Full details of Brewers' new TV deal give hope, but also raise some real questions

There are a number of reasons why the Milwaukee Brewers don't have much in the way of financial might compared to many other teams in MLB. Owner Mark Attanasio isn't as independently wealthy as most other MLB owners and Milwaukee as a market is among the smallest in all of baseball. One big driver of the Brewers' frugal nature, however, is the state of their TV revenue.

Milwaukee never had the huge TV deal that teams like the Yankees have, but the situation was compounded recently by Diamond Sports' ongoing bankruptcy that ultimately led the company to shed broadcasting Brewers games and force MLB to step in and broadcast games going forward. If you want the primary reason why the organization let Willy Adames leave without much of a fight and traded Devin Williams to New York this offseason, the uncertain TV revenue landscape is a prime culprit.

However, an interesting wrinkle to the situation revealed itself this week. While most thought that the Brewers' relationship with Diamond Sports/FanDuel Sports Networks was dead, it was announced that Milwaukee had reached a new TV deal to broadcast Brewers games on FanDuel Sports again. In many ways, this new deal raises more questions than it answers.

Brewers have a new TV deal, but their broadcasting future remains very sketchy

On the surface, this new TV deal feels like a win for Brewers fans. MLB's current broadcast platform may have a much higher ceiling in terms of the number of homes that can be potentially reached, but it hasn't been widely adopted just yet and most agree that the revenue from MLB's replacement TV deals for those teams impacted by Diamond Sports' nonsense is significantly less than previous deals.

In short, the Brewers probably don't make this deal unless it is more financially lucrative than what MLB was providing. We don't have the exact financials of the deal just yet, but it feels like a pretty good educated guess that the Brewers are getting a short-term revenue boost with the new deal. As to whether Milwaukee will use this revenue boost to invest more in the 2025 roster, that remains to be seen as we don't really know how much more the Brewers are getting in terms of dollars.

However, this new deal doesn't really address the Brewers' fundamental problems here. The size of Milwaukee as a market is causing the Brewers to fall behind revenue-wise and while fans of the team are often rabid, reverting back to the traditional TV game broadcast model does seem to limit the team's ability to attract new fans and that feels pretty unsustainable.

The most likely explanation here is that the Brewers' new TV deal is a short-term bridge to what could be a massive change in how all baseball games will be broadcast in the near future. MLB has been very clear that they want to take control of most (if not all) of TV rights by 2028. Some teams with lucrative TV deals in place are already balking at this plan (and understandably so), but the idea here is that MLB knows that something radical needs to change for the sport to survive the rapidly changing media consumption landscape and they want to control their own destiny.

What this new future looks like remains to be seen. We know that this new deal between the Brewers and Diamond Sports is a short-term deal that won't directly impact MLB's plans beyond 2028. As to how fans will be able to watch Brewers games after that, that remains anyone's guess along with whether or not the inevitable changes will improve Milwaukee's financial outlook in the years to come.

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