The long, terrible Bally Sports North nightmare is over -- sort of. A streak of three months without the ability for most Minnesota Twins fans to watch games on TV is coming to an end, as Diamond Sports Group and Comcast officially reached a deal on Monday afternoon.
Back in May, Comcast dropped Bally Sports from all of its cable packages, which left a majority of Twins fans without access to games. There were workarounds, like buying a streaming package that had Bally Sports North, but for the most part fans were left in the dark.
Light has begun to shine through, though.
Comcast announced that it would begin carrying Bally Sports North again starting August 1st, which means Twins fans once again can watch games on TV.
Bally Sports North will be back on Comcast starting August 1st
Comcast and Diamond Sports have (finally) reached an agreement, which means Bally Sports North and the #MNTwins will be available again on Comcast starting August 1.
— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) July 29, 2024
Last week was the first true sign of hope, as Diamond attorney Brian Hermann announced in court that he believed 'substantial progress' had been made in reaching a deal with Comcast. It turned out to be true, as Monday's annoucement ends a long standoff that turned Twins fans in collateral damage.
Diamond Sports Group has been the enemy of Twins Territory for over a year. The company went bankrupt in 2023, leaving a handful of teams including the Twins without television deals for this season. Not only was that bad from the standpoint of not being able to watch games, but the fears over lost future revenue caused the team to slash its payroll by $30 million and handcuffed the front office from being able to make meiangful additions over the winter.
It was a sour taste that still hasn't been fully washed out, but getting access to games again is at least a step in the right direction. The Twins still deserve plenty of blame for putting fans in this position in the first place, opting to get back into bed with Diamond Sports Group after they cut ownership a check.
Not long after that, fans had their access cut when Comcast dropped it from its cable package amid a dispute with Diamond.
Even with Bally Sports North back on most cable packages, fans are simply back to square one in terms of still needing to deal with an already impossible station to watch. Still, at least games are on television again and fans can at least try to watch games a little easier than before.
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