Anyone who has watched Atlanta Braves games lately knows that fan enthusiasm is down right now. While Truist Park still draws big crowds, Atlanta's struggles this season have definitely dampened turnout for games a bit and has almost certainly led to less revenue for the team as fans decline to invest their money in a losing season. As it turns out, we are about see exactly how much damage the Braves' prolonged slump is costing their bottom line.
Unlike the vast majority of MLB teams, the Braves are a publicly traded company and therefore must release their financial performance quarterly. That Braves earning call is scheduled to happen this Thursday and will tell us a lot about what the Braves' poor performance this season has done to the team's finances.
A lot could be at stake in Braves' upcoming earnings call
One can probably expect revenues to come out as lower this quarter. While the Braves raked in cash in the first quarter of the year and the Battery remaining a cash cow for the franchise, the decline in fan enthusiasm is going to have some sort of impact.
In some ways, fans should actually hope the Braves' financial numbers to come in low. While such a thing risks the powers that be trying to cut some costs, they should also probably reach the conclusion that winning teams are more profitable than losing ones. That is a pretty compelling argument to let Alex Anthopoulos go wild this offseason if there are actual dollars and figures to point to.
Conversely, if the Braves continue to be really profitable despite the losing, it feels like there could be a chance that the team decides that they are going to make money either way and don't need to spend on payroll to print money. If that is what happens, Braves fans could be very disappointed this coming offseason.
As much as Liberty Media has been bashed by fans in the past, those in power for the Braves do deserve a bit of benefit of doubt when it comes to these things. Atlanta is consistently in the top 10 in payroll and the odds that that changes with the team's performance in 2025 is pretty low. Still, money talks and we could get a sense as to the Braves' thinking in Thursday's call.