The Braves split two games today at two different venues, but it seems that nearly the only thing anybody wants to talk about was the earnings report.
There was some good news for the Atlanta Braves today – more offense, a win, Austin Jacks— er, Riley went oppo-mammo , and the young bats seemed to kick it into another gear as the first full week of Grapefruit League play concluded.
But there was a lot noise, reaction, and general annoyance about this news report about the Braves’ parent company, Liberty Media.
Here’s the gist of the story, from the AJC’s Tim Tucker:
"The Braves’ revenue increased by $124 million in 2017, their first year in SunTrust Park, according to financial results released Thursday by team owner Liberty Media. Liberty said the Braves generated revenue of $386 million last year, a 47-percent increase from $262 million in 2016. Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei described the increase as “astounding,” saying in a news release that it demonstrated “the appeal of the new SunTrust Park and (adjacent mixed-use development) Battery Atlanta.”"
Now this is good, but let’s go ahead and also talk about the other elephant in the room while we’re at it:
CORRECTION: 31 of the 166 MLB Free Agents (XXb) have signed. 31!! There is no deal longer than 3 years. Teams will be receiving a one-time payment of close to $50 million in the first quarter of 2018. There will have to be an avalanche of signings soon.
— Jim Bowden⚾️🏈 (@JimBowdenGM) January 7, 2018
Now this quote from Craig Calcaterra on the NBC Sports website from December 15th:
"That’s probably on the low end, actually. Some people I’ve spoken to who are familiar with the acquisition say the figure is more like $68 million in Q1 of 2018."
(I found an update to that figure that we’ll see later)
Okay, so there’s a lot of money involved. Let me turn the page now and explain why this isn’t the enormous windfall you might think it is.