Liberty Media, the company that owns the Braves, is a public company. As a result, they are one of two teams (the Blue Jays being the other) whose books are open to the public. This morning, Liberty Media released its 2022 financial results. The full report is available courtesy of Investors Observer and is chronicled by Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Doug Roberson.
According to the report, Liberty Media raked in a record $588 million in Braves franchise revenue last year. That’s a $20 million jump from the previous franchise-record value set in 2021, which the company attributed to increased ticket demand and additional retail following Atlanta’s World Series championship.
Conversely, franchise operating income before debt and amortization (OIBDA) declined compared to last season. Its OIBDA of $71 million was down from last year’s $104 million. The company reported an operating loss of $15 million after reporting $20 million in operating income the previous season. However, those numbers don’t include revenue from Battery Atlanta, a mixed-use development complex adjacent to Truist Park owned by Liberty Media. Liberty Media reported $28 million in additional net operating income and $53 million in total revenue related to this project.
Referring to the related numbers specific to the Braves franchise, Liberty Media attributed the comparatively lower OIBDA and operating income to higher revenue share expenses and higher player payrolls. In fact, Atlanta’s opening-day payroll in 2022 was a franchise-record $178 million, up from about $131 million in 2021, according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts.
However, another significant change for the organization between 2021-22 was the club’s post-season fortune. The Braves, of course, won the championship last season and benefited from eight home playoff games. Their loss in last year’s NL Division Series kept them from two postseason home games. As a result, Liberty Media reported significantly lower revenues in the fourth quarter of 2022 than in the previous season. Barring a rerun of the World Series, the franchise’s playoff earnings always seemed likely to decline.
The Braves have had a very quiet offseason, at least from a free agent perspective. Atlanta acquired Catcher Sean Murphy and promptly signed him to a six-year, $73 million extension. That was their only notable investment during the offseason. The club’s only other major league acquisitions were relievers Joe Jimenez And Lucas Lütge ($4.315 million combined in arbitration salaries), low-cost free-agent offers for outfielders Jordan Luplow ($1.4M) and Reliever Nick Anderson ($875,000 when in the majors) and trades for pre-arbitration players like Eli Weiss And Sam Hilliard.
Atlanta saw a top free agent leave and watch for the second straight offseason Dansby Swanson sign with the Cubs a year later Freddie Freeman went to the Dodgers. Despite the fairly quiet winter, they’re well on their way to making a high-player-spending franchise again. The Braves will enter 2023 with a payroll in the $199 million range, as calculated by Roster Resource. Her projected luxury taxpayer number is just under $240 million, which will exceed this year’s baseline threshold of $233 million. The franchise is expected to pay the luxury tax for the first time in Liberty Media’s ownership.
That reflects the staggering number of deals already on the books, many of them early career extensions. No other organization has been as successful in signing key players to long-term contracts soon after their MLB debut. These types of pacts are typically reloaded to roughly reflect how a player’s earnings would have fared through arbitration. It’s no coincidence that Atlanta already has over $90 million on the books during the 2028 campaign.