Closing Bell

Main Street Sports Group will officially wind down after the first round of the NHL playoffs, SBJ learned Thursday, while sources said Main Street’s 13 NBA teams were informed in a league call Wednesday that they will likely be reimbursed some portion of this year’s lost rights fee payments.

The development is a prelude to seismic change in the local TV industry, with the NBA, for instance, telling the Hawks, Hornets, Cavaliers, Pistons, Pacers, Clippers, Grizzlies, Heat, Bucks, T’Wolves, Thunder, Magic and Spurs that they can begin signing new in-market deals for the 2026-27 season, which is tantamount to a free-for-all.

For linear -- where the rights fees will likely be under $10M annually -- many of those teams could either switch to local over-the-air channels or their own in-house networks, such as the Cavaliers’ Rock Entertainment Sports Network. For streaming (and even linear, as well), the NBA is urging teams to sign one-year deals or packages with at least a one-year exit clause, in the event the league does not launch a national streaming platform until the 2027-28 season. But sources said there is a sense multiple teams could shift to a streaming-only template for next season with platforms such as DAZN or Victory+ -- which would be a first for NBA teams.

While it was almost a forgone conclusion for months, Main Street’s lenders on Thursday officially signed the paperwork to wind down the business -- for the NBA on the last day of its regular season April 12 and for the NHL after any of its seven teams (the Hurricanes, Blue Jackets, Red Wings, Kings, Wild, Predators and Blues) finish the first round of the playoffs. The NHL opening round is expected to begin April 18, with all of the best of seven series likely to end by the end of the month or conceivably early May.

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A menu of Lenovo Center renovation options was shared with the Centennial Authority board during its Thursday meeting as the second phase of a roughly $300M project prepares to commence summer 2026.

Gensler, the project’s designer, provided a slew of options to the board members, whose constituents include the arena’s tenants, the Hurricanes and N.C. State men’s basketball team.

The board will vote in May on which aspects to commence this summer ahead of a bond sale to fund the remainder of the project. During another meeting in the fall, the remainder of the project scope will be voted on.

Second phase work will begin in June. The arena is expected to close in July and August for major construction, but work will be ongoing in some form through completion in 2028. A related and much larger mixed-use project will take far longer.

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Michigan’s Fab Five are back, as TNT Sports and CBS Sports are bringing the famed squad from the 1991 recruiting class back together for an alt-cast around Saturday night’s men’s Final Four game against Arizona. TruTV and HBO Max will air the alt-cast featuring Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson. A traditional telecast of the game will be available on TBS and TNT as well. The five former players will be on-site in Indianapolis for the event, marking the one of only a select few times where they have reunited in person. TNT Sports’ Adam Lefkoe will host the telecast, with the network’s Bert Bondi -- who happens to be from Detroit -- producing the game. The connection to Rose and Webber was easy for TNT Sports, which was using both former players as college basketball analysts this season.

TNT and CBS last experimented with team-specific alt-casts for the Final Four in 2015, when it did “Team Streams” for each of the teams.

ESPN is “expected to change its No. 2 NFL game-calling team” of Chris Fowler, Dan Orlovsky and Louis Riddick following its NFL deal, according to sources cited by THE ATHLETIC. There is a “high likelihood” that the seven extra games included in the deal “will be international,” which would not allow Fowler, ESPN’s No. 1 college play-by-play announcer, to be regularly available, while also taking Orlovsky and Riddick out of the country for their studio work for a few days. Sources noted that former NFLer Jason Kelce has “emerged as a dark horse candidate on the analyst side,” while NFL Network’s Kurt Warner is “also in the mix.” Kelce is a studio analyst on ESPN’s “Monday Night Countdown.” ESPN’s Dave Pasch and Mike Monaco are “contenders to be a part of the new booth as play-by-play announcers.” ESPN execs are “still sorting out their plans,” and “other candidates, like Bob Wischusen, could emerge" (THE ATHLETIC, 4/2).

The Sun “plan to celebrate the team’s ‘Sunset Season’” in Connecticut in 2026 after a deal was reached to sell the team to Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta for a reported $300M and move to Houston in 2027, pending WNBA approval. This will end a 23-year run after the team moved from Orlando to Connecticut in 2003. The franchise’s final season in Connecticut will see a “new and specially-designed Sunset Season logo” that will “appear on limited edition merchandise, digital platforms, select game day giveaways, and in‑arena branding throughout the year.” The team will “play on a sunset-themed home court” at Mohegan Sun Arena and invite back former players and coaches for “special recognition moments and storytelling features.” The Sun also will “host a Homecoming game.” Original Day 1 Season Ticket Members will “receive an exclusive commemorative gift” (WTNH.com, 4/2).

Univ. of Florida AD Scott Stricklin said that capacity of the 88,548-seat Ben Hill Griffin Stadium “won’t be impacted in its multi-million-dollar renovation” of the facility. Initially, it was feared that UF could “lose as many as 3,000 to 5,000 seats” due to widening concourses to make the stadium compliant with the American with Disabilities Act. However, as UF nears completion of the design phase of the project, there “appears to be potential solutions to keep seating capacity at its current level.” Stricklin said that the renovation is “essential to the long-term success of the football program, because it will create a more modern, fan-friendly facility that will drive revenue” (GAINESVILLE SUN, 4/2).

A survey sent to fans “stirred enough chatter that Stricklin wanted to make it clear that part of what has made Florida Field one of the toughest places to win over the last few decades won’t change.” Stricklin said that “formal renderings, seating concepts, total project budget and a projected construction timeline will be released later this year.” The stadium facelift is “expected to be done in phases” (AP, 4/2).

Kaleida Health signed an extension of its agreement with the Bills that will see it receiving naming rights to the team’s training facility, which will be named the Kaleida Health Performance Center. Kaleida will continue as the official healthcare provider of the team. The Bills and Kaleida Health have 10 years of previous partnership (Bills).

The Bills’ training facility -- formerly known as the Adpro Sports Training Center -- is a “one-stop shop” for Bills’ players and staff, and includes training, practice and recovery facilities, as well as outdoor and indoor practice fields and corporate offices. The terms of the deal were not disclosed (BUFFALO BUSINESS FIRST, 4/2).

On this week’s Sports Media Podcast, SBJ special contributor Richard Deitsch makes the case that the women’s tournament is actually the more interesting viewership story in 2026. Deitsch and SBJ media reporter Austin Karp discuss UConn, South Carolina, UCLA and Texas -- and how the post‑Caitlin Clark landscape has reshaped expectations.