Opinion: What Went Wrong With Bally Sports?

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Broadcasting giant Bally Sports continues to face problems with bankruptcy and there is a chance the broadcasting company will no longer be able to maintain its partnership with the many MLB and NBA teams it currently has rights to. This is nothing new considering this issue stems from the company filing bankruptcy back in March 2023.

However, one has to wonder how things got to this point. After all, Bally was once a fitness company. Why would a fitness company try to forge itself as a broadcasting company capable of being the dominant entity over the entire Disney network virtually overnight? It seems like this company simply made the critical mistake of biting off more than it can chew.

Now, it’s important to remember that this company didn’t actually put a half-done plan into action. Diamond Sports Group, part of this partnership, was actually a successful casino company. Then there was a merger with the regional Fox Sports Networks. The plan was to also launch a sports betting app on phones which is currently a very popular trend.

It’s hard to fault a company for being ambitious and doing what works. It seems to be a question of whether or not the company tries to make too much happen overnight. Was there enough risk management analysis conducted by this company?

Granted, most successful businesses take monumental risks. It’s the name of the game. However, the high-risk, high-reward plan of making all these great things happen in less than three decades doesn’t seem to be panning out too well.

Again, it’s not to fault the plan overall. It just seems like the company rushed into growing.

At one point, Bally Sports was $8 billion dollars in debt. One has to wonder how a company can be in $8 billion of debt and still survive, although barely.

Bally Sports recently lost civil suits against the Minnesota Twins and Texas Rangers and the San Diego Padres have become the first team to get out of their deal with them when Bally missed a payment. This could be a start of a long list of civil lawsuits. If Bally Sports continues to lose its lawsuits, a lot of teams could be looking for other broadcast partners.

Bally Sports is continuing to broadcast games for the teams the network broadcasts. Will Bally Sports actually get through the financial hardships and continue being a broadcasting giant? Is this the end of the road for Bally Sports? Only time will tell what fate ultimately has in store for this company.