Can the Padres live up to the title of ‘America’s Team’?
In 1979, NFL Films editor Bob Ryan was reportedly looking for a title to the Dallas Cowboys' 1978 highlight film when he was struck by the number of fans dressed in Cowboys garb at games outside of Dallas. The “America's Team” nickname was born.
Nationally broadcast regular-season games have always been more rare in baseball than football. The Atlanta Braves became the exception when they began broadcasting on the cable “superstation” TBS in 1977. Owner Ted Turner marketed the Braves as “America's Team,” and it was hard to dispute the claim. TBS helped raise an entire generation of Braves fans from markets in which no major league teams were present.
To achieve the American media ubiquity of the Braves or Cowboys in 2023, a team must be visible on streaming channels both inside and outside its own market. Preferably, that streaming channel would be available without much friction — say, through a single app. There would still be a local cable presence, of course, for the non-cord-cutters in the viewing audience. It's the kind of package that might resemble one that came into existence literally overnight.
Ladies and gentlemen, behold America's Team: The San Diego Padres.
In a press release distributed late Tuesday, MLB announced it would assume control of the production and distribution of every locally distributed Padres game beginning with Wednesday night's contest against the Miami
Marlins.
According to the release, the new arrangement expands the reach of Padres games in their “home television territory” from approximately 1.130 million homes to approximately 3.264 million. Besides San Diego and Imperial counties, the Padres' blackout region included parts of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, as well as parts of Southern Nevada and Arizona. The increase of 2.131 million homes increased the Padres' reach by 189%.
In addition to streaming the games on MLB. tv, Padres fans in those regions can watch their team via DirecTV, Spectrum, Cox and Fubo.
The news was bittersweet. Diamond Sports Group, which bought the Padres' regional network (Bally Sports San Diego) from Disney in 2019, did not make a rights-fee payment to the Padres less than three months after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. With that, the Padres' television home since 2012 lost its primary tenant. No one ever promised the transition into the next era of televised sports would be smooth.
The effect is that baseball has stumbled backward into an almost-bestcase scenario for fans in a previously blacked-out market to stream their favorite team.
The “almost” part: if you already subscribed to MLB.tv, and you live in the Padres' territory, your subscription will not allow you to stream the Padres. That will cost you an extra $74.99 for the remainder of the season after June 4.
While Diamond and MLB hammer out the details of their divorce in court, let's reflect on the Padres' stunning, sudden visibility. This was a team that failed to finish above .500 from 2011-19. When they lost, they lost in anonymity. The team still hasn't drafted and developed a star player since Tony Gwynn, who retired in 2001. It plays in the nation's 30th-largest media market, and has sometimes run the 30th-largest payroll in a 30-team league.
The idea that the Padres would ever be MLB's most visible team would be utterly laughable for most of the franchise's existence.
And yet, if there ever were a time to put the Padres on center stage, that time is now. Peter Seidler seized control of the team's ownership in 2020 and has since ballooned the team's payroll to the game's third-largest — more than $280 million for competitive balance tax purposes. America's Team is paid well, and laden with stars.
They are not yet good. At 25-29 through Tuesday, the Padres sit in fourth place in a surprisingly competitive National League West. They began the season with aspirations of challenging the Dodgers for a division title. The Dodgers have won five of six games against San Diego this season.
Earlier this year, I highlighted the Padres' unique imperative to win. Theirs is a team-building strategy rarely employed outside of New York or Los Angeles. If they can pull this off, Seidler's Padres could potentially send a message to other small-market owners that yes, even you can buy a championship.
Now, that imperative is doubled. There have never been fewer obstacles for fans of a baseball team (of a certain income bracket, at least) who want to see their team play. The Padres are the guinea pigs in MLB's new streaming experiment.
The only question is if America will embrace its new team.