MESA, Ariz. – With the regional sports network model on shaky ground, and Major League Baseball set to produce broadcasts for at least 14 teams this season, the sports broadcast landscape is at a tipping point.
“If you look at baseball right now, there’s a lot of really nice tailwinds,” Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts said Monday at the team’s spring training complex. “Attendance is up, ratings are up. There’s a lot of things going in the right direction. We’ve got a lot of good young stars and exciting young players, and that’s all going well.
“There are some challenges. The regional sports network model has been under pressure for the last few years. Certain teams felt it the most this offseason, and it’ll take a while for it to work out, but it’s certainly a challenge for the entire league.”
The Cubs’ in-house network, Marquee Sports Network – which is operated by the team and Sinclair – hasn’t been immune. Launched in 2020, its first season was just 60 games long, shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
More recently, the network went through a round of layoffs this offseason that slashed its digital department and eliminated the GM position. This spring, Marquee is scheduled to broadcast just 11 Cactus League Games.
“Given all the market headwinds for RSNs, Marquee was one of the best things we ever did,” Ricketts still said Monday. “To be in control of our own destiny and be able to produce the games we want to produce the way we want to produce them, with the right people and the right staff and the right level of production quality. For us, it’s been a huge home run.”
In a moment of meta cinema, a Marquee camera was nestled among the gathered reporters, capturing his comments. Despite the cuts, Ricketts didn’t falter in his praise, saying that starting the network was “maybe the smartest thing we’ve done in all these years.”
“Very happy with the product,” he said. “Everyone is. We’ve won tons of Emmys, and we get great feedback, and we have broadcasters who are loved by the fans, and we do a great game day production.
“But we also have the economic realities that are facing other sports networks and the declining revenue model. So we just have to balance that out and try to focus our efforts where we can get a great experience and a great production for fans, and just being mindful of expenses, because it’s getting tougher.”
As MLB continues to add teams’ broadcasts to its portfolio, there’s been discussion about whether the league would take over all 30 teams’ broadcasts in the coming years.
“There’s a lot of speculation on that,” Ricketts said. “I don’t want to get too deep in the weeds, but we love the network, and we love our independence.”
Extensions incoming?
Most of the Cubs’ multi-year deals, with the notable exceptions of shortstop Dansby Swanson’s and third baseman Alex Bregmans’ contracts, could expire after this season.
Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer has painted that financial flexibility as a positive. But he’s also said he hopes to open extension talks with several current players, declining to reveal specifics.
Left fielder Ian Happ and right fielder Seiya Suzuki, who are in the last year of their respective deals, both said Monday that the Cubs hadn’t yet engaged them in extension talks.
“Going back to the last time, I’ve always said I’d be open to talking about anything,” said Happ, who the Cubs signed to a three-year extension in 2023. “But no, no conversations.”
Said Suzuki, through Japanese interpreter Edwin Stanberry: “I want to work hard and perform well, and hopefully they say, yes.”
Second baseman Nico Hoerer declined to comment on the topic of contract negotiations.
“But this year is an incredibly exciting thing to be a part of,” he said, “and I’m grateful to be in this locker room right now, for sure.”
Lockout on the horizon?
Ricketts, when asked what advice he’d give to fans hearing about another contentious bargaining period brewing between the owners and players, said to enjoy the season.
“Enjoy the games as we have them,” he said. “Obviously it’s the last year of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Both the league and the Players Association want to make some improvements from their perspective. I leave that to the league, and we’ll see where it goes.”
Ricketts declined to say whether he’d support a salary cap, a measure the league appears to be eyeing but the players have long opposed.