Good morning. This is LEADOFF, an early look at Atlanta sports.
The chief executive of Braves owner Liberty Media applauded Major League Baseball's sale of a controlling stake in its video streaming company BAMTech to Disney for $1.58 billion.
“Everything I’ve seen, which is not as complete as some, is very positive … for baseball and for the Atlanta Braves and, therefore, for Liberty,” Greg Maffei, Liberty’s CEO, said on a conference call last week.
A report Monday in SportsBusiness Journal confirmed that the deal will be very lucrative, indeed, for the Braves and all other MLB teams.
Each of the 30 teams will receive about $50 million as a result of the deal, according to the report.
The exact amount is yet to be determined and might not be distributed to the team owners until early next year, SBJ reported, “but the share for each club could surpass $50 million.”
Disney previously acquired 33 percent of BAMTech, an MLB-founded leader in direct-to-consumer streaming technology. The $1.58 billion deal announced last week is for an additional 42 percent of the company, upping Disney’s stake to 75 percent.
“We’re obviously, as indirect shareholders in BAMTech, very pleased with the result,” Maffei said on the call with Wall Street analysts. “And actually (Braves chairman and CEO) Terry McGuirk probably had a lot of hand and insight into what was going on. He is on a lot of the oversight committees related to BAMTech.
“I think it’s a very good result for baseball -- not only monetization but an ongoing role with Disney putting muscle behind BAMTech. So, all very positive.”
As for how the Braves might spend such a windfall: Most fans probably would vote for adding talent to the big-league roster through trade and/or free agency. Another, albeit less exciting, possibility might be paying down debt, as Liberty disclosed last week that the Braves owed $511 million as of June 30, mostly because of borrowings for their new stadium and adjacent mixed-use development.
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