Liberty Media and the Braves

The Tariff King

The Tariff King

Trade War Deadline Winner
Staff member
Interesting notes here.

https://www.batterypower.com/2018/3/2/17071654/braves-202-the-relationship-with-liberty-media

I did not know any of this. This year’s bump has nothing to do with Liberty. Maybe someone with more knowledge can clarify some of the things in here.


- LM is forbidden by exchange laws and the SEC from injecting cash into the Braves, as LM is a publicly traded company subject to strict fiduciary responsibility and SEC oversight. Owners Of LM Stock don't benefit from LM losing money.
- LM is a $9B per year revenue company. It has no interest in jeopardizing their future by injecting cash into the Braves.
- If the Braves want to increase payroll, they need to pay for that from their own budget... which essentially means they have to increase revenue.
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So, it’s basically up to the fans. We really need to come out in full force all year to keep payroll up.
 
The Chosen One said:
Interesting notes here.

https://www.batterypower.com/2018/3/2/17071654/braves-202-the-relationship-with-liberty-media

I did not know any of this. This year’s bump has nothing to do with Liberty. Maybe someone with more knowledge can clarify some of the things in here.
Click to expand...



I knew this but I thought it was MLB that put that restriction on. I do not believe this means they cant lose money on the Braves. Maybe they cant lose 100 million a year but they can lose some money. They will make a billion dollars off the sale of the team whenever they choose to sell. I also believe they can use losses to pay less taxes on profits from other parts of the company.
 
CrimsonCowboy said:
So if I'm reading this right, they really don't care very much about the Braves. Not exactly shocking news.
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They care in the case that their interest is that the value of the asset continues to increase so that their investors profit wildly whenever they decide to sell the team. As for the day-to-day issues, you're right though - the reason Liberty wouldn't inject piles of cash is that it could actually backfire and cause the franchise value to decrease.

Not exactly "news", I agree. If you've been reading between the lines when listening to Alex talk about payroll, this is at least a little "clear". He has consistently said that they don't have some go-to person with Liberty to talk to when they want to increase payroll - that he has those discussions with McGuirk and they make that decision themselves. If he can convince Terry that whatever trade/signing will justify the payroll bump with enough additional revenue to eventually pay for it he gets the green light.

He always says that Liberty has never told him "no", and that's probably the case - McGuirk is the one that does that when he doesn't think the move will pay for itself since he knows he can't go to someone with Liberty and say "can we have $8 million more?" and they're not going to throw more on the pile.
 
I'm no securities expert but if Liberty wants to invest money in the Braves in the interest of growing that business, I'm pretty sure it can.
 
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