As much as speculation about a possible sale of the Atlanta Braves continues to appear like bad currency, John Malone has no intention of auctioning off the club.
In a telephone interview with Sport, the president of Liberty Media rejected the idea that the company had considered putting the franchise on the market. “The Braves are not for sale, and the company that owns the Braves is not for sale,” Malone said Thursday. “I would only consider supporting a transaction involving the Braves if it had the full and enthusiastic support of the management team that runs the Braves.”
Neither Braves Holdings Chairman and CEO Terry McGuirk nor anyone else in the upper echelons of management suggested they were interested in selling the club. “They didn’t come to me with any kind of proposal to do anything that involved Braves ownership,” Malone said. “Terry and the guys did a fabulous job with the Braves, we are extremely proud of the team, the performance and especially the real estate project.”
In addition to building a new 41,000-seat stadium in 2017, the Braves have developed nearly 2 million square feet of mixed-use space, including a 4,000-seat concert hall, two hotels and a collection of multifamily residential communities.
Malone, who has been involved with the Braves since 1987, when he led a consortium of cable companies that made a $568 million investment (an amount that today translates to $1.57 billion) in Turner Broadcasting, projected a spin-off of the Liberty team that was completed in July 2023. While talk of a sale remains unfounded, Malone has reached out to Sport after recent comments made by Liberty Media President and CEO Greg Maffei were misinterpreted by the press.
A review of comments made by Maffei on Tuesday at the MoffettNathanson Conference on Media, Internet and Communications supports the notion that the meaning of the executive’s statement – which amounted to an entirely evasive “we’ll see” – was exaggerated.
According to Malone, the legalese that supports the Braves spin-off prevents him from putting the team at risk. “When we broke up the Braves, I personally had to sign a statement to the lawyers that I had no plan or intention to sell my interest in the Braves,” he said.
Malone added that the team will likely have to “invest more money towards the television side of the business” if the Collapse of the RSN model completely.
The Braves are one of five MLB teams that supported the league’s efforts to overcome bankruptcy Diamond Sports RSNs. After negotiations between Comcast and DSG broke down two weeks ago, Xfinity subscribers in Atlanta’s 2.74 million TV homes can no longer access Braves games via Bally Sports South.
Already the most connected player in the media business, Malone is particularly well-versed in the rapidly evolving RSN space. This is due, at least in part, to the fact that McGuirk, in addition to his duties with the Braves, is the chairman of the MLB Media Committee..
While it remains to be seen how things will play out with Diamond — a confirmation hearing in his ongoing bankruptcy case is scheduled for June 18 — Malone isn’t about to end his nearly 40-year affiliation with the club anytime soon.
“The reality is the team is not for sale,” he said. “And it’s prudent of me to basically not even engage in that kind of discussion until the spin-off transaction is very old and very cold.”
The Braves generated revenue of $37.1 million in the first quarter of 2024, a 20% increase over the same period a year ago. Baseball revenue increased 25% to just under $22 million, while the mixed-use development segment grew 13% to $15.1 million. As of Thursday night, the club was 26-14 and three games behind the Phillies in the NL East.
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