The Tampa Bay Rays joined nine other Major League Baseball teams in leaving Main Street Sports. The company struggled to meet financial commitments. The Rays regained full control of their local broadcast rights after years of uncertainty. Their former deal delivered between forty million and sixty million dollars each year. The team now enters a new era with a chance to design a modern media plan that fits the Florida market.

Rays aim to replace lost revenue with a new hybrid model

The Rays must now replace the money once supplied by Main Street Sports. The team can reach that range by building a hybrid system that blends over the air stations with cable and streaming. A statewide network can reach far beyond the Tampa Bay region. It can stretch south to Sarasota and Fort Myers. It can move east toward Orlando and Melbourne. It can extend north to Tallahassee and Jacksonville. Jacksonville is the home of new ownership leader Patrick Zalupski. This wide reach gives the Rays a rare chance to create a unified Florida network.

Over the air network offers reach and stability

A statewide over the air network built around Scripps Gray Tegna or a combination can deliver massive reach. Florida has between five and a half and six million television homes across its major markets. The Rays can secure clearance for one hundred to one hundred twenty games. They can control advertising inventory with their station partners. They avoid carriage disputes that often plague regional sports networks. This model can generate between eight and twelve million dollars each year. That estimate is based on the Padres and Diamondbacks over the air revenue splits. Florida’s larger population and multiple markets push the number upward. Stations often pay a modest rights fee and share advertising revenue.

Cable and satellite remain important revenue sources

The Rays can also negotiate cable and satellite sub fee deals with Spectrum, DirecTV, WOW and Cox. These deals can include low per subscriber fees between one dollar and one dollar fifty each month. They can include limited carriage windows inside Rays territory. They can include guaranteed minimum payments. Spectrum alone covers more than one and a half million households in Rays territory. This model can generate between twelve and eighteen million dollars each year. The number is lower than the regional sports network era but still meaningful. DirecTV remains aggressive in sports carriage. Spectrum wants local sports to reduce customer losses.

MLB TV adds a strong third pillar

MLB can produce Rays games and sell the streaming package through MLB TV. MLB keeps a portion and sends the team a guaranteed annual distribution. Teams also receive a share of national MLB TV revenue. This model can generate between twenty and twenty five million dollars each year. The Padres reportedly receive around sixty million dollars in total value. The Diamondbacks receive around fifty five million dollars. The Rays market is smaller but not dramatically smaller. MLB wants stability in Florida a key Sun Belt region. Under this plan the Rays can expect a reliable payout that lands near the middle of the league. The projected range places the Rays in a strong position to match past revenue while gaining long term security.

A complete model that matches past revenue

The Rays can combine over the air revenue cable and satellite sub fees and MLB TV distribution. The total can reach between forty and fifty five million dollars each year. That number fits within the Rays historical range of forty to sixty million dollars. The hybrid model offers more reach more flexibility and more control. It removes the risk of regional sports network bankruptcy. It improves fan access with no blackout style restrictions. MLB is quietly steering multiple clubs toward this structure.

Decisions, decisions.

The owner of the National Football League Kansas City Chiefs franchise, Clark Hunt, is locked into a lease to use the Jackson County, Missouri stadium his team calls home through the end of the 2030-31 season. Hunt is planning to build a stadium-village in Kansas about 23 miles from the Jackson County stadium starting with the 2031 NFL season. If all goes according to plan, Jackson County and Missouri will have an old football stadium and no tenant. Sure the building could hold concerts or other events but if the past is an example, the building will become a money draining relic as all the events will head over to the new stadium. The next question. What is to be done with the stadium?

In an interview with KCMO radio, Missouri House majority leader Jonathan Patterson claimed that it will cost $150 million to demolish the stadium, or $20 million a year to maintain it in its current form. There is also another problem, if county and state leaders want to demolish the facility, there is the adjacent stadium that hosts Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals franchise.  The Royals business owner John Sherman wants to leave the complex but has not made a decision on what he plans to do. In Pontiac, Michigan, it took many years and many plans but the Silverdome was eventually demolished 17 years after the NFL’s Detroit Lions business moved back to Detroit in 2001. The property now houses an Amazon distribution facility and delivery center. Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, who is working to keep Sherman’s baseball business in his city, said Hunt had a lucrative offer to stay. There was a $1.5 billion stadium renovation package on the table. Hunt is going to Kansas and will leave behind a massive real estate problem in Missouri.

Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191

Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com

Kyren Wilson and John Higgins added their names to the 2026 Masters quarter-final line up on day three of the prestigious invitational Triple Crown championship.

Both players dominated their matches, with Kyren Wilson in impressive form against Si Jiahui and John Higgins easing to victory against a badly out-of-form Barry Hawkins.

In a surreal twist, all six matches at this year’s tournament have finished with the same 6–2 scoreline.

Wilson back on form to brush aside Si

Kyren Wilson 6 – 2 Si Jiahui (best of 11 frames)

Kyren Wilson banished the memory of an early exit at the UK Championship in December with a stunning return to form, producing a commanding 6–2 victory over China’s Si Jiahui.

Wilson admitted that his exit from last month’s Triple Crown event, along with uncertainty surrounding his wife’s health, had weighed heavily on him in recent months. He will hope that his victory over the talented Si Jiahui can prove a turning point.

Kyren Wilson saw a maximum attempt end on 80 as he moved into a 2–0 lead, before the players shared the next two frames to leave the Englishman 3–1 ahead at the mid-session interval.

Si Jiahui pulled a frame back when the match resumed, but Wilson soon found another gear, winning the next three frames to seal the match. The run included a superb no-look shot on the black in the seventh frame, which helped him compile a 101 break.

Kyren Wilson will meet the winner of Neil Robertson and Chris Wakelin in the quarter-final.

Higgins punishes Hawkins with vintage display

John Higgins 6 – 2 Barry Hawkins (best of 11 frames)

Two-time former champion John Higgins took full advantage of a difficult day for Barry Hawkins, compiling six half-century breaks in a performance that underlined that the 50-year-old remains a force to be reckoned with.

After winning the opening frame, Hawkins let a few good chances slip through his fingers, allowing the Scot to take control and move 3–1 ahead at the interval.

After the break, John Higgins raised his intensity, with some outstanding long potting helping him close out the match with breaks of 99, 58 and 61.

John Higgins will face current world champion Zhao Xintong in the quarter-finals.