanwhile, had their contracts expire. Like the Rays and Tigers, those four teams have the ability to renegotiate new contracts.

The Los Angles Angels, Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Cardinals, Kansas City Royals and Miami Marlins are designated as "joint-venture" teams, meaning they can't be retained or dropped as part of the ongoing bankruptcy proceedings. Diamond Sports previously ended its partnership with another joint-venture team, the San Diego Padres, midway through the 2023 season, so these five franchises could be susceptible to the same fate.

The Atlanta Braves were the only team to have its contract officially assumed by Diamond Sports on Wednesday.

Diamond Sports filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy on March 14, 2023.

CORRECTION: Diamond has not formally dropped every team but the Braves. Technically, what it did today is drop the contracts of 2 teams: the Rays and Tigers. The 5 other teams besides Atlanta couldn't technically be dropped today, but Diamond is implying they have to renegotiate pic.twitter.com/S8xI4Q63WO

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) October 2, 2024

Bally Sports Sun launched all the way back in 1988, at which time it was known as Sunshine Network. It became Sun Sports in 2005 before being rebranded as Fox Sports Sun in 2015.

When Disney officially acquired 21st Century Fox in 2019, it sold all the local Fox Sports networks to Diamond Sports Group – a joint-venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Allen Media Group. The regional Fox Sports networks then sold naming rights to gambling giant, Bally's Corporation, in 2021.

The Miami Heat and Tampa Bay Lightning reached agreements with Diamond to continue broadcasting their games on Bally Sports Sun for the 2024-25 seasons. It remains to be seen if the Rays will rejoin them on the network in 2025.

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