Atlanta Braves Holdings, Inc. (BATRK) Q1 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Greetings. Welcome to the Atlanta Braves Holdings First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Cameron Rudd, Vice President of Investor Relations.

Before we begin, we'd like to remind everyone that on today's call, management's prepared remarks may contain forward-looking statements that represent our beliefs or expectations about future events. Forward-looking statements address matters that are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ from those discussed today. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated including those set forth in the Risk Factors section of our annual and quarterly reports filed with the SEC. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, assumptions and beliefs as well as information available to us at this time. and speak only as of the date they are made, and management undertakes no obligation to update publicly any of them in light of new information or future events. During this call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted OIBDA. The full definition of non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliations to the comparable GAAP financial measures are contained in the Form 10-Q and earnings press release available on the company's website. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Terry McGuirk, Chairman, President and CEO of Atlanta Braves Holdings.

Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining our first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Joining me today are Derek Schiller, President and CEO of the Atlanta Braves; Mike Plant, President and CEO of the Braves Development Company; and Jill Robinson, our CFO. Before we begin, I'd like to take a moment to remember 2 Braves icons who passed away last week. Our good friend and former owner, Ted Turner, and the best manager to everywhere of Braves Uniform, Bobby Cox. Ted was one of a kind of brilliant businessman, consummate showman and passionate fan of his beloved Braves. His visionary leadership and innovative approach to broadcast television transform the Braves into Americas team. Under his stewardship, the ball club experienced one of the greatest runs of sustained excellence in Major League Baseball history and brought a World Series championship to Atlanta in 1995. It was also a legendary philanthropist whose compassion and generosity extended around the world. Bobby Cox, led our team to 14 straight division titles, 5 National League Pennant and the unforgettable World Series title in 1995. He garnered 2,149 wins as Braves manager, the most in franchise history and delivered the longest period of sustained success for our ball club. Bobby was a 4-time winner of the Manager of the Year award. His Braves managerial legacy will never be matched. He was a favorite among all in baseball, especially those who played for him. His wealth of knowledge on player development and the intricacies of managing the game were rewarded with the sports ultimate prize in 2014 enshrinement into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Our sincere condolences go out to the Turner family and to the Cox family. Back to the season, we're off to a terrific start this year, both on and off the field. As we start May, we have one of the best records in baseball and are in first place in the National East. This is the kind of fast start that we were hoping for and we are doing this while still awaiting the return of several impact players who have been recovering from injuries during the early stages of the season. On the mount, we finished the month of April, leading the National League in ERA and a strong performance by our both starting rotation and bullpen. And at the plate, we led the majors in run scored and sat third in home runs. We outscored our competition by 66 runs in March and April, tied for the best run differential in the sport, which I consider one of the best power ranking metrics in baseball. Alex Anthopoulos has put together an exceptional roster and our new manager, Walt Weiss is bringing a competitive spirit and enthusiasm that is working well with the players in the club house. As we have said on a number of occasions, our ultimate goal every year is to compete for and win another world series for our fans. This start puts us in an outstanding position to continue focusing on the playoffs, which is the first step on that championship journey. Baseball continues to grow and cultivate fans across the country and around the world. In addition to the recent MLB world tour series in Mexico City just a few weeks ago, fans from across the globe tuned in for the World Baseball Classic which was held earlier this spring and featured star performances from several of our current brazed players, including Ronald Acuña Jr.. and Ozzie Albies. The focus and commitment to building a worldwide audience will pay huge dividends as MLB markets itself internationally over the next decade. The pitch clock and the introduction of the automated ball strike challenge system have harnessed technology and strategy enhancing competitiveness and improving the fan experience, especially for the younger demographic. Our sport is enjoying great momentum and popularity with the fans. In addition to the Braves strong on the field performance off the field, we have grown revenue and made a number of investments that are focused on the fans and their experience. In particular, I'd like to commend our entire organization for the launch of BravesVision, we were able to accomplish in an incredibly short amount of time, something that most organizations would take a year or more to develop. The Herculean effort by the Braves to build an organization in 3 months that we expect to meet or exceed the economics generated under our prior RSN agreement is management excellence in my opinion, and a big victory for the fans. Now as I turn the call over to Derek, I would like to thank our fans. Attendance has been great to start the year we know as an organization that we have the greatest fans in baseball, and everything we do is focused on delivering for them. We are steadfast in that commitment, and we do not take their passion and loyalty for granted. With that, I'll turn it over to Derek to walk through in more detail the launch of BravesVision and additional details on our operating performance in the first quarter.

Thank you, Terry, and good morning, everyone. I want to start by offering more details on BravesVision. When we developed the plan to launch BravesVision, we recognized that we had an opportunity to create something from the ground up and do it in a way that made the most sense operationally and financially. We have organized the business around 5 core operating units. They include production, distribution, advertising sales, programming, and direct-to-consumer streaming. We are incredibly pleased with the progress that we have made in short order since launching against each of these areas. From a production standpoint, we were able to leverage existing relationships with Gray Media and Raycom to assist in building out the immediate areas of our focus. By combining these efforts with our existing Braves team across production, marketing, graphics and others, we're able to control and produce games and create content that is best for our fans. We have seen and heard from fans who appreciate the fact that their favorite team is running the network without somebody else in between. In terms of distribution, we've enhanced the reach of our broadcast through linear distribution deals and expanded our over-the-air partnerships with Gray Media. We reached agreements prior to opening day that essentially preserved our linear distribution of BravesVision across cable and satellite. In addition, we expanded our over-the-air broadcast reach with grade of 25 games this season, up from only 15 games last season. In terms of advertising, we have made substantial progress in attracting advertisers by leveraging our sponsorship and marketing teams. The presentation of our network, the popularity and success of the team and the ability to deliver a robust audience is something that we know is critically important to our advertisers, and we're proving our value to them. The Atlanta Braves are well known as a premier franchise across professional sports and one that companies want to partner with as evidenced by our impressive growth in corporate partnerships. We believe that this is a real opportunity for us, and we will continue to focus our efforts on bringing the right brands into our network. On the programming front, we are working to expand existing programming beyond just pregame, in-game and postgame coverage though we have additional hours of content. Our focus is on delivering a broadcast by the Braves and for the fans and the control we have over that presentation on BravesVision allows us to do just that. Our direct-to-consumer product has proven to be best-in-class, and we hear from fans in our footprint and across the country that experience has been seamless, easy to use, and it delivers our games to fans wherever and whenever they want to watch them. We have attracted a very strong subscriber base and are investing in marketing to grow that base as the season continues. Simultaneously, we understand the importance of preserving subscribers and minimizing churn. Just a word on our fans and to echo some of what Terry shared. Our fans have been incredibly appreciative of the direct control the team has over the broadcast. We recognize this, and we will continue to innovate and execute to ensure that BravesVision is the best presentation of Major League Baseball. We built in a matter of only a few weeks what would typically take 12 to 18 months to assemble and did so with the team leaner than nearly anyone else in the industry by leveraging our in-house experience and top-tier staff. This tremendous achievement is a testament to our vision to control our rights again and be in a position to maximize not only our economics, but the complete fan experience across our geographic territory, Braves Country. Given that this is an earnings call, we know that many of you will want significant details on the financials at BravesVision. We also know you'll likely want metrics to measure our success. We understand that's important. But it is early days in the launch of BravesVision. So we're going to be thoughtful around which metrics we choose to focus on so that we can give you the best picture of our results. This is only the first quarter with an extremely limited percentage of our total 162 game season. So look for us to share more when we present Q2 earnings. As mentioned on our year-end call, we see our business in baseball strategies is aligned. A competitive team supports demand and our broader development platform supports revenue throughout the year. There is no doubt that the performance on the field in 26 has been fantastic. We are thrilled with the way the team has started the season. While the first quarter had a limited number of home games, we opened the season at home and attendance has been strong through April. Through the first 18 home games, we are currently averaging approximately 33,000 tickets sold per game and had 7 sell ups. Our new ticketing strategy is working well and ensuring that we are maximizing revenue opportunities as we sell additional tickets on a game-by-game basis. Regarding other events outside our regular season, just last week, we welcomed the Eagles to Truist Park as part of their farewell tour and welcome tens of thousands of fans to our ballpark for their concert series. This is only one of our upcoming concerts that have been announced throughout the rest of the year. We're also excited to have Braves Country Fest presented by Truist on June 13 in partnership with Live Nation, featuring performances by Cody Johnson, Ella Langley, ERNEST and Mackenzie Carpenter, among others. Lastly, just this past weekend, we hosted a 3-game series with the Savannah Bananas, whose product remains exceptionally popular. With 3 sellouts across products at are in Sunday, we were thrilled to welcome more than 100,000 fans to Truist Park and the battery. Mike will touch on our real estate development strategy and business in a moment, but I'd like to emphasize that as we head into the summer months, we have a number of exciting events ahead that will drive visitors to the Battery Atlanta. It is clear that we are off to an exceptionally busy start to 2026 and the hard work of everyone in the organization is paying off. We look forward to many exciting developments in the months ahead. Go Braves. And now over to you, Mike.

Thanks, Derek. The start of the baseball season was clearly reflected across the Battery Atlanta with increased activity throughout the district as fans return to Truth Park and visitors engage with the broader mix of restaurants, entertainment venues, retail, office, hotel and residential offerings. The strength of the multiuse nature of the battery continues to be one of the key differentiators of the portfolio. We also continue to focus on enhancing the guest experience and further strengthening the tenant mix. We announced earlier this year that a new restaurant will debut at the Battery. The restaurant, Hundredfold, is an American brasserie headed by James Beard award-winning chef, Timothy Hollingsworth, that will offer an upscale dining experience, which will add another attractive dining option to our portfolio. The restaurant slated to open the fall at 5 ballpark Center, the office tower housing, the Truist Securities division across the street from the third base gate at Truist Park. This new restaurant will join J. Alexander's as our 2 new premium dining experiences at the Battery Atlanta. As we previously announced, J. Alexander's is a high-end American cuisine restaurant, which recently opened. From a leasing and development perspective, demand for high-quality space at the battery remains strong. We currently have 5 new or extended deals signed, which represent nearly 50,000 square feet of new tenant base. In addition, we have 75,000 square feet currently under redevelopment. The Battery Atlanta on nearly 1.4 million visitors in the first quarter as our evolving campus continues to be a premier destination for visitors across Atlanta and the Southeast. We operate one of the most unique locations in the country and with multiple opportunities throughout the rest of the year for concerts, viewing events, markets and more are looking forward to our campus continue to be an important piece of the Atlanta Braves. This campus has grown to become a landmark in Atlanta and across the entire Southeast as we continue to see dozens of teams in professional and collegiate sports attempt to replicate the model we have built. We have fostered an incredibly strong community and are proud to be approaching the 10-year anniversary of our move to Cobb County. This move was strategic for numerous reasons, and our partnership with Cobb County has only strengthened in the last several years. In fact, just last year, the Braves and Battery Atlanta generated more than $41 million in total tax revenue for the county, Cobb Board of Education, CID and State of Georgia. We look forward to continuing to make a positive impact on the county and the community. With that, I will turn over the call to Jill to walk through the financials in more detail.

Thanks, Mike. Before I start, I want to remind everyone that a majority of our revenue is seasonal and is aligned to the baseball season. Towards the end of the first quarter of 2026, there were 5 regular season home games played. That being said, we are pleased to report a strong start to our year. Total revenue was $72 million in the first quarter of 2026, up from $47.2 million in the first quarter of 2025. As a reminder, the company manages its business based on the following reportable segments: baseball and mixed-use development. Baseball revenue was $45.7 million in the first quarter of 2026, up from $28.6 million in the first quarter of 2025. This revenue increase was driven by an increase in baseball event revenue due to the 5 regular season home games in Q1 2026 versus no home games in the same period last year. This increase was partially offset by a decrease in other revenue due to 2 Savannah Banana games hosted at Truist Park in Q1 2025, but not in Q1 2026. Mixed-use development revenue was $26.3 million in the first quarter of 2026, up from $18.6 million from the same period last year and was primarily driven by increases in rental income, primarily as a result of the in-place leases associated with the Pennant Park acquisition. Given that the launch of BravesVision occurred late in the first quarter, we are still working through the reporting elements within our financials and the manner with which we can share details with our analysts and investors. We expect to have more clarity on that when we report our second quarter earnings. That being said, we believe we are on pace to meet or exceed the economics generated under our prior RSN agreement, but the timing of the cash flows will be different based on the timing of payments for the different revenue streams. For example, in our prior relationship with Main Street FanDuel Sports Network, we received a license fee with payments being received equally over the first 9 months of the year. The revenue and cash flow were predictable, albeit there was uncertainty given the financial health of our partner. In the case of BravesVision, our distribution agreements commenced at the time we signed our contracts with our various distribution partners at the start of the season. Distribution revenue payments will come in on a slower cadence than our traditional rights fee model payments were received, creating a sizable shift in the timing of cash receipts. Advertising revenue will be paid following the month when the ad errors. Direct-to-consumer payments will also be paid monthly. We are going to work over the coming months to identify the best way to report our financial results and give our investors and analysts the best way to model that going forward. We are being cautious and thoughtful around this given the early few weeks of this new business. Turning back to specific results. Adjusted OIBDA improved to a loss of $17.6 million, up from a loss of $28.5 million in the first quarter of 2025. This improvement was due to an increase in both baseball and mixed-use development revenue, partially offset by an increase in baseball operating costs, including increased player salaries and variable stadium operating expenses, due to the increase in regular season home games in Q1 2026 versus the same period last year and an increase in mixed-use development operating expenses due to the PennantPark acquisition. Our operating loss improved to $41.3 million in the first quarter of 2026 as compared to an operating loss of $44.5 million in the first quarter of 2025, primarily due to revenue outpacing increases in operating and SG&A expenses. As of March 31, 2026, the company had $135.2 million of cash and cash equivalents. Nearly all of our cash and cash equivalents are invested in U.S. treasury securities, other government securities or government guaranteed funds, AAA-rated money market funds and other highly rated financial and corporate debt instruments. And with that, operator, let's open the line for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of David Joyce from Seaport Research Partners.

Congratulations on launching BravesVision. And I appreciate that you're not ready to provide too many new KPIs, but could you help us think through kind of what the differences are in the -- beyond what you've said so far on the contract and offerings from the programming last year versus this -- and then what incremental production and platform investments were required to launch this in terms of like what the financial implications might be.

David, it's Derek Schiller, I'll take this one. Thank you for the question. Let's first give a little context it's important to reemphasize why we've done what we've done. First and foremost is we think it's going to be in the best interest of our fans, delivering the best product for them on TV. It gives us control, which we always like that in our business. And with control, we have optionality with what we do today and in the future for that. And then I think really importantly, I want to emphasize some of the things that Terry and I touched on in our remarks is that we're very bullish about what this management team can do. And this is a great example of that in standing up BravesVision. When we did so, we stood it up with the intent to focus initially primarily on the gain with the direct adjacent programming being a pregame show in post game. I think there's some opportunity for us, as we mentioned, to extend some of the programming. But really, at the end of the day, I mean, that is what the fans want first and foremost is the ability to watch the game, watch the pre and post game shows with that. So we're focused on that. That's gone really well. The fan feedback has been fantastic. And I want to emphasize from an economics perspective, at this point in time, we can safely say that we're going to meet or exceed the economics which unto itself is a pretty large statement that we can make. We will see some expenses as it relates to additional programming. We're going to be mindful of that, and we're going to be very selective. So at this point in time, I think we're giving you the best glimpse into the economics. Jill, I don't know if you want to give any more commentary on that. But that's basically what we've got.

The one thing I would add, David, is that because of our partnership with Raycom, our upfront investment, particularly capital investment was relatively minimal.

Your next question comes from the line of Barton Crockett from Rosenblatt.

Congratulations on a great start to the season here. I wanted to ask about an element of the BravesVision set up, and I understand there's a limit on what you can really say at this point. But could you tell us about the TV kind of footprint. I've noticed you've got all the major kind of distributors in there, but there is a notable name, Cox, which I haven't seen in the lineup. And anything you could say about the reach you've got now on TV versus what you had before and if there's scope for that to change as we go through the season or into next year?

Sure. I'll take that again. It's Derek. First, our -- part of the reason why we took on this television project and launching BravesVision ourselves is in addition to what I said about our belief that we could do it, it's the marketplace. have the benefit of having one of the largest television territories in all of sports. And so we want to try to capture that. We think we're in the best position to do so. The way that I would describe it, to answer your question is there's really a couple of ways that we approach the marketplace and it's largely very similar to what Main Street did. It would be described as a linear distributed network, adding on over-the-air components. In our case, we're extending the number of over-the-air games from 15 to 25 as we mentioned. And then also allowing fans to have a direct-to-consumer streaming option via the Braves.TV. In the linear distributed product, which is what you were asking about, we have replicated the amount of distributors that were previously with us are all largely the same from what we had, including Cox. They have partnered with Charter. As you know, there's been a combination of those. So that may be why you're looking at that. But we can say at this point in time, all of the major distributors that distribute into the Braves television territory, are carrying BravesVision.

Okay. Now if I could ask one other kind of thing about this, just to get some just adjectives around this. I understand you may not give numbers. But as you've taken control of the streaming, can you give us any sense of how large the streaming kind of audience is relative to linear, just some adjective sense of that and whether that's changed much as you've taken it over versus what it was under the prior regime.

For context, we are streaming through Major League Baseball's MLB.TV, or, in our case, Braves.TV element. They do a fantastic job as we called it, a best-in-class approach to the marketplace. Our fans have really enjoyed that. We -- last year, also for additional contacts last year was the first year that we added streaming into the marketplace. In that case, it was handled by Main Street. We didn't have an exact glimpse into how many subscribers were subscribed to the product because it was them that was managing that. So it's a little bit difficult to look at comparisons. I can give you just general terms is that we're very happy with the amount of fans that have signed up for subscriptions to Braves.TV. We are currently working on ways to report on the information and the amount of people that are watching our product because, again, you can watch via linear, you can watch via OTA or the streaming. So as referenced in our earlier commentary, we're continuing to build on how we are going to showcase the amount of people that watch. So look for that information to come in the future.

Okay. That's great. And if I could just ask one last question, kind of shifting gears. Just as I kind of look at your free cash flow and your net debt, your free cash flow is traditionally defined cash flow from operations less CapEx has been negative for the past couple of years. And your net debt has gone up from the 400-ish range in the 2022, '23 ZIP code to $600 million-ish now including some spending on tenant. How should we think about this going forward? I mean, obviously, there's some constraints on how much that you'd want to add and -- but also a need to kind of invest in your business. So how should we kind of think about how you guys balance this going forward?

Well, thanks for the question, Barton. As we -- I'll tackle the debt question first. As you look at the increase in debt over the past couple of years, keep in mind that on the real estate side of our portfolio, we've added not just Pennant Park but 5 ballpark. So both of those increases in debt are tied to revenue-generating assets that have been extremely profitable for us. On the baseball side, our -- most of our debt on the stadium and otherwise is pretty well set. We're not looking to increase leverage on that. And we have 2 revolving debt instruments, which as of March 31 is about $265 million of borrowing capacity. We believe that creates a lot of flexibility for us in the future. From a free cash flow perspective, over the past couple of years, we've been very focused on improvements in the ballpark, which increase the fan experience for our fans and also our revenue generating. It's our master planning project that we've talked about in Investor Days and other such events. Those have been capital projects that have largely been spent in Q4 and Q3. So that's been an impact to our free cash flow as well.

So the implication is the free cash flow trajectory should be perhaps less negative or positive going forward?

Yes. I mean I think we've done the big master planning projects that generate the highest returns. So going forward in the future, I would expect that those would come down a little bit. That spending would come down a little bit, although we're still in the early stages of planning for that.

Your next question comes from the line of Matthew Harrigan from Benchmark.

Your friends at Live Nation have talked about premiumization in terms of getting more efficiency on pricing. Clearly, that's particularly appropriate when the Braves are having a playoff run, which things are looking good for you. But do you feel like you're optimally priced at this point? I mean, in terms of assuring access for everyone and at the same time, really taking the cream on the high end as well? Or do you think you have latitude in your pricing structure over a period of time? And obviously, the amenities, I'm sure it's not the Miami Grand Prix with $200 nachos. But -- just any thoughts on that?

Matthew, it's Derek. I'll take that. Thanks for the question. Yes, I think one of the great things about the Braves in baseball as a whole is that we do have a wide variety of ticketing options and price points that we can offer our fans. And that is absolutely the truth here at Truist Park as well. And we believe, and we've stated this in the past that there was room for growth on the average ticket price over the past years and we certainly have worked on that. We're still a fan-friendly as I call it, situation where if you're looking for something that is more value offered we can certainly give you that option. But we have also done very well at optimizing our premium, our premium is defined as largely those tickets that have some level of amenity associated with them, whether it be a club or something else, a food and beverage component to that. And in fact, relating to Jill's previous commentary, some of the additions that we have made to the ballpark in the form of our master planning projects have included expanding upon some of the premium as well as hospitality space related offerings that we have because we are meeting what the fans had wanted, and that's where we have seen the highest demand. So our premium seats as of now continue to be sold out. And we're seeing high demand on those and feel very good about the price points that we are offering those as we stand today.

And I know you're reticent on commenting on league issues. But when you look at parity and obviously, maintaining the growth of the league and keeping the players happy. What's your perspective on floors, caps and revenue sharing? I know you got some ossification as a result of past experiences. But you got so much going on with baseball right now, be a shame to done it with a lockout as everyone knows.

This is Terry. I would steer those questions to Rob Manfred for the commissioner of baseball. We're in pretty active discussions at his office with the Players Association. And as you know, the CBA concludes that on December 1 of this year, and baseball will be engaging as it normally does throughout this year to culminate at that point with either a new deal or other activities. So there's been lots of discussion as to what might be included in that -- in those talks. I'm not in a position today to discuss them.

You could mention also Bobby Cox as one of the unbreakable sports records with post game explosions, quite the character. Anyway, thanks for your tolerance on the question.

We love Bobby. He's 1 of our icons and every player whoever played for them would walk across hot coals for them. So we're -- where he's an amazing guy and we'll be honoring him further as the season goes on.

And we have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I will now turn the call back over to management for closing remarks.

Well, thank you for joining us on today's call. Appreciate it. A reminder that our next home game is tomorrow versus the Cubs and we look forward to you watching us in the stands or maybe on BravesVision. And then a final point is prior to tomorrow's game, we will be doing a pregame tribute for both Bobby Cox as well as Ted Turner. So appreciate you joining us for that. And with that, I want to thank everybody for the call and see you next time.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.