The Washington Nationals will soon take up total control of their media rights, a decision that could lead to the MLB team again by hitting the market.
Baltimore Nationals and Orioles announced on Monday A settlement of their media disputes of several decades. Under the agreement, the Nationals will be for the first time the ownership of their rights starting with the 2026 season, ending years when the Orioles have checked their RSN (MASN) and the annual payments they received.
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The regulations erase a notable obstacle to the sale of nationals. In 2022, when the Lerner family tried to do exactly that, the media dispute proved to be an impassive roadblock, Sportico previously reported. A certain number of potential investors have been frightened by the fact that one of the largest income flows of the team (its media rights) was wrapped in so much uncertainty. Interest – and potential selling price – constantly increase without disagreement on franchise.
Nationals are worth $ 2.2 billionaccording to Sporto, the 14thth– Total highest in MLB. A club representative did not immediately respond to an email asking for comments.
The news comes in the middle of a spectacular change in the number of MLB teams monetizes their television rights, with narrowing RSN payments for teams across the country. The nationals were not immune to this under the MASN configuration. The team will be paid $ 58.3 million each for the 2024 and 2025 seasons, down from an annual rate of $ 72.8 million in 2022 and 2023, by terms negotiated by MLB in the middle of the dispute. Nationals also explore new income opportunities, including Jersey patches and a name for names in the Nationals Park.
Any discussion of a possible national sale begins With Ted Leonsis. The owner of the Washington NHL and NBA franchises, Leonsis was one of the parties interested in 2022 when the Nationals kept Allen & Co. to explore a sale. In addition to capital and wizards, the Leonsis portfolio includes their DC arena and the monumental sports network. Since the end of the Nats, Leonsis talks been open to his interest in adding more, especially in DC
“I will buy only one team which, authentically, I can say … Our platform will be at the service”, it said has SporticoThe “Invest in Sports” event in October 2023. “So, if you are not in Maryland, Virginia or DC, I am not interested in the team.”
Last May, he said to a local radio station that he make another offer For nationals. A representative of Leonsis did not immediately respond to an email asking for comments.
There are other factors that indicate that Leonsis is a probable buyer if nationals sell. Later, two other contenders in the process in standby in 2022 then invested in other MLB teams. Stan intermediary bought 16.25% Philadelphia phillies in 2023 and David Rubenstein Buy the Orioles In 2024 for $ 1.73 billion.
The Orioles dispute dates from the early 2000s. When the MLB moved the Montreal exhibitions to Washington – the League owned the team at the time – relocating drew an objection from the Orioles. The Angelos family, which owned the O at the time, argued that Washington was inside the commercial imprint of Orioles and that a second team so close could devalue the territorial diffusion rights of Baltimore, as well as its ability to draw and retain local fans. To adjust these fears, MLB negotiated An agreement by which the Orioles would control an important majority participation in a single RSN which would hold the local rights of the two teams.
As part of the regulations, Orioles began with a 90% stake in the Mid-Atlantic sports network (MASN), the Nationals holding 10% and which gradually separated at 67% to 33% over time. The rights of nationals, however, would be locked in the network controlled by the Orioles “perpetuity. “The two teams have regularly fought, in public and via legal means, on the amount that nationals should receive in rights fees and how accounting should work.
Historically, the two parties were distant. During the 2012-2016 period, for example, nationals were paid $ 198 million but argued that they should have received $ 478 million. There have been court decisions to rebalance the payments from previous years, but the two teams had previously been able to conclude an agreement that separates their rights or avoids the perpetual dispute required to sort annual payments.
At the end of December, the MLB revenue sharing definition committee granted nationals $ 320.5 million in Masn for 2022-26, which corresponds to an average payment of $ 64.1 million for each of the five years. That said, the annual rate increased from $ 72.8 million in 2022 and 2023 to $ 58.3 million for the last three years (the last of which is now canceled by the decision on Monday).
In a 59-page decision, the RSDC justified the fees of fees as a necessary function of the “deterioration” of the conditions of the industry, before declaring that the two parties recognized that “Masn would continue to undergo drops subscribed during the period 2022-2026”.
Nationally, the paid television industry has lost some 6.78 million submarines grouped in the past year only, and 35.4 million since 2019, with the penetration of the traditional bundle by cable / satellite / telecommunications now at only 38% of all American television houses. At its peak in 2012 – or only seven years after the move of DC, the penetration of the bundle competed with more than 90%.
The MLB decision at the end of December was only the last decision rendered by the RSDC. In November 2023, the Committee decided that nationals would have about $ 304.1 million per Masn for the 2017-21 period, a figure which included a downward adjustment for the 2020 Pandemic season.
Current RSDC members are Tom Werner, president of the Boston Red Sox; Mark Attanasio, the main owner of the Brewers Milwaukee; and Dick Monfort, owner / president and chief executive officer of Colorado Rockies.
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