The St. Louis Cardinals have been a winning franchise for the better part of the past 15 years. Since 2000, they've appeared in four World Series and won two of them.

They're also a cash machine. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is reporting that the Cardinals and Fox Sports Midwest are expected to announce on Thursday, July 30 a new 15-year television deal that will guarantee the team more than $1 billion.

The new deal is scheduled to begin with the Cardinals receiving $55 million in 2018 season and the annual rate increasing each year after that due to inflation. Fox Sports Midwest will televise as many as 150 regular-season games and the Cardinals will even receive a minority stake in the network.

"This does give us a great deal of stability over the next 15 years and does so in a market that has been shifting," said Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. to the Post-Dispatch.

"It has a nice increase in rights fees as well as the equity component and as a whole it will allow us to remain as competitive as we have been with our payroll, with our spending in the international markets, with our activity in amateur markets and other ways we have invested in development. We have certainty going forward."

Major League Baseball's right-fees, amid local and national broadcast rights, are allowing for mid-sized markets to become as aggressive as big-city market ball clubs. In April 2012, the San Diego Padres signed a 20-year deal with Fox Sports SD worth $1.2 billion.

The Cardinals' huge payout could set the stage for Fox Sports Midwest gracing the Kansas City Royals with a similar deal or cutting TV ties with the other prominent midwest-region MLB franchise.

Fox Sports Midwest signed a new deal with the Cardinals. Current deal runs thru 2017. Their deal with the Royals runs through 2019.

— Sam Mellinger (@mellinger) July 30, 2015

Guess that hacking scandal didn't hurt the Cardinals much.

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