Braves reworked TV deal for additional $500 million
By Matt Fisher
When the Atlanta Braves began locking up several key core players with long term, decent-dollar contracts, many assumed that it all had to do with the announcement of the new Cobb County stadium being built for operation in 2017. It turns out that may only be part of the story.
In a story by Tim Tucker of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei reveals that a reworked TV deal also contributed greatly to the influx of money to the club.
"“Through some good work at the management of the Braves and a confluence of events, we were able to renegotiate positively a bunch of those rights and receive probably in the order of $500 million of incremental revenue over the life of the contracts of value to us,” Maffei said. “So that’s been very positive. … That adds a lot of value even on a present value basis to the Braves.”"
The new deal presumably runs longer than the life of the original contract, which was slated to go just until 2027. The length of the new deal was not disclosed. Most Braves games will be carried on either Fox Sports South or SportSouth. Maffei also shed some light on the facilities surrounding the new Cobb County stadium, a series of restaurants, retail, and residences that the Braves will have some heavy involvement in.
The Braves locked up Jason Heyward, Andrelton Simmons, Freddie Freeman, Craig Kimbrel, and Julio Teheran in the off-season and just completed an extension with Chris Johnson.