For those Cleveland Guardians fans sweating the Diamond Sports Group/Bally Sports incredibly slow decision-making process as to whether they will remain the broadcast home of the team there are at least assurances that games won’t be missed.
The Hollywood Reporter details in a report how Major League Baseball managed to begin broadcasting San Diego Padres games 24 hours after broadcast rights reverted to the team and the league and that’s with Bally Sports doing them no favors in the process.
The big challenge: those rights reverted while the Padres were beginning a road trip. Therefore, MLB had to power up a broadcast system for a West Coast team while that team was playing on the opposite side of the country.
“When we found out that we were going to have the game, 24 hours in advance, we sprung into action. We had meetings with the crew, with the talent, we had got all of our graphics loaded into the truck,” Billy Chambers, MLB vice president of local media, said in a piece. “Yeah, it was an absolute fire drill.”
It shouldn’t be surprising that MLB was able to power up so quickly having been pioneers in streaming games before streaming was cool.
Bally Sports has a deadline of July 1 to pay the Guardians the rest of their rights fees to keep broadcasting games the rest of the season.
MLB will have to be prepared as they were with the Padres. Given the extended holiday weekend with two intriguing opponents, the series will draw interest because of interleague play.
The Guardians play the Cubs July 1-2 at Wrigley Field. No one cares the Cubs are currently in fourth place in the National League Central. They’re the Cubs. They possess a different kind of mystique. They will always draw viewing interest.
Then the Guardians return home for a three-game series against the Atlanta Braves July 3-5. The two series begin a stretch where the team plays nine games in nine days. MLB could have its work cut out for it.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Report explains how MLB can take over Cleveland Guardians games