MSG Represents MLB and Four Clubs in Diamond Sports Group Bankruptcy Litigation

As part of its Chapter 11 Reorganization, Diamond Sports Group (“Diamond”) argued that the contracted telecast rights fees owed by Diamond to the Minnesota Twins, the Cleveland Guardians, the Texas Rangers Baseball Club and the Arizona Diamondbacks (collectively the “Four MLB Teams”) for the 2023 season were unreasonable.  Sullivan & Cromwell,  on behalf of Major League Baseball and Faegre Drinker, Jones Day, White & Case LLP, and Gallagher & Kennedy on behalf of the Four MLB Teams, engaged Robin Flynn, an affiliated expert for The Michel-Shaked Group, to provide rebuttal expert testimony on whether the telecast rights fees owed by Diamond to the Four MLB Teams for the 2023 season were reasonable.  In particular, Ms. Flynn rebutted the analysis performed by Diamond’s expert and performed an analysis that determined that the Debtors had not shown that the local telecast rights fees Diamond contracted to pay the Four MLB teams were unreasonable, and that those fees are consistent with market rates.  The Michel-Shaked Group team was led by Stephen Kempainen and Paul Dionne who supported Ms. Flynn in preparing her rebuttal expert report and assisted her with deposition and trial testimony.

Following a two-day bench trial in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez ruled in favor of MLB and the Four Teams, determining that the contract rates were reasonable.