The long awaited announcement of the creation of a new Cubs-owned network finally came 2 weeks ago.  The Marquee Sports Network will launch in 2020, in time to air spring training games.  “We are excited to better serve our fans with expanded and exclusive programming showcasing our remarkable players, beloved ballpark and storied past,” president of business operations Crane Kenney said in a press release, “Our dedicated ‘Cubs-centric’ network will carry all available Cubs games and feature uncompromising, in-depth and behind-the-scenes coverage.”

The Cubs also announced that broadcasters Len Kasper and Jim Deshaies will continue to be involved with the live game broadcasts. The network will also provide extensive pregame and postgame coverage, original Cubs-related content and other live sports programming, per the release.

As rumored, the Cubs partner in the new venture is Sinclair Broadcast Group.  Sinclair has come under fire over the past couple years for its right-wing political slant and forcing its individual TV stations, of which WGN narrowly avoided becoming earlier this year, to air hard-right commentary.  “From our view, the reason Sinclair was such a good partner had to do with their technical capacity,” Kenney said on the Mully & Haugh Show on The Score.  “In terms of the programming on the channel, that will be exclusively our control. So what our fans, what the consumer sees when they turn the channel on will be something the team controls, as it should be, given that we know fan base and the team better than anyone.”  Later, Crane added, “While Sinclair’s TV stations may have a right-leaning bent, you won’t see any of that on our channel.”  This, of course, avoids the fact the Cubs fans who disagree with Sinclair’s politics may not feel good about contributing to their profits, even if their propaganda doesn’t air on the network.

The big outstanding question is carriage fees and clearance.  Industry reports say that the carriage fee that the network will request from cable operators could reach $6 per month, easily on the high end of the spectrum.  High carriage fees have led to clearance issues in the past for other teams.  When the Dodgers teamed with Time Warner to create SportsNet LA in 2014, they changed $4.90 per subscriber.  The end result was that Dodger games were, and continue to be, available to only about 30 percent of the Los Angeles market.  By June 2017, SportsNet LA’s ratings for Dodger games had dropped 49% from 2013.

Given the availability of Cubs games on WGN’s superstation for years, the team expects the new network to draw subscribers from much of the Midwest, if not the entire country.  But, convincing cable operators to add the channel on a non-premium tier and passing that $6 per month charge along to all customers, at a time when cord cutting is eroding their subscriber base, may be a tough sell.  Time will tell if this works out as well as the Cubs expect it to, or if they missed the boat on the RSN gravy train that is already showing signs of drying up.