These are the teams who were with FanDuel and all those contracts ended:
Braves
Cardinals
Rays
Marlins
Reds
Brewers
Tigers
Royals
Angels
So you’ve got a lot of what you’d call “middle market” teams. A couple small market with the Florida teams. Another team in a large market, but carries itself as a middle market and in the shadow of a large team in the same city. The Braves are definitely in a better spot than all the others. Cardinals are up there with them because they do also have a national following, though the Braves have the larger geographical footprint. This is certainly where having The Battery can be a help.
The main bad thing the Braves have here, and it goes for the other teams as well, is the timing of all this. If we all had known this was going to be the case back in August or September, then there would have been more time to plan ahead. Because it’s two and a half months until Opening Day, probably not enough time to do anything else but have MLB produce the games. If they wanted to start their own network or something, probably not enough time.
Is this the biggest deal the Braves have had to deal with? Probably not. One way or another, the games will be shown. But it’s worth the discussion. In the short and long term, it’s probably for the best. The team no longer has to deal with the uncertainty. The thing that will have to be addressed is the revenue and how it’s affected by all this.
