Seven was the luckiest of numbers for the Atlanta Braves in the third quarter of 2024, as the club capped the seventh straight season in which it advanced to the playoffs with 7% increases in both baseball revenue and total revenue.
In the three-month period ended Sept. 30, Atlanta Braves Holdings boosted baseball revenue to $273.3 million, good for a gain of nearly $17 million versus the year-ago period, while the club’s overall revenue improved $18.9 million to $290.7 million. Those lifts were largely facilitated by increased sponsorship revenues as well as a scheduling quirk that saw the Braves play four more home games during the quarter than was the case during the analogous stretch in 2023.
On the broadcasting front, the Braves generated just shy of $71 million in TV revenue, up 2% compared to $69.3 million. Along with the Miami Marlins, Atlanta is one of just two MLB franchises that have re-upped with Diamond Sports Group’s newly rebranded FanDuel Sports Network RSNs for the 2025 season.
The outside counsel representing MLB in Diamond’s ongoing bankruptcy case has indicated that the league plans to object to Diamond’s resumption of its local TV deal with the Braves. Per court documents filed Tuesday, the deadline for MLB to issue a formal objection to the Braves’ pact is Thursday at 5 p.m. ET, or one week before the company’s scheduled confirmation hearing.
Naturally, the uncertainty surrounding Atlanta’s in-market TV plans is not lost on the front office. “While the pending bankruptcy proceeding of Diamond Sports Group, LLC has not previously had a material unfavorable impact on the company’s revenue, and the company has received scheduled payments to date, we cannot currently predict whether such bankruptcy proceeding is reasonably likely to have a material unfavorable impact on our revenue in the future,” Braves president and CEO Derek Schiller said earlier today at the top of the team’s call with investors.
Schiller went on to say that the club would continue to closely monitor the Diamond situation, with an eye toward keeping its options open, come what may. “We’re not just waiting for bankruptcy to be defining what might happen, but also studying what are the potential opportunities for us,” Schiller said. “We’re going to be prepared for any eventual outcome. No matter what happens, we think we’re in a very enviable position.”
Noting that the Braves benefit from one of the largest regional television footprints in sports—per internal estimates, some 35 million people reside within the club’s defined territory—Schiller said he believes Atlanta is set to “capitalize even further on that territory should those rights come back to us.”
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