Jack Donovan came to St. Louis in 1994 to work in the blossoming regional sports television business as sales manager for Prime ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ. Things didn’t go so well at first.
Prime was supposed to be showing some Cardinals and Blues contests in the early days of cable TV’s relationship with local sports teams. But it wasn’t. MLB and the NHL were involved in labor-strife shutdowns then. No games. So it wasn’t easy for Donovan to convince his wife that it was the right decision for them to leave Chicago, where he had been working in sales for Prime parent company Liberty Media.
“That was a hard sell to the little lady,†Donovan said.
The stalemates eventually ended, and two years later, Prime was sold to Fox parent company News Corp. Donovan was named general manager of its Midwest division, which was branded as Fox ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ Net. Since then, he has overseen the sales, marketing, programming, production and business development aspects of a once-fledgling regional sports television network that grew into a behemoth, an operation that has had multiple name changes and now is known as Bally ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ Midwest — and is expected to be renamed soon for the FanDuel sportsbook chain.
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Now, after three decades in St. Louis and having endured the huge ups and recent major downs of the business, Donovan is about to retire as the GM and senior vice president of BSM.
He recalls having only 25 Blues and 40 Cardinals cablecasts annually in his early days in the market. But for many years, Donovan’s company has been showing all those teams’ locally produced telecasts — about 150 baseball and 70 hockey contests.
“I came down here thinking we’d have a few games,†Donovan said. “It turned out we had them all.â€
The massive increase in volume of events that he oversees not only encompasses St. Louis but since 2006 has included fare on what now is Bally ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ Indiana and since 2008 what has become Bally ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ Kansas City.
“It’s been exciting,†Donovan said. “It kept getting bigger and bigger,†after that inauspicious start. “It merged into a situation where we got all the games — Cardinals, Blues, Pacers and Royals.
“It took us a while (to get going), but it was well worth it.â€
BSM was the nation’s highest-rated U.S. regional sports network in 2019, and its Cardinals telecasts have ranked among the top four of all MLB teams nationally for the past 14 seasons, finishing first five times, and its Royals telecasts have been No. 1 twice. The company’s Blues telecasts have been in the top five in the U.S. for the past 11 seasons, and what now is Bally ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ Midwest has won 86 regional Emmy awards over the past quarter-century.
Troubled times
But those salad days are over, as the regional sports television business has evolved from a major success in most cases — especially in St. Louis — to a mess amid a shift in viewership trends that has gutted the model that has been losing viewers en masse to streaming.
The three regionals Donovan runs now are operated by its Diamond ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ Group, which has been in bankruptcy for more than a year and a half but appears to be close to emerging in a restructured format. Bally ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ Midwest is keeping the Blues this season, and indications are that it will retain the Cards next year.
But Diamond has had distribution troubles in recent years — it is not carried by multiple programming distributors, now including YouTube TV, Hulu with Live TV, Dish Network and Altice. That problem contributed to the Cardinals last year having their worst season-long local TV rating in records that date to 1990, and they are destined to finish even worse this season. Of course, also factoring into the swoon is that the team has had substandard performances both years, including a generationally bad last-place finish in 2023.
Distribution and a playoff drought also have affected Blues ratings recently. Last year, they had their lowest-rated campaign in nearly a decade and a half.
But Diamond’s delivery problems are nationwide, and while many pro teams that used to be in the Diamond portfolio (MLB, NHL and NBA) have exited recently, the regionals Donovan oversees have been immune to defections. The two St. Louis clubs it shows as well as the one each in Kansas City and Indiana remain in place.
But the current regional sports network maladies are not why Donovan is retiring — Monday is his final day on the job. His age — he turns 70 in February — is the reason.
“You run out of runway at some point if you want to have a life in retirement,†Donovan said, adding that he “worked a lot longer†than he thought he would. “The work was enjoyable.â€
And he’s not ready to predict the next steps in the ever-changing sports television/streaming business.
“Who knows?†he said. “We’ll just have to wait and see what it evolves into in three or four years.â€
Looking ahead
Donovan is being replaced by Steve Simpson, general manager of Bally ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ Southwest and West.
“I want to first recognize and celebrate Jack’s incredible career and wish him the best in retirement,†said Simpson, who will add the company’s three regional sports networks that Donovan is overseeing to his duties and remain based in Dallas.
“I don’t think it will be a problem,†said Donovan, who has had the experience of running regionals from afar since the Indiana and Kansas City operations were added to his duties. “So much can be done now with technology,†with Zoom and conference calls. “They don’t need†a lot of direction in the St. Louis offices.
Simpson sounds ready for the transition.
“I am looking forward to getting to know the staff in St. Louis and our team partners to figure out how I can best support bringing their games to fans throughout the region,†he said.
Donovan said he has known Simpson for two decades, saying he’s a “capable guy†who should do well with “a strong team†he is inheriting.
In fact, assembling the personnel he has led over the years is what Donovan considers his greatest professional accomplishment in his three decades in St. Louis.
“I think I put together a stellar team at Midwest,†he said. “... That’s what made it so successful.â€
Reporter/anchor Jim Hayes has been on that team since 2000.
“I always felt like we had a steady hand at the helm with Jack being in charge,†Hayes said, adding that those working for Donovan were “always treated like people, not employees.â€
Donovan is looking forward to retirement.
“You’ve got to quit when your mind and body still work,†he said. “It’s been quite the ride.â€