When the Chicago Cubs launched Marquee Sports Network back in 2020, the vision was bold and unmistakably clear: create a team-owned broadcast platform that would generate serious revenue - or as Cubs President of Business Operations Crane Kenney once put it, “wheelbarrows of cash.” The idea was to funnel that money back into baseball operations, giving the front office the financial muscle to chase top-tier talent and sustain a perennial contender.
But timing, as they say, is everything.
Marquee’s debut collided head-on with the COVID-19 pandemic. Baseball was shut down, the season was shortened to just 60 games, and when play resumed, it was in front of empty ballparks.
That rocky start undercut the network’s momentum before it could ever really get going. Then came the post-2021 roster teardown - a “rebuild that’s not a rebuild,” as it was often described - and suddenly, the marquee product wasn’t quite as marketable.
The network never became the cash cow the Cubs had banked on.
Now, five years into the Marquee experiment, the network is undergoing a major shakeup.
Diane Penny, who was brought in as general manager in April 2024 to lead a digital transformation, is out. Her tenure was short, and according to the Cubs, her efforts didn’t generate the kind of revenue needed to justify the direction she was taking.
That’s led to significant cuts, particularly on the digital content side. Among those let go were content director Tony Andracki and reporter Andy Martinez - names familiar to fans who’ve followed the team’s coverage closely in recent years.
In the interim, Cubs and Sinclair Broadcast Group personnel will fill Penny’s role while the organization evaluates the future leadership structure of the network. But the key detail here is who’s now stepping in to oversee things: Cubs Chief Commercial Officer Colin Faulkner. He’ll be responsible not just for game production, but also for marketing and talent - essentially putting the network’s operations directly under the team’s umbrella.
Faulkner’s background is in business, not broadcasting. That raises some eyebrows, especially when you consider how closely the team and the network are now intertwined. The line between Cubs content and Cubs control has never been thinner.
Marquee’s website is also in limbo. No final decisions have been made about its future, but it’s clear that the network is pulling back from its original ambitions.
When Marquee launched, it promised a full lineup of programming - documentaries, studio shows, minor league coverage, and even content on other sports. That breadth has since been scaled down dramatically.
Now, the focus is almost entirely on live Cubs games.
And to be fair, that’s what most fans care about. The live game broadcasts are the crown jewel.
That’s what drives viewership, and that’s what keeps the network relevant. Crane Kenney put it plainly: “We’re continuing to prioritize live game broadcasts as the primary content on the network.”
For viewers, that means not much will change - at least in the short term. You’ll still get your Cubs games. Whether the pre- and post-game coverage looks different remains to be seen, but the core product isn’t going anywhere.
That said, the long-term picture is far more complicated.
Marquee’s future - and the future of all regional sports networks - is being shaped by forces well beyond the Cubs’ control. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has made it clear he wants to centralize media rights. The league already controls local broadcasts for six teams, and the goal is to eventually package all 30 clubs’ local rights with national deals and sell it as one unified media product.
That’s a seismic shift in how baseball is consumed and monetized. But for teams like the Cubs - and others like the Dodgers, Yankees, Mets, and Red Sox, who own stakes in their own RSNs - giving up that control won’t be easy. The Cubs have a long-term agreement with Sinclair, which complicates any move toward centralized rights.
And with MLB’s current national TV deals (including Fox and TBS) running through 2028, the league has a few years to figure out how, or if, this new model can work. But make no mistake: the media landscape is shifting fast, and RSNs are right in the middle of the storm.
For now, though, Cubs fans can breathe easy. The games will still be on Marquee.
The broadcast team isn’t changing. But behind the scenes, the network is quietly undergoing a transformation - one that could have a big impact down the road, even if it’s mostly invisible today.