St. Louis Cardinals finalize television deal for 2025 - What does it mean for fans?

In a time of financial uncertainty for the St. Louis Cardinals, they have finalized their television deal, at least for the near future. The organization announced this morning that they have agreed to a multi-year deal with FanDuel Sports Network Midwest, formerly known as Bally Sports Midwest. FanDuel came to an agreement with Diamond Sports Group back in October to take over their channels.

The details of this new deal with the Cardinals are yet uncertain, but it does include a direct-to-consumer streaming option for local fans for the first time.

How does this deal affect the Cardinals?

In terms of financial uncertainty for the club, this deal certainly alleviates some of it, but the new deal certainly doesn't give the Cardinals as much revenue as the previous deal with Diamond Sports Group. Unfortunately, fans should still expect the team's payroll to dip in 2025, as front-office executives and ownership indicated during the end-of-season press conference in October.

Bottom line, the Cardinals now have a much better picture of what their revenue will look like for 2025 and however long this multi-year partnership is for, meaning the club should now have certainty on what their payroll will be next year and can go full steam ahead into whatever moves they want to make this offseason.

How does this deal affect Cardinals fans?

However, for fans still excited to watch Cardinals baseball in 2025, this new agreement should make it considerably easier. For those living in the St. Louis area with access to FanDuel Sports Network Midwest on their cable subscriptions, their access to Cardinals broadcasts should not change. But, for fans unwilling to pay extravagant prices for cable subscriptions just to get access to Cardinals broadcasts, a monthly streaming option will be available. Pricing has yet to be determined, but the St. Louis Blues are charging $20 a month through FanDuel Midwest, so expect a similar rate. Lastly, for fans living outside the St. Louis market, broadcasts will still be available via MLBTV's league-wide access.

Ultimately, the agreement between the Cardinals and FanDuel doesn't really change their uncertain financial situation longterm, but fans located in the St. Louis area should expect broadcasts to become much more accessible moving forward.