MLB team reports $595 million in 'baseball revenue' despite drops in attendance, wins

The 2024 season was a relatively poor one for the Atlanta Braves on the field, but a great one for the team's balance sheet.

The perennial National League contenders won 89 games, down 15 compared to 2023. After finishing second in the NL East, the Braves didn't host a single postseason contest. They were eliminated by the Padres in a best-of-three Wild Card series after losing two games in San Diego.

Yet the publicly traded company that owns the Atlanta franchise reported a 2 percent increase in its baseball-related revenue — $595 million annually — in its recent Q4 earnings report. A quick breakdown of the numbers, as reported to shareholders on last week's earnings call (via Investing.com):

• Baseball revenue: $595.4 million in 2024, up from $581.7 million in 2023
• Total revenue: $662.7 million in 2024, up from $640.7 million in 2023
• Mixed use development revenue was $67.3 million in 2024, up from $59 million in 2023
• Adjusted OIBDA: $39.7 million in 2024, up from $37.8 million in 2023
• Mixed use development revenue was $67.3 million in 2024, up from $59 million in 2023

An Atlanta Braves holdings representative on the earnings call relayed that the increase in baseball revenue was driven by a combination of new sponsorship agreements and contractual rate increases on season tickets, which was only partially offset by reduced attendance at home games.

Truist Park reported a total 2024 attendance of 3,011,755 compared to 3,191,505 in 2023, when the Braves won 104 games and the NL East title.

The increase in mixed-use development revenue — the commercial and residential properties belonging to "The Battery" also fall under the Atlanta Braves Holdings' balance sheet — was primarily driven by increases in rental income and parking revenue, the company rep said.

The intentional decoupling of a team's on-field performance and attendance from its overall revenues can be spun one of two ways.

Atlanta boasted a reigning MVP in Ronald Acuña Jr. last year, but he spent most of the season on the injured list. So did star pitcher Spencer Strider, among a laundry list of debilitating ailments that left the team fighting for a Wild Card berth until the end of the season. It's no surprise attendance suffered, but perhaps there's comfort in knowing that a year's worth of bad luck can't completely derail a team's ability to spend money in the immediate aftermath.

On the other hand, think about how many teams suffer for reasons entirely within an owner's control: investing in minor league talent, facilities, trainers, coaching staffs, free agents, etc. What incentives exist for the modern owner to increase those investments, to the benefit of players and fans, if their revenues don't depend on it?

Not every team stands to benefit from mixed-use property revenues under its ownership like the Braves. But recall the impetus for the Athletics' plan to leave Oakland. Owner John Fisher said in 2023 (via ESPN) that the site of the Oakland Coliseum, despite ample parking lot acreage and pre-existing mass transit options, was not suited to becoming a "ballpark village" that encouraged walk-up ticket sales, and the kind of commercial projects that surround Truist Park.

Many in Oakland debated that point at the time. But in case you're wondering why the A's are leaving the nation's 10th-largest media market (the San Francisco Bay Area) for its 40th-largest (Las Vegas), the case of the Braves' balance sheet is instructive.

Since the Braves are MLB's only publicly traded franchise in the U.S. markets, their quarterly earnings offer our only peek behind the curtain of what an actual team's revenues look like. For the other 29 fnrachises, we're left to "industry experts" to make their best estimates.

Last week's earnings call isn't merely a useful rebuttal whenever an MLB owner says the business "isn't very profitable," it's a guidepost for understanding the animating principles — or the lack thereof — behind ownership-level decisions.

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MLB team reports $595 million in baseball revenue despite drops in attendance, wins

By J.P. Hoornstra | 3:05 PM EST