MN Local TV Stations in Contact with Twins, Wild and Timberwolves

The last time a major Minnesota professional sports team was broadcast full time, on an over-the-air, old school, local TV station was in 1982. That was the last of a four-year run from 1979 to 1982, where the Twins were exclusively on KMSP – TV (AKA: FOX9).

On the call that year was legendary local hockey play-by-play artist, Bob Kurtz. His color commentator was Larry Osterman, a former longtime Detroit Tigers announcer. In 1983, Spectrum Sports came to the Twin Cities, on what is now the CW Channel (Ch. 23).

For the next 40+ years, local pro sports (other than the Minnesota Vikings) would be broadcast, at least part time, on a cable or satellite (and eventually streaming) channel, and no longer available over-the-air. The Minnesota Timberwolves had a part-time over-the-air TV schedule from inception (1989), through 2003-04.

WTF is “over-the-air” television?

For the kids, you can google “antenna TV” OR “analog TV” OR “rabbit ears TV”. No subscription needed. Get an antenna, and tune it properly. Boom, free television. And yes, it still exists and works today. Look them up on Amazon.

Anyway, back to present day, and the point of this article. The Minnesota Twins, Minnesota Wild, Minnesota Timberwolves, and other non-major local professional sports teams (Lynx, Loons, etc) are broadcast on Bally Sports North, which is part of a string of local “Bally Sports” regional networks across the country.

Related: Twins Back on Bally Sports; Blackout & Streaming Issues Remain Unfixed… for Now

Their parent company, Diamond Sports Group, is currently going through a very public bankruptcy. In the very near future, it is very possible a judge will decide that DSG’s regional sports TV model is not salvageable. If that happens, Bally Sports North will cease to exist. At that point, broadcast rights for the Twins, Wild and Timberwolves would be up for sale.

Local MN TV Stations are “ready to strike” if Minnesota Twins, Wild and Timberwolves broadcast rights come available

So, what are the other options? You guessed it, a move back to local, over-the-air TV. It’s transition that makes a lot of sense, for all three teams. Local insider Darren “Doogie” Wolfson (who works for KSTP – ABC-CH5) on the Mackey & Judd Show (SKOR North) this week. He reports that multiple local television stations are “ready to strike” if Diamond Sports goes out of business.

“Let’s just say, multiple TV outlets in town have had conversations with all three organizations (Timberwolves, Wild, Twins). If that judge, at some point, declares that Diamond Sports is no longer an entity, that Diamond Sports is no longer a thing, it is going to be a crazy two to three week stretch.

There are going to be a lot of meetings, a lot of phone calls, a lot of people here in town interested in carrying Wild and Wolves games, put it that way. Because, Twins, their season is almost over. We have clarity on what the Twins’ TV situation will look like for the rest of this season.

But, there’s still some open-endedness on, ‘what does the Wild TV situation look like?’; ‘what does the Wolves TV situation look like?’. So, I’m telling you, like we need to wait on on the judge, but let’s just say… there’s been a good amount of conversations. And multiple TV outlets in town are ready to strike, if that judge says, ‘hey Diamond Sports, you’re done, you’re no longer a thing’.”

Darren Wolfson – Mackey & Judd (SKOR North)

Other options for Bally Sports teams

There are many theories as to what each team would do, if TV broadcasting rights were put in their hands. For example, Major League Baseball is already distributing and selling TV rights in certain markets (San Diego, Arizona).

In those markets, fans also have a stream-only option for cord-cutters through MLB.TV. Problem solved, at least for the Twins, right? Not exactly. A lack of revenue and slow build of subscriptions in the San Diego and Arizona markets make a switch to that strategy extremely risky.

Related: MLB Pipeline Ranks the Minnesota Twins How High After Recent Update?!

That’s especially true for a revenue-conscious MLB teams, like the Twins. And we haven’t even touched on the Timberwolves and Wild’s situation, should Diamond Sports Group be forced to cease operation in the regional sports TV space.

As Doogie noted, those latter two teams would probably be the first affected (and fought over), if Diamond Sports shuts down. I’m not going to lie… it would be a lot of fun to have these local teams back on over-the-air TV.