The Cardinals win all the time, get great TV ratings and sell gobs of tickets. Now the rich are getting richer. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
. . . the Cardinals have reached a deal with Fox Sports Midwest that will guarantee the team more than $1 billion . . . The team and its exclusive local broadcast partner are expected to announce a new, 15-year agreement Thursday morning, officials on both sides confirmed. The new deal will begin with the 2018 season, continue to feature as many as 150 televised regular-season games, and also provides the Cardinals with a minority stake in the network.
The deal will close to double what the Cards get for local broadcast rights as of now. The Post-Dispatch reports that it’ll jump from $35 million to close to $60 million and then escalate with inflation after that. It’s part of an overall trend in baseball, as multiple teams have signed rights deals in recent years over the $1 billion mark.
Of course there’s more to this deal, as there is reportedly a signing bonus involved and that stake in the network will be valuable as well.
