Liberty Media President & CEO Greg Maffei on Thursday said that the company "likes owning the Braves and has no current plan to sell the team," according to Tim Tucker of the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION. Maffei: “The Braves have been a great asset, great for Liberty, and we are happy owners." He added, "There are a lot of ways the Braves continue to be a very interesting business for us.” Tucker notes Colorado-based Liberty Media has owned the Braves since '07, "longer than most observers expected when it acquired the team as part of a tax-driven transaction with Time Warner." Maffei said, “We have experienced, accomplished, dedicated management who runs it on almost every decision. There are a couple (decisions) that we usually assent to, but on pretty much everything day to day this team is run out of Atlanta.” Maffei said that the team’s payroll, which currently ranks 26th in MLB, is "set by Braves management," led by Chair & CEO Terry McGuirk. Maffei: “It’s not like we come and say, ‘Nah, you got to cut that.’ I don’t think that has happened in the nine years that we have been involved." Tucker notes though he said Liberty "has no current plan to sell the Braves, Maffei didn’t suggest the company would own the team forever" (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 4/22). In Atlanta, Jeff Schultz wrote the problem is the Braves "are referred to as an asset, not a team, with actual human beings on the field and in the stands (in theory)." Schultz: "Liberty has 'happy owners?' Of a 4-11 team that may be on the way to 100 losses? I’m not suggesting all corporate ownership is horrible, or that all owners with faces are great. But it’s clear Liberty just doesn’t care" (AJC.com, 4/21).
COMPLAINT DEPARTMENT: ESPN.com's Doug Padilla cited a source as saying that Braves players are "unhappy over the conditions of the Turner Field infield," and they are "considering contacting the players' union to see if they can pressure their own club to make improvements." The source speculated that with the Braves leaving Turner Field for a new ballpark after this season, the playing surface "is not being treated with the same meticulous care as in the past and that the problem areas are the uneven grass and the unpredictable area where the turf meets the infield dirt" (ESPN.com, 4/21).
