I thought it was odd awhile back when espn.com moved MLB off its banner links. I don’t watch espn and haven’t regularly for years, but Baseball Tonight was a really good show, I wonder if it will continue.
Back in the late 90 and early 00s before the ubiquity of the internet dominated our lives baseball tonight was must see TV every night. ESPN pretty much announced to the world they didn't care about baseball when they slashed it's flagship program. Feels like the end of an era, but the writing was on the wall.
ESPN Baseballl, left to you, by VegasMatt, presented by Bovada, because YAY MGM Grand! You are a bunch of horrible people, and you should all go away and die.
TNT just lost basketball rights so I can see them expanding their coverage. Perhaps one night of games on TBS, and another night of games on TNT. If TNT is not interested, then I don't see other options for MLB unless they go streaming. Baseball does not drive the same amount of engagement anymore as NBA or NFL. Like it or not ESPN does have a ton of influence on what people care about. It's on the TVs at gyms or businesses 24/7.
Spoiler If the team is sold, MLB ultimately wants the franchise to remain in Florida, with an eye on the Ybor City neighborhood near downtown Tampa if St. Petersburg does not work out. People briefed on the process pointed to Orlando as a possibility as well. But after 17 years of trying to find a new stadium, Sternberg appears to be on the clock to firm up a long-term plan, be it by selling or building. If he doesn’t, he risks MLB trying to take away at least some of the team’s revenue-sharing money in the future, people briefed on the ownership-level conversations said. The Rays receive around $60 million from that pool, people briefed on the team’s finances said. Two key dates loom. The first is March 31, a deadline for Sternberg to meet several obligations that would push forward a $1.3 billion stadium deal in St. Pete. The Rays have been telegraphing that they are unlikely to meet those obligations, however, which would leave them on square one, or close to it: in search of a municipality in Florida that will agree to publicly fund some of a ballpark. The Rays planned to contribute $700 million to the stadium in St. Pete. But the team is arguing that a delayed county vote led to a holdup in construction and therefore, increased costs. They do not believe they should cover those costs on their own. Chris Latvala, a commissioner in Florida’s Pinellas County who has been a vocal critic of Sternberg, believes a sale is coming. “If Stu walks away from this deal, I think the owners and Major League Baseball will see that he either has an unwillingness to do a new stadium in Tampa Bay, or he has a financial issue that prevents him from doing a new stadium in Tampa Bay and there needs to be an ownership change,” Latvala said. “I do believe that we’ll have new ownership with the Rays at some point in the near future.” Team president Matt Silverman said Sternberg’s access to the money is not the issue, however. “It’s not a question of whether we have the funds. We do,” Silverman said. “The question is whether it’s a good use of those funds to commit us and MLB to this ballpark for the next 30 years.” A more powerful deadline, however, might loom at the end of 2026, during collective bargaining between MLB and the players’ union. MLB and the Major League Baseball Players Association could at that time agree to ways to lessen the team’s share in revenue sharing, or put contingencies around it. The Rays, however, believe they should not be committing to a stadium project where they don’t think they can thrive, people briefed on the possibility of the team’s sale said. The Rays feel that fellow club owners should be glad the team does not want to sign up for 30 more years of middling success — because it would mean they’d still be propped up by revenue sharing. The team also feels singled out compared to other smaller-market teams that have been less successful on the field, including in comparison to the Miami Marlins. But if Sternberg walks away from the deal in St. Pete at the end of the month, it might be difficult to revive. “I don’t know what there would be left to negotiate,” Latvala said. “We have a deal, and it’s on the table. I’m certainly not going to give them more money, so I don’t really know what’s left to negotiate with them.” In the big picture, the Rays find themselves staring down not only their local government, but also the league office and the sport’s other owners. The Rays could probably sell for a higher dollar value were potential buyers allowed to relocate the team. But MLB does not want the Rays to move out of the overall market, believing it still viable. Nor does the league want to give up a potential expansion city like Nashville or Portland, Ore., or Salt Lake City. Whether to allow relocation is ultimately up to MLB and the other owners, not Sternberg. So with discussions not yet meeting Sternberg’s target price, he doesn’t appear to have had a great incentive to act quickly. Revenue sharing and the team’s balance sheet today might be more appealing than reducing his asking price, or taking on the expense of new construction in St. Pete. But Manfred and other owners appear out of patience. Sternberg a few years ago pushed a plan for the team to split the season between two countries: in the U.S. in Florida, and in Montreal in Canada, which Manfred eventually nixed. Today, large-market clubs that pay the most into revenue sharing are not happy, and at least some of the small-market teams are annoyed too. “You’re San Diego, you’re Milwaukee, you work your a— off,” said one person briefed on the ownership-level discussions. To an extent, the Rays are keeping the owners from the windfall of an expansion fee. Manfred wants the league to have chosen two cities for new teams before his planned retirement in 2029, but he has also long said that process would wait until the Rays’ situation is solved. The Rays aren’t definitively the only hold-up, though. Some owners might be hesitant to expand until the A’s are settled in Las Vegas, or the league has a plan for the Miami Marlins, who are struggling to draw. Forbes estimates the Rays to be worth $1.25 billion. Sternberg bought the team for $200 million in 2004.
This tweet may be appropriate while the Mariners are playing the CWS just before they play the Astros in May.
