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Brian Windhorst, ESPN Senior Writer
The Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury are moving forward with putting their games on free broadcast television after their regional sports network partner declined to match the competing offer.
The convention-changing move had been blocked by a bankruptcy court judge this spring after the teams announced their decision to end a longtime partnership with Bally Sports Arizona, whose parent company filed for Chapter 11 in March.
But the transition now has the go-ahead after Bally Sports, which had sued to enforce a matching rights clause in the expired contract, let a Thursday deadline pass to do so.
The Suns and Mercury intend to show games on several over-the-air stations in Arizona owned by Gray Television, which they say will triple the reach compared to when the games were on cable. There are also plans to launch a direct-to-consumer option to stream games over the internet.
“I am excited to be able to deliver to our Suns and Mercury fans this industry-shifting partnership with Gray Television,” Suns owner Mat Ishbia said in a statement. “We’ve had an incredible offseason, making a lot of exciting moves to build the championship caliber Suns team our fans want. Now, this deal gives more than 2.8 million homes across Arizona access to Suns and Mercury games for free.”
The Suns and Mercury could be at the forefront of a trend. The Utah Jazz recently announced they plan to move their games to a free over-the-air local station after 15 years of having non-national TV games on a regional sports network. They will also establish a direct-to-consumer streaming option.
“I am proud that we are at the forefront of this shift to make the game more accessible,” Ishbia said, “which not only serves our fan base, but also helps to build future NBA and WNBA fans.”