What if the answer to Altitude Sports’ problems could be found in LoDo?

Major distributors Comcast, DirecTV and DISH dropped the regional sports network earlier this month and negotiations have stalled. With the Avalanche’s regular-season opener still two weeks away — and the Nuggets’ opener a few weeks after that — neither side feels much pressure… yet. But just because Altitude’s traditional setup is in jeopardy doesn’t mean there aren’t other potential avenues to be explored.

One possibility, which would entail an upheaval of the local sports network landscape, could involve AT&T Sports Net and the Rockies’ television rights, which are up next summer.

In order to get there, one must first consider what is publicly known about the churning regional sports network market.

Disney acquired 21st Century Fox and, per an order by the Department of Justice, was forced to divest the 21 regional sports networks that came with the deal. Sinclair Broadcasting Group stepped in and bought the bundle for a relative bargain of $10.6 billion. In addition, Sinclair was also part of a group that purchased the YES Network — the cash cow that airs New York Yankees broadcasts.

In the wake of that deal, which closed earlier this year, Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley told the Wall Street Journal that his company was interested in acquiring AT&T’s four regional sports networks located in Pittsburgh, the Southwest, Seattle and Colorado. AT&T, according to multiple outlets, is interested in selling after incurring loads of debt from its $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner.

So how does any of this pertain to Altitude Sports?

If Sinclair were to add to its treasure chest and purchase AT&T’s four regional sports networks, why couldn’t it cut a deal with Altitude, thereby creating essentially one regional sports network in Colorado? In this scenario, Altitude would then have year-round programming on its network, including the NBA, NHL and MLB. That’s a significantly more appealing package from a distributor like Comcast’s perspective.

The Denver Post’s Patrick Saunders previously reported that Altitude has had interest in bidding for the Rockies’ rights.

Furthermore, Sinclair already accomplished a similar partnership in New York. The Yankees own 26% of the YES Network, Sinclair owns 20%, Amazon owns 15% and the final 39% is split fairly evenly among three other groups. Sinclair, which already owns an outsized share of the RSN market, has shown it can get creative regarding who owns what portion of a network.

Altitude is still considering all of its options.

“We’re working daily on creating solutions realizing that the landscapes are rapidly changing,” Altitude executive VP Kenny Miller said.

Another potential model exists in Seattle, where ROOT Sports Northwest (one of the four AT&T channels) airs the Seattle Mariners. AT&T owns just 29% of the network. The rest is owned by the Mariners themselves.

Both the Mariners and Yankees have equity in their own channel, something which the Rockies currently don’t have. Why?

Team-owned rights are a huge revenue-making asset.

From the Seattle Times in 2018: “For years, the biggest advantage to a team owning a network was that it could shield vast amounts of incoming revenue from MLB revenue-sharing rules. They declared the revenue as being generated by the network and not baseball operations.”

“There are several regional sports networks that have equity in the regional sports networks now, and you would expect when rights fees come up that that’s going to be on the negotiating table moving forward,” Miller said.

How that might affect the Rockies’ negotiations next summer, with or without Altitude involved, is unclear.

As for Sinclair, it’s impossible to know how quickly it might act on its stated desire for AT&T’s four RSNS, but know that Altitude has a keen interest in any potential movement.