Late yesterday, Diamond Sports, the entity that owns Bally Sports, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of Texas. Bally Sports has a number of Regional Sports Networks that it operates, including Bally Sports Southwest, which televises the Texas Rangers (as well as the Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Stars). Diamond Sports is a subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group, which purchased Fox Sports Networks in April, 2019, and rebranded them as Bally Sports.
This filing isn’t a surprise, as it had previously signalled that Diamond Sports would likely be seeking bankruptcy protection. Diamond Sports was saddled with a significant amount of debt in connection with Sinclair’s $10.