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Speaker 1: The Atlanta Braves is now officially the only major League

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Speaker 1: baseball team that is publicly traded, made its debut last week,

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Speaker 1: shares her down about nine point nine percent since then.

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Speaker 1: The team completed its spinoff from Liberty Media, creating two

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Speaker 1: separate companies, Liberty Media and Atlanta Braves Holdings. Joining us

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Speaker 1: now is Derek Schiller, Atlanta Braves President and CEO. He

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Speaker 1: is live from the Nasdaq, where he rang the opening

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Speaker 1: bell this morning. Derek, thank you so much for joining us.

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Speaker 1: Congratulations on ringing the bell and the public debut. Are

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Speaker 1: you happy with the reception you have received from public markets?

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Speaker 2: Oh? Yes, I mean, first of all, this experience that

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Speaker 2: we had this morning. You know, as a baseball team,

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Speaker 2: we don't get this right. So having our executive management

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Speaker 2: team that's part of this, some of the Liberty Media

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Speaker 2: people participate, this has just been really fun and it

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Speaker 2: shows us yet another dynamic to what it is to

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Speaker 2: be a public team. So we're excited about it. We're

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Speaker 2: excited about what it represents for us, and you know,

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Speaker 2: we're going to continue to operate our business in the

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Speaker 2: best way that we know how.

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Speaker 3: It's certainly a new frontier. Derek obviously very early days.

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Speaker 3: I mean literally days here at this point. But have

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Speaker 3: you heard from any of your other peers with other

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Speaker 3: teams looking over at you, looking at it as a

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Speaker 3: trial balloon and saying, maybe we want to do the

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Speaker 3: same thing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I suppose there's a great deal of curiosity around

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Speaker 2: all of professional sports. You know, it's a bit of

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Speaker 2: a fraternity, if you will. We all know each other

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Speaker 2: that sits in these positions, and so whether you're in

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Speaker 2: a baseball team, an NFL team, NBA, NHL, what have you,

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Speaker 2: we all kind of know each other. And there has

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Speaker 2: been a little bit of trading of thoughts as to

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Speaker 2: what this is. Curiosity is definitely the word of the day.

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Speaker 2: You know, what does it mean for you? What does

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Speaker 2: it mean for the organization? And you know, the answer,

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Speaker 2: the abbreviated answer that I tend to give people, because

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Speaker 2: I do think it relates a little bit to where

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Speaker 2: you're going, is I think that we have a lot

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Speaker 2: more lawyers and a lot more accountants that are looking

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Speaker 2: at us, but the way in which we operate our

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Speaker 2: business is actually the same, and for us, that's at

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Speaker 2: a really, really high level. And I think this gives

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Speaker 2: us an opportunity to showcase that high level in front

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Speaker 2: of a broader group of people, more than just our fans.

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Speaker 2: They get to see it in a way that they've

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Speaker 2: never been able to see it before.

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Speaker 1: But if the cost of that is more cost when

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Speaker 1: it comes to hiring attorneys and having to make all

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Speaker 1: of this disclosure, is all of the work that comes

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Speaker 1: with being a public company, What is the benefit that

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Speaker 1: you think you will receive?

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Speaker 2: Well, you know, it's a good question for liberty, probably

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Speaker 2: better ask more directly. I think what they would tell

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Speaker 2: you is we were coming off of a tracking stock,

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Speaker 2: and for those that know and follow tracking stocks, there's

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Speaker 2: inherently discounts that are associated with those, so such a

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Speaker 2: different way, you're not really unlocking the full value of

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Speaker 2: what the franchise is. And this change to being a

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Speaker 2: full asset backed equity gives the opportunity to, at least

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Speaker 2: in theory, unlock that value that was otherwise hidden or

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Speaker 2: not stored in the price, and then you know, you

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Speaker 2: you do also get a lot more attention because tracking

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Speaker 2: stocks are only to a limited amount of people that

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Speaker 2: might be interested in this. So this is anybody who's

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Speaker 2: looking to you know, trade equities and look at our stock.

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Speaker 2: This is something that becomes very appealing. And I would say,

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Speaker 2: not only is that somebody who might be an institutional

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Speaker 2: investor who knows a whole lot about the dynamics and

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Speaker 2: can model all this, but it could also be you know,

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Speaker 2: millions of fans that make up Atlanta Braves who say,

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Speaker 2: you know what, in addition to going to games and

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Speaker 2: buying a ticket for about the price of a ticket,

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Speaker 2: I can buy a share of the team and be

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Speaker 2: an owner. And that's kind of cool.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, a lot happening for fans. Not to mention,

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Speaker 3: our producer sent me this, the average MLB game is

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Speaker 3: now down thirty one minutes. I mean the changes, there's

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Speaker 3: the evidence they're making a difference. What difference has it

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Speaker 3: made to you in terms of attendance and viewership?

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Speaker 2: So this this has been a culmination of a study

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Speaker 2: that has been going on for many years, and huge

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Speaker 2: credit goes to Major League Baseball's Office commissioner on how

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Speaker 2: to figure out what's the best way to study these

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Speaker 2: things and implement them. These were ultimately all tested in

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Speaker 2: the minor league levels, so we understood the dynamics of

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Speaker 2: what was going to be happening learned from them, adjusted

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Speaker 2: and then ultimately rolled those changes out for the major

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Speaker 2: league level. And as a result of the combination of

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Speaker 2: those changes, things like the pitch clock and having you know,

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Speaker 2: a countdown on that and also having a reduction of

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Speaker 2: the shift, slightly larger bases, all things that theoretically should

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Speaker 2: get the game moving faster but also have more offense

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Speaker 2: gets produced. All those things are doing exactly what they

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Speaker 2: were intended to do. Our fans have shown that they're

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Speaker 2: very excited about that new product, and also, you know,

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Speaker 2: it's really impacting across Major League Baseball in big ways,

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Speaker 2: including US where most teams. Most teams are driving more

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Speaker 2: fans to their ballparks. We were up year over year

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Speaker 2: last year. We had three point one million p people

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Speaker 2: come through our doors last year, which is an enormous

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Speaker 2: amount of fans, and we're going to do even more

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Speaker 2: than that this year.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So on the subject of your fans and on

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Speaker 1: the experience economy, if you will, which includes things like

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Speaker 1: attending baseball games, I wonder what your view is of

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Speaker 1: the wider economy right now, the macro picture, especially when

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Speaker 1: you're figuring out things like ticket pricing, it seems like

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Speaker 1: what you're saying is that you have seen an uptick

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Speaker 1: in demand, But if we are heading into a slower

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Speaker 1: growth environment, how would you adapt to that? Is that

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Speaker 1: what you anticipate?

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Speaker 2: Well, I think I would probably answer that question if

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Speaker 2: we were having this discussion five years ago, specifically pre COVID,

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Speaker 2: I would have answered that question far different. I think

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Speaker 2: one of the things that we have learned coming out

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Speaker 2: of COVID, and I don't think is a temporary situation.

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Speaker 2: I think people have realized the things that are valuable

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Speaker 2: in their lives. They're going to insist on doing, you know,

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Speaker 2: and if you find going to a braves game gives

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Speaker 2: you joy, which I believe it does, and you want

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Speaker 2: to spend your money towards that because that's something really

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Speaker 2: important to you. That's not something that you're going to

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Speaker 2: give up. And I realized you might have economic pressures

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Speaker 2: coming at you. But what we've seen in the past

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Speaker 2: year or two is as those forces hit families and

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Speaker 2: others evaluating those choices, they're continuing to choose to spend

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Speaker 2: their time in these community oriented places where we take

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Speaker 2: really good care of them. There's this connection to something

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Speaker 2: that's really valuable to them. That being the Atlanta Braves,

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Speaker 2: and they just want to stay with it. And oh,

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Speaker 2: by the way, it doesn't hurt that our team's playing

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Speaker 2: really well right now.

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Speaker 3: Yes it has. We're going to ask you about that

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Speaker 3: in just a moment, Derek, but listen quickly here because

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Speaker 3: we're about out of time. Diamond Sports, the largest owner

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Speaker 3: of regional sport networks, you know this, filed for bankruptcy

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Speaker 3: in March. Has the viewership change if I can just

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Speaker 3: go to Apple Friday Night watch, MLB has the model

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Speaker 3: now changed for local stations in terms of how we're

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Speaker 3: watching baseball.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so a little bit back behind this, and it's

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Speaker 2: a complex situation, so bankruptcy involved. Of course, in our situation,

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Speaker 2: the Atlanta Braids, there's actually two rsns that are inside

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Speaker 2: of the Bally's ecosystem, and those two rsns cover Braves

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Speaker 2: games as well as a lot of other regional sports

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Speaker 2: entities in the geographic territory down in the southeast, things

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Speaker 2: like Atlanta Hawks games and others. Those two regionals are

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Speaker 2: doing relatively well in the grand scheme of things, and

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Speaker 2: for us, what we want to try to do as

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Speaker 2: they continue to do the things that they're required to

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Speaker 2: do under the contract. We're doing the exact same back

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Speaker 2: to them. We're going to monitor that, We're going to

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Speaker 2: make sure everybody's adhering to their contract, and at a

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Speaker 2: point in time, if there's a discussion to be had

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Speaker 2: about changing that, we'll address it. At this point in time,

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Speaker 2: we're operating business as usual with Bally's. I know there's

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Speaker 2: been disruptions in other markets, notably at least in baseball

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Speaker 2: San Diego and now Arizona. I don't know that I

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Speaker 2: see that happening as quickly in Atlanta, but it's something

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Speaker 2: that we are very much keeping our eye on, and

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Speaker 2: I think Baseball has a game plan to make sure

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Speaker 2: that this goes right.

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Speaker 3: You bring it at home, you win in the World Series.

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Speaker 2: Yes, we are bringing it at home. We are going

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Speaker 2: to do that. Knock on some wood somewhere, do whatever

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Speaker 2: you got to do to get yourself in a place.

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Speaker 2: But I think the World Series is coming through Atlanta.

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Speaker 3: All right. I don't have any wood around me, but metaphorically,

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Speaker 3: just imagine your mind. Now, I'm doing it for you, Derek,

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Speaker 3: Thank you so much for Jordan Cayley and me today.

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Speaker 3: Derek Schiller, Atlanta Braves President and CEO,