The Chicago Cubs may finally have a solution for some of their homeless games during the 2015 season and beyond. The team finished off a deal with WLS-7, Chicago’s local ABC affiliate, to air 25 games a year starting in 2015 and continuing through the 2019 season. The 2019 expiration is important, because it continues to sync up with the end of Chicago’s rights deal with CSN Chicago, and will allow the team to possibly pursue a new RSN.
On Friday morning, the team confirmed the news and stated that a solution for the remaining 45 games would be coming soon.
The #Cubs & @ABC7Chicago have announced a historic TV rights partnership for 25 Cubs games per year starting in April through 2019.
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) December 12, 2014
Remaining Cubs games not currently under contract will be announced soon to ensure all games will be on the air in Chicago next season.
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) December 12, 2014
The Cubs ended their deal with WGN last year, forcing 70 games to a new provider. The club had difficulties finding a home for those games before WLS stepped up to take roughly a third of the games, meaning that there are still 45 games that the team needs to find an outlet for in the next four months. The most likely home for those games are familiar to Cubs fans – CSN Chicago and the old home fro those games, WGN.
I wouldn’t doubt that the Cubs big winter, which was highlighted by Joe Maddon being hired as the new manager and the big ticket signing of Jon Lester, had a part in WLS getting a deal done with the team. The hype train is starting to build around the Cubs, and WLS adding what essentially amounts to one game a week seems like a no-brainer (despite the buckets of money that WGN lost on the team in 2014).
I’d be curious about what this means for the team’s future RSN plans. I doubt Comcast would be willing to partner with the team on a new RSN, given that they’re already an established presence in the market. Fox packed up and left Chicago years ago following the launch of CSN. DirecTV hasn’t exactly been proactive in adding Root affiliates, only hopping into the Houston market following the disastrous saga of CSN Houston. Could ABC jump into the fray through ESPN, which has experienced both success and failure with SEC Network and Longhorn Network? We’ve still got plenty of time before this issue needs to be dealt with, but the possibilities are intriguing.
