Braves Chairman John Malone: Braves now 'a fairly major real estate business'

[goldfly]

Malone: Braves now 'a fairly major real estate business'

With the Atlanta Braves about to be a publicly traded stock for the first time, the chairman of parent company Liberty Media (NASDAQ: LMCA) said Monday that the Braves have become “a fairly major real estate business” in addition to a Major League Baseball team.

Chairman John Malone made the comments at a special meeting of Liberty Media shareholders, who approved the Braves new tracking stock and two others created by the company.

Liberty is expected to make the Braves tracking stock available to the public in a matter of days.

Malone was asked whether he agreed with Forbes’ valuation of the Braves at $1.2 billion.

“I don’t have a clue,” Malone said. "We’ll see shortly. We’ll see what the marketplace puts on it, and decide how efficient our monetization thesis is.

“Now keep in mind,” Malone added, “the Braves now are a fairly major real estate business, as opposed to just a baseball club.”

Malone was referring to SunTrust Park, which is scheduled to open in April 2017, and The Battery Atlanta, the adjacent mixed-use complex, which combined are costing more than $1.1 billion to build.

“I think these are good assets,” Malone said, not just for the Braves but as a broad development project.

“It does give the team more heft. It gives the vision more heft, than just the club itself,” Malone said. Malone also was asked when the 2016 Braves, currently 0-5 and on the road against a tough Washington Nationals club, will win their first game.

“It’ll be awhile,” Malone joked. “We’re rebuilding.”

http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/n...al-estate.html

[CrimsonCowboy]

Has John Malone ever attended a Braves game in person?

[Julio3000]

That's cool. It'd be even cooler if they were a fairly major league baseball club.

[Millwood1Hitter]

Cool story, but begs the questions....what good does real estate do for a ballclub when the real estate company can't even field a team?

[Hudson2]

I believe this is a pre cursor to payroll going up quite a bit.

[chop2chip]

I believe this is a pre cursor to payroll going up quite a bit.

Please elaborate on the connection

[Nerfherders]

Does this mean we could buy stock in the Braves?

[Hudson2]

Please elaborate on the connection

I own 2 construction companies and over 700 rental properties. We do development like this all the time. And when development comes in like that profits go through the roof. And with a winning product on the field the value will only go up. The FO has already said they wanna be a top 10 payroll.

[cajunrevenge]

How long before MLB changes the rules again to not allow the Braves to use their money from real estate investments?

[mqt]

That's cool. It'd be even cooler if they were a fairly major league baseball club.

To be fair, the current Braves are basically the equivalent of a real estate investment. Got some future value for pretty cheap, and are working toward building that value and turning it into a profit.

[chop2chip]

I own 2 construction companies and over 700 rental properties. We do development like this all the time. And when development comes in like that profits go through the roof. And with a winning product on the field the value will only go up. The FO has already said they wanna be a top 10 payroll.

I don't doubt that these construction companies are going to make massive profits. That's certainly different from a real estate company. From what I understand, the Braves have invested a lot of money into this project and projects like this fail all the time.

I'm optimistic, but the primary attraction to this area is the Braves. This Battery needs the Braves draw to make the ecosystem work. Maybe that does mean payroll will spike (McGuirk has alluded to this before in his comments). I just would never draw that from comments from a guy who could care less about the team in a conference to discuss the newly created trading stock of the "primarily real estate business".

[nsacpi]

I believe this is a pre cursor to payroll going up quite a bit.

John Schuerholz came out and said this. In the same interview he said that the front office had taken "a collective vow" to not let the bullpen issues of 2015 repeat themselves.

Specifically he said payroll would rise to the upper half of the major league distribution.

[Hudson2]

Like everything in this world, if you make more you'll spend more.

[nsacpi]

Like everything in this world, if you make more you'll spend more.

More important to spend wisely than spend more.

[chop2chip]

Like everything in this world, if you make more you'll spend more.

When payroll is tied directly to operating profits, you need to have the Battery turn a profit itself.

[weso1]

I had to double check to make sure op wasn't millwood1