Three months after the Braves opened SunTrust Park and The Battery Atlanta, the team and its parent company Liberty Media are "pronouncing it an unqualified success," according to Mark Meltzer of the ATLANTA BUSINESS CHRONICLE. Braves Chair & CEO Terry McGuirk said, "It's a model-breaking phenomenon. We think it has succeeded brilliantly and anyone who looks at it thinks that." Liberty Media President & CEO Greg Maffei said that The Battery is about 30% complete and 70% of that is "leased." Meltzer noted the new Comcast regional HQ is "expected to open in November, bring thousands of employees to the Battery and the four-star Omni hotel is scheduled to open" in Q1 '18. Just 200 of the 500 apartments in The Battery have been "completed and they have been quickly leased and rents have been increased." There are also 22 "additional acres of land for a second phase of the Battery on top of the initial 44 acres and the 16-acre SunTrust Park site." That also "includes a high-profile office site fronting I-285." McGuirk said, "It's just beginning. I think it's going to blow the roof off and everyone who has seen it is trying to duplicate what we've done." McGuirk said that ballpark revenue has "increased 'meaningfully,' with revenue from suites and premium seats up" 73%. Maffei said that he expects a "big increase in local television revenue when the team's long-term TV contract expires" in '27. Maffei: "2027 is going to be a big valuation change for the Braves" (BIZJOURNALS.com, 7/18). Maffei said that based on other teams' sale prices, the Braves "could be worth" at least $1.5B, "not including the real-estate development" (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 7/19).
