Liberty Media likes owning the Braves and has no current plan to sell the team, the company’s chief executive said in a rare interview during Thursday’s game at Turner Field.
“The Braves have been a great asset, great for Liberty, and we are happy owners,” Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei said.
“I think there are a lot of great things ahead for the Braves, starting with the new stadium, but (also) longer-term potential,” he said, citing baseball’s rising TV and digital revenues. “I think there are a lot of ways the Braves continue to be a very interesting business for us, as well as a great team.”
Asked if Liberty Media will still own the team when it moves into its new stadium, SunTrust Park, next year, Maffei said: “I would think that’s pretty much assured we’ll own it the day the stadium opens, absolutely.” Then, laughing, he added: “Unless Terry (McGuirk, the Braves’ CEO) and his team are very late with the stadium.”
Liberty Media, a Colorado-based conglomerate, has owned the Braves since 2007, longer than most observers expected when it acquired the team as part of a tax-driven transaction with Time Warner. Liberty often draws the scorn of Braves fans, particularly regarding the team’s low payroll.
Maffei was asked what he would say to fans who think the Braves need a local, passionate, engaged owner, rather than an out-of-town corporation.
“I only read the AJC occasionally, so I don’t (see) as much of that as some people do,” Maffei said. “But I would say: Look, we are people who believe in the team, but we don’t manage it day to day.
“We have experienced, accomplished, dedicated management who runs it on almost every decision. There are a couple (decisions) that we usually assent to, but on pretty much everything day to day this team is run out of Atlanta. So for all intents and purposes, there is local ownership.”
Maffei said the team’s payroll, which currently ranks 26th among the 30 MLB teams, is set by Braves management, led by McGuirk.
“What happens is, we have a budgeting process where the Braves’ management brings us a budget, a payroll budget included. And I don’t think we have once changed the number,” Maffei said. “It’s not like we come and say, ‘Nah, you got to cut that.’ I don’t think that has happened in the nine years that we have been involved.
“Really the management sets the direction on what they think the right place to invest is, the amounts they want to put in what parts of the operation, including payroll, and we have assented every year.”
Please see myAJC.com for more from the interview with Maffei.
