But liquidation and a midseason disruption remain possible
Main Street Sports Group initiated its legal pathway to a winddown on Friday by issuing WARN notices to all employees, alerting them that, as of now their jobs will end in approximately 60 days once the NBA and NHL regular seasons conclude in mid-April.
Main Street CEO David Preschlack said in a statement Tuesday that “any and all aspects of the WARN notices can be revoked at any time,” meaning other scenarios could potentially preclude a winddown. Sources familiar with the matter told SBJ Tuesday that one of those scenarios could be an immediate Main Street liquidation -- which would have all FanDuel Sports Networks going dark and all employees immediately dismissed -- or a deal with a strategic partner that keeps employees’ jobs in place.
Sources said some employees are actively preparing to leave or have sent out job queries to other platforms.
It is not clear if DAZN is still a possible strategic partner. But sources have told SBJ that DAZN has unequivocal interest in obtaining the broadcast rights to the 13 NBA and 7 NHL teams that are under the Main Street umbrella -- independently of Main Street. However, sources said DAZN is asking teams to take as much as 40% drop in rights fees, which could be a deterrent to any deal.
The NBA has also told teams not to do any contract extensions with Main Street or any other platform, source said, which may make DAZN’s pursuit short-lived.
Sources said Main Street held a town hall last week with its employees to explain the company’s protocol toward a winddown -- which includes the notices they were required by law to send. Preschlack has made it clear Main Street intends to finish out the NBA and NHL regular seasons without a broadcast interruption, which he repeated again in his statement. “FanDuel Sports Network is continuing to broadcast NBA and NHL games as we engage in discussions with our partners about our go-forward plans,” Preschlack said.
NBA and NHL teams have feared that Main Street could liquidate mid-season, and each league has prepared its franchises for the plug potentially being pulled. In an emergency, the NBA would likely have in-market games streamed through League Pass, while the NHL would create a Game Center for their streams.
For linear broadcasts, teams would have to find their own local channel options. Most clubs already have broadcasted a minimum of five games on local over-the-air stations and could swap their games to those channels permanently in the event of a liquidation.
Sources said it is in the hands of Main Street’s creditors whether to liquidate, and those sources said they suspect that both the NBA and NHL have made inquiries to the creditors as to what their plans are.