ST. LOUIS — When fans tune in for the St. Louis Blues’ game against the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday night, the screen will look a little different.
On Monday, Diamond Sports Group announced a commercial partnership with FanDuel, the online gaming company, that will rebrand the broadcast to FanDuel Sports Network Midwest from Bally Sports. FanDuel Sports Network will air the remaining 68 Blues games that Diamond Sports is contracted for this season.
Other than a new network name and graphics, everything else will stay the same. Play-by-play announcer John Kelly, color analyst Jamie Rivers and rink reporter Andy Strickland will be on the call, while Blues Hall of Famer Bernie Federko and host Scott Warmann will have the pregame and postgame.
This is how the Blues hope the situation will remain after recently signing a multi-year extension with Diamond, which is in the process of trying to exit bankruptcy with its regional sports networks (RSNs).
Chris Zimmerman, CEO of the Blues’ business operations department, told The Athletic that the club is not currently in jeopardy of losing the broadcasts on what is now the FanDuel Sports Network.
“Our particular RSN, within the entire Diamond ecosystem, is actually not in the bankruptcy filing,” Zimmerman said. “I’m completely confident that we’re going to be broadcasting our games and effectively get them to our fans no matter what happens in the courts.”
But with Diamond potentially carrying fewer Major League Baseball teams’ broadcasts in 2025, Zimmerman understands that it would be unwise to feel like there are any guarantees in what has been 18-month saga with the bankruptcy proceedings.
“It would be unfair to overstate the confidence,” Zimmerman said. “There is uncertainty. … It’s a reality for us, for the Cardinals, and for any other team. That is why we all have no choice but to also be exploring — if not with this partner, what’s next?”
The Blues, like all professional teams, have been trying to forecast the future of how their games will be delivered to their fans.
For years, RSNs were the most logical outlet because of their reach to cable customers, along with being a source of guaranteed revenue that allows clubs to remain competitive in their respective sports with salaries on the rise. But with the number of households that subscribe to cable packages declining, the situation became tenuous.
“Regional sports television is going through a revolution in the fundamental change in how many people are receiving their sports now,” Zimmerman said. “The fact is there are now more teams in more markets across multiple sports with multiple strategies. I’d like to say that we keep getting further along in our understanding of potential new strategies. And we will be watching the results in every market, as will every other team that’s in this situation.”
The Blues explored other options:
• Victory+, a free direct-to-consumer streaming service that is being used by the Dallas Stars
• Scripps Sports, a mobile app that is the official streaming home of the Florida Panthers
• A combination of Victory+ and free local television, as is being used by the Anaheim Ducks
“Is there a clear winner?” Zimmerman said. “No, if there was a clear winner, this would be a lot easier.”
Thus, the Blues concluded that continuing with Diamond was in their best interest for now.
“There’s still a big audience that’s receiving our games this way,” Zimmerman said. We still have the streaming option with (FanDuel Sports Network), so you don’t have to be part of a cable bundle to get your Blues games. So, we feel highly confident in the product that we’re going to deliver this coming season.”
But the club realizes that in the ever-changing broadcast landscape, the challenging goal will be finding the right combination of revenue and serving the fanbase.
“The health of our business is about our fanbase,” Zimmerman said. “We will go where our fans are, and we’ll create ways to deliver our stories and our live games in a way that works for people. Ultimately, every professional sport’s health is determined by, ‘Are we bringing people in?’
“The job of our business team is to entertain, to create a great fan experience and to grow the business so that we can grow the hockey team. We always say if we can get somebody to a game, they’re going to be a hockey fan. But we have to find other ways because the live audience is just a very small part of the equation for us.”
Zimmerman said the new deal with Diamond will have “zero effect on hockey spending. Zero.”
It’s been a long 1 1/2 years to get to this point, but the Blues feel they are in as good of a spot as possible.
“The amount of time that we’re investing, trying to sort out what this path is going to be, it’s been a dramatic investment,” Zimmerman said. “The less you actually control, the more challenging anything is in business.
“It’s a fluid process, but I’m really pleased that we’re continuing with (Diamond). The great news is being one of their stronger markets, our broadcast team will be the same, and the core people producing our games go back 20 years around Blues hockey. That’s not changing.”
(Top image: Pavlo Gonchar / Getty Images)
