The Blue Jays plan to pay for Shohei Ohtani‘s contract by the parent company dropping their national hockey broadcast contract:

The $5.2 billion NHL deal, which will cost Rogers in the $500 million a year range for each of the next two hockey seasons — a deal that escalated hugely over its final years — will expire at the end of the 2026 hockey season.

The Ohtani contract, if signed here, would be in the $500 to $600 million range U.S. over what’s likely to be a 10-year period. In other words, Rogers, owners of the Blue Jays, would be paying Ohtani at most but not much more than $60 million a season — depending on the bonus structure — while no longer paying the NHL some $500 million a season to be the exclusive rights holder in Canada.

TorontoSun.com

The Network would switch to a Blue Jays first organization, hoping that Ohtani pulls in more fans and Japanese sponsorship.