{"id":907133,"date":"2026-11-05T19:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T19:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/907133\/"},"modified":"2026-11-05T19:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T19:40:10","slug":"braves-release-third-quarter-2026-financial-reports-ahead-of-potential-lockout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/907133\/","title":{"rendered":"Braves release third quarter 2026 financial reports ahead of potential lockout"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The Braves made their quarterly earnings release call on Wednesday morning. BravesVision isn\u2019t printing money, but they\u2019re still better off producing things in-house than they were with the previous TV arrangement. The Battery is strong, but they appear to be growing into the real estate that they have. They had two postseason games in September, so ticket sales went up. But overall, it\u2019s kind of a meh three months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Before we dive in, a brief aside:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">This post is not financial advice, and shouldn\u2019t be confused as such. Battery Power, SBNation and their parent company, and I don\u2019t care how you invest. I don\u2019t hold a financial position of the Braves, whether that\u2019s buying or holding or selling. We cover all aspects of the Braves here, and we\u2019re walking through these results to get a sense of the financial health of the franchise. I don\u2019t have a take on the stock. And even if I did, you shouldn\u2019t take my advice anyway. I\u2019ve made every bad investing decision at least twice over the course of my lifetime. Ok, back to the news.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"_19lkh3w1\" href=\"https:\/\/platform.batterypower.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2026\/11\/TopLineNumbers.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;crop=0,0,100,100\" data-pswp-height=\"449\" data-pswp-width=\"789\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\"><img alt=\"\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"fill\" class=\"_8s7ip80\" style=\"position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url(&quot;data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'\/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'\/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'\/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'\/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'\/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'\/%3E%3C\/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='\/%3E%3C\/svg%3E&quot;)\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/TopLineNumbers.jpg\"\/><\/a>The Braves returned to the postseason and saw a 14% increase in average attendance per regular season home game in the third quarter from the prior year period.Baseball revenue increased 4% in the third quarter of 2026 compared to the prior year primarily driven by increases in baseball event revenue and retail and licensing revenue.Mixed-Use Development revenue increased 7% for the third quarter of 2026 primarily due to an increase in rental income driven by increases in tenant recoveries and new lease agreements.Debt increased $20 million in the third quarter primarily due to net borrowings on the League wide credit facility to support working capital, partially offset by net payments on the TeamCo revolver.Booked a 51.1 million dollar loss January through September 2026 versus a profit of 36.2 million in January through September 2025<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Umm yikes, y\u2019all. Going into the lockout and new CBA negotiations, I didn\u2019t expect the Braves to confess to having blowout numbers. And they surely didn\u2019t. The on-field personnel payroll increased by 43 million last year, but that\u2019s just about half of the shortfall. Ticket sales were basically flat when you consider that the Braves had one more home game and two postseason games in Q3.<\/p>\n<p>The first two playoff games were underwhelming<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\"><a href=\"https:\/\/go.skimresources.com\/?id=87443X1797504&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mlb.com%2Fbraves%2Fvideo%2Faustin-riley-hits-the-go-ahead-homer-against-phillies%3FpartnerId%3Dweb_video-playback-page_video-share\" rel=\"sponsored nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ticket sales<\/a> were up slightly. The total revenue is up 7 percent. But that\u2019s with one additional home game and two postseason games. My guess is that Games 1 and 2 of the NL Wild Card Series versus the Phillies brought in about 4 million dollars apiece. That\u2019s more in line with what they get for a regular season game. It\u2019s not overstating it that the Atlanta Braves gave up 7-8 million dollars total to deliver two postseason games in the middle of weekdays with weather in the high 80s and low 90s. I can\u2019t blame Atlanta for staying home. I built a mini-vacation around this playoff series, but not everyone can do that. There is also the issue that even with the increases in season ticket packages and 18 more wins and a NL East Division title, the Braves weren\u2019t able to pay it off with more revenue.<\/p>\n<p>The City Connect uniforms are amazing<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">However, the retail and licensing part of the house exploded this year. Revenue from this line is up 25 percent over the previous quarter and 21 percent from last year. They really did an excellent job with this City Connect uniform. Most other teams are rolling with some very generic, AI-non-inspired dreck. They honestly looked like something that a movie whose producers wanted to put in a baseball uniform but couldn\u2019t afford the licensing costs. The Braves however, really did combine the old and the new with a big shoutout to Ted Turner. I keep waiting for these to drop in price. Now I understand why they aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>Terry McGuirk is pleased with the roster<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">While there were no shoutouts to Fangraphs or professed admiration of some stats over others, McGuirk seems very content with the state of the organization. In his words:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1bij9g79 _1bij9g78 _1mt21p01\">I want to be clear about how I see this season. It was real progress. We went from missing the playoffs to winnings the division and a postseason series. Our core is in place. Our young players go better and our new manager\u2019s first year was a success. Our minor league system is stocked with future major league talent. We\u2019re pleased with where this organization is headed and will keep working to build on it in 2027.\u2026 Coming into this season, we made a deliberate decision to invest in our roster and our major league payroll was meaningfully higher as a result.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">This doesn\u2019t sound like someone who is getting ready to turn over the roster. And I got the sense on the call that he was not looking to move on from Tim Hyers, either. We reportedly got <a href=\"https:\/\/www.batterypower.com\/atlanta-braves-news\/141907\/braves-set-to-return-entire-coaching-staff-for-2027-per-report\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">confirmation of that hunch <\/a>earlier. They did increase payroll this season. But they basically made the team deeper and not necessarily gave it a higher ceiling. (which hey, I wanted a deeper bench too and have been griping about it for years) But outside of the higher salary absorbed in a trade for Utility Gold Glove Mauricio Dubon, they didn\u2019t get much return from Ha-Seong Kim, Aaron Bummer, Mike Yastrzemski, and Joel Payamps.<\/p>\n<p>BravesVision is proving to be a great move<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The Braves <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zCMn00HXT68\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">owning their own network<\/a> was always the way forward. This year they are trailing their media revenue by 8 percent from last year. There are a few things to consider here, though. The payouts that the Braves receive for their product differ from last year. They used to basically get monthly payments while the season was on, but nothing in the offseason. Now the payments come directly from advertisers, and those will be spread out over the course of the year. Another thing that will spread out over the course of the year are payments from cable companies. They can offer 12 months of programming, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.batterypower.com\/post\/Cvhyx193cVgC\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">they recently told us<\/a> what that would be.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The Braves led in league in streaming viewers this season. I take that to mean that more people are buying Braves.TV versus any other .TV. But we expected that with how the last rights holder considered the Braves versus everyone else. I would be curious to know how the Braves did versus the Yankees and Cubs. It\u2019s pretty outstanding considering all of the confusion in March around where fans could see the Braves.<\/p>\n<p>Tax bill should go down next year<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The Braves, as a public company, have tax issues around employees making a million plus a year. Which is not great, considering they have about 25-30 of them. But Braves Development Company President and CEO Mike Plant said that there is pending legislation to correct this. \u201cWe are aware of the recent legislation introduced and continue to lobby and have had discussion with a number of interested parties, including members and leadership of the House and Senate administration and Treasury\u201d said Plant. I believe this might be the legislation he is referring to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitecase.com\/insight-alert\/code-section-162m-change-horizon-2027-expansion-public-company-employees-whose\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>. The Braves have been very mysterious about this and it\u2019s hard to tell. They\u2019re not talking about the CBA negotiations either. Because, yeah.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The Braves had a lot more game attendance this year. BravesVision is trucking along. Mixed-use development aka The Battery and Pennant Park is still very profitable. But any revenue growth in the real estate portion would come with more debt and scrutiny. But they are making a very good argument about the idea of teams spending money (in the form of higher player salaries) to make more money. The Braves can\u2019t really hide from these numbers, unless you consider how they report BravesVision numbers. But they will go on the report sometime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Braves made their quarterly earnings release call on Wednesday morning. BravesVision isn\u2019t printing money, but they\u2019re still&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":907134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[221129,36682,363,99],"class_list":["post-907133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-atlanta-braves-analysis","tag-atlanta-braves-news","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=907133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/907134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=907133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=907133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=907133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}