Are the Atlanta Braves Soon to Be Sold?
An Official Atlanta Braves SunTrust stadium rendering from AtlantaBraves.com.
What ‘Internet Mogul’ are We Talking About?
The Marietta Business Journal did not say… or even provide a hint. But a bit of research suggests a viable candidate. But note that everything below represents a guess.
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The 156th richest person on the planet is James C. Kennedy, chairman of Cox Enterprises. He is 67 years old and lives in Atlanta. In 2015, he announced a $25 million grant to Emory University from his foundation for the purpose of supporting prostate cancer initiatives after his own bout with cancer in 2014.
He is considered to be a nature enthusiast and support, but has no history of direct involvement with sports. In 2003, Kennesaw State awarded Kennedy with an honorary doctorate of humane letters. If you’re looking for direct ‘Cobb County ties’, then that might be the connection. If you’re looking for the “Internet Mogul” connection, then that’s AutoTrader.com, which is a Cox Enterprises entity.
Other reasons to suspect Kennedy as part of this rumor:
- He’s worth roughly $8.5 billion, quite enough to afford a likely purchase price between $1 and $1.5 billion.
- He’s the only member of the Georgia billionaires with a “internet” connection… excepting his own Aunt (Anne Cox Chambers).
Roughly the only other Georgia billionaire with sufficient direct resources to do this would be Chick-fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy, but he is 92 years old. Hat tip to @JakeHumprey91; I missed that he had passed away.- For those suggesting who have been touting Falcons’ owner Arthur Blank, he’d have to invest a sizable portion of his wealth to pull this off. In 2013, he was pegged at a net worth of $1.7 billion.
Next: So What Should the Braves Do With Swish?
As with trade rumors, this one will take quite a while to play out. Liberty Media is all about shareholder value and profits: that’s their primary goal as a publicly-traded company. They have evidently done the right things to increase the value of this club – now the trick will be to see if they opt to cash in.