NBA, NHL teams told Main Street Sports Network will shut down after current seasons
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Main Street Sports Group has notified its National Basketball Association and National Hockey League partners that the company will discontinue operations at the end of their ongoing campaigns, effectively terminating another 20 local media rights deals.
The regional broadcaster, which carries games under the FanDuel Sports Network banner, said it will remain on the air through April 12, the final day of the 2026 NBA regular season, and through the conclusion of the first round of the NHL playoffs later in the month. After that, the network plans to wind down unless it secures an unexpected buyer.
“FanDuel Sports Network has reached agreements with the NBA and NHL to broadcast games and other programming through the end of the 2026 NBA regular season and the end of the first round of the NHL playoffs,” a company spokesperson said Friday. “We are preparing to wind down our operations upon seasons’ end unless we reach a strategic transaction.”
Rapid contraction across three leagues
At the start of 2026, Main Street’s portfolio included 29 teams across Major League Baseball, the NBA and the NHL. All nine MLB clubs exited before spring training when missed payments surfaced, leaving only basketball and hockey properties. Thirteen NBA teams and seven NHL teams will now follow once their seasons close.
NBA franchises affected are the Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets, Miami Heat, Oklahoma City Thunder, Cleveland Cavaliers, Indiana Pacers, Detroit Pistons, Minnesota Timberwolves, Orlando Magic, Milwaukee Bucks, San Antonio Spurs, LA Clippers and Memphis Grizzlies. In the NHL, the Minnesota Wild, Nashville Predators, Detroit Red Wings, Los Angeles Kings, Carolina Hurricanes, Columbus Blue Jackets and St. Louis Blues will also reclaim their local rights.
Long-running financial struggle
Main Street traces its roots to Diamond Sports Group, a Sinclair Broadcast Group subsidiary that assumed nearly $9 billion in debt to purchase 21 Fox regional sports networks, a burden that led to a March 2023 bankruptcy filing. The company emerged from Chapter 11 twenty-two months later and, by Jan. 2, 2025, had secured a new naming-rights agreement and a commercial partnership with Amazon.
Those efforts failed to stabilize the balance sheet. A proposed sale to streaming platform DAZN collapsed late last year, and additional missed rights-fee payments followed. According to Sports Business Journal, NBA and NHL clubs have not received their 2026 fees and are expected to recoup only a portion of the shortfall.
Without a new investor, broadcasts will end when the NBA regular season and the first round of the NHL playoffs conclude, leaving the affected teams free to negotiate new local television or streaming arrangements.
Source: ESPN
