Menu

SBJ Unpacks: Pandemic Takes Bite Out Of Braves, F1 Financials


Tonight in SBJ Unpacks: Liberty Media earnings reflect challenging quarter for Braves and Formula 1.

  • NFL not assuming it will keep COVID under control
  • Dave Dombrowski sticks with MLB effort in Nashville
  • PGA Tour hosts largest pandemic-era crowd in Houston
  • Genesco Sports CEO on NFL sponsorship in 2020
  • Robert Pera's deep pockets help Grizzlies weather pandemic
  • This free newsletter keeps you up to date on the biggest challenges facing sports. Click here to sign up to receive nightly updates on the industry's winding road to recovery.

 

LIBERTY MEDIA EARNINGS SHOW EXPECTED DECLINES FOR BRAVES, F1

  • Braves and F1 parent company Liberty Media announced Q3 earnings today, with both the MLB club and racing group posting expected declines due to the pandemic. 

  • The Braves, with a "shortened schedule and no fans in the stands at Truist Park," saw Q3 revenue decline 48% to $110 million, from $212 million in the year-ago period. The Braves' quarterly revenue came "mostly from local and national broadcast rights, sponsorships and various shared MLB income streams," per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Braves also generated $8 million in "revenue during the quarter from The Battery Atlanta, primarily from rental income."

  • Meanwhile, F1 registered a $104 million loss in Q3 as COVID-19 "continues to wreak havoc, although the sport's income streams are starting to recover," per Motorsport.

  • The F1 Group earned revenues of $597 million for July to September, compared with $633 million in 2019. The operating loss of $104 million for the period follows a profit of $32 million last year. Income from "race fees, TV and sponsorship is allocated pro rata per quarter, reflecting how many races take place during the period." F1’s second quarter results covering April to June were thus "not representative of the overall impact of COVID-19, as no Grands Prix took place during the period." For more on F1, see tonight's issue of SBD Global.

 

 

NFL NOT ASSUMING IT WILL KEEP COVID-19 UNDER CONTROL

  • It was slightly surprising when Chris Mortensen reported Monday that the NFL is preparing an expanded playoffs if regular-season games are lost to COVID-19, writes SBJ's Ben Fischer. The league had just completed its third straight week with no virus-related postponements, and it appeared that things were somewhat under control.

  • But since then, COVID-19 disruptions continue to pop up around the league -- including a bevy of Ravens, a starting QB, a team president and a GM. Today, the Texans and Bears closed their facilities after a player on each team tested positive, and the Colts and Chiefs altered plans after staffers tested positive. The Eagles also had a player test positive, and the league is investigating the 49ers and WR Kendrick Bourne for possible protocol violations. Just goes to show: the virus tight-rope walk can go south at any time, and quickly, and there’s less flexibility in the schedule with each passing week.

  • The talk of a postseason adjustment emerged one day before the NFL again expanded virus-mitigation protocols -- now players will have to wear masks before and after games, and sidelines are expanded to allow more distancing. It’s truly a day-to-day, minute-to-minute effort to stay ahead of outbreaks.

  • As of this moment, the Week 9 schedule is intact, starting tonight in Santa Clara. But as the playoff scenario planning shows, the league isn’t assuming anything about the future.  

 

DOMBROWSKI STAYS WITH NASHVILLE GROUP; WON'T PURSUE MLB OPENINGS

  • Dave Dombrowski is "not a candidate to be the top baseball decision-maker for the Angels or another" MLB club, per The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal. Dombrowski, who signed a four-year contract to work with the group trying to bring a major-league team to Nashville, said he is "not pursuing any other job" with an existing MLB club. 

  • Dombrowski: "I’m staying in Nashville. I gave the individual here (John Loar, the head of Music City Baseball) a commitment when I moved here that as we continue to pursue a new team -- expansion, relocation or if it goes nowhere -- that I would stay here with them.”

  • Industry sources linked Dombrowski to the Angels "even before the team dismissed Billy Eppler as general manager on Sept. 27, but Dombrowski said he has told teams with interest that he is committed to Nashville." The Phillies and Marlins also are "looking for lead baseball executives."

 

PGA TOUR HOSTS 2,000 FANS PER DAY AT HOUSTON EVENT

  • The PGA Tour hosted its largest pandemic-era crowd today during the first round of the Vivint Houston Open, with 2,000 spectators descending on Memorial Park Golf Course. It is the first Tour event played in the U.S. to "allow general admission spectators since the restart of the season after the COVID-19 hiatus," per Golf Digest's Brian Wacker. (Last week’s Bermuda Championship had fans as well, with a daily cap at 500).

  • Golf Channel’s Tripp Isenhour: “It’s only 2,000 fans, but it’s a start. Look, the rest of the sports world has done a great job as well. College football, the NFL, they're doing all these things in steps. They’re getting there. We’re getting back to some sense of normalcy." 

  • While the Houston event does represent a landmark return for the Tour, tournaments in early 2021 are still up in the air when it comes to fans on-site. Earlier today it was announced that spectators for the Sony Open in Hawaii (Jan. 13-17) "will be missing" from the Waialae Country Club grounds, as the tournament will be played without any in attendance.

 

This week’s Vivint Houston Open is welcoming up to 2,000 fans a day

 

GSE’s JOHN TATUM TALKS NFL SPONSORSHIP IN 2020

  • Genesco Sports Enterprises President & CEO John Tatum today offered his take on the NFL season at the halfway mark, and looked toward the playoffs and Super Bowl LV, on the latest episode of “SBJ Unpacks: The Road Ahead” podcast. Here are some key takeaways from Tatum’s conversation with SBJ’s Andrew Levin.

    • On the NFL’s branded tarps falling short of their intended purpose: “The tarps are maybe a C-. The problem with them is there’s not a consistency of how they're delivered or displayed. So, in some markets, they stand out, and in other markets, you can’t even see them, and there’s not a lot of recall.”

    • On how NFL league sponsors Genesco represents have pivoted: “There’s not a lot of tailgating and experiential on-site, so we’ve had to replace that with home-gating and huddling up at a home. And so, you’ve seen things like Frito-Lay’s 'Twas The Night Before Kickoff’ spot.”

    • Expectations for experiential activations during Super Bowl LV week: “A lot of clients have announced that they’re not going to invite large numbers of customers down. I think it’s pretty much going to be … more of a local and regional play, where you don’t have to worry about things like airfare and travel and hotels.”

 

ROBERT PERA HELPS GRIZZLIES WEATHER PANDEMIC

  • The state of uncertainty surrounding the NBA "might end up being the most rewarding moment" of Grizzlies Owner Robert Pera’s eight-year tenure, or "at least the moment when Grizzlies fans can take some comfort in having a deep-pocketed billionaire," writes the Memphis Commercial Appeal.

  • Whatever the outcome of this season, it "won’t significantly affect Pera’s financial fortunes in the short term." That is a "huge boon for the Grizzlies moving forward, and it’s provided the franchise with a smooth runway other major entities haven’t had during this pandemic."

  • The Grizzlies "haven’t had any reported furloughs or layoffs." Instead, the franchise in March announced that it paid part-time, game-night employees "through the end of last season even after the final home games of the season were called off." The Grizzlies also created a "community assistance fund to help when COVID-19 first caused so much havoc to the lives of those in and around Memphis."

 

SPEED READS

  • ESPN today began to cut about 500 jobs through a combination of about 300 layoffs and 200 open positions that won't be filled, with remote production hit especially hard, writes SBJ's John Ourand. ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro in a note to employees this morning said, "The pandemic's significant impact on our business clearly accelerated those forward-looking discussions." Corporate layoffs have hit sports media hard since the beginning of the pandemic, as accelerated cord-cutting combined with a soft ad market hurt revenue and sent the business into a cost-cutting mode, per Ourand.

  • The NBA aims to have arena suites "open to fans at 25-to-50 percent capacity for the 2020-21 season tipoff, based on local regulations," according to sources cited by Shams Charania. The pandemic has "made life fluid, and a clinical vaccine will play a role in this too." The NBA's goal is "some amount of fans to start the season, depending on each market's restrictions." Sources said that courtside fans, for instance, "would be about 10-to-12 feet away."

  • Official athletic websites are where college fans go to buy tickets and look at stats and scores. For that, and other revenue-generating purposes like collecting donations, school sites are useful. The next frontier, say leaders in the college space, is growing that built-in and loyal audience with exclusive content. For more, see tonight's issue of SBJ College.

  • The Breeders' Cup World Championships "will take place as scheduled" on Friday and Saturday at Keeneland, as Thoroughbred racing's "premier event" has not been postponed or canceled amid the pandemic, per the Lexington Herald-Leader. Fans will "not be allowed on the grounds this weekend," a decision the Breeders' Cup board made back in September, opting to "limit on-site attendance to participants only." All three Triple Crown races this year also were held without fans.

 

SBJ UNPACKS -- THE ROAD AHEAD

 

NEWS YOU NEED FROM SPORTS BUSINESS DAILY

 

 

 

SBJ offers must-read newsletters covering Betting, College Sports, Esports, Football, Marketing, and Media. To stay in the know, read SBJ’s newsletters online or manage your newsletter subscriptions.


Not a subscriber? Sign up for a free trial to read our newsletters.

 

Something related to sports business catch your eye? Tell us about it. Reach out to Thomas Leary (tleary@sportsbusinessdaily.com) or Richard Bush (rbush@sportsbusinessjournal.com) and we'll share the best of it.