How MLB's Atlanta Braves Built A $1 Billion Real Estate Business
While most sports teams are still trying to figure out how to sell more tickets and sponsorships, the Atlanta Braves have built a billion-dollar real estate business (and it's only getting bigger).
The Atlanta Braves released their latest earnings report last week. As one of the only publicly traded sports franchises in the United States, the Braves’ finances offer a rare glimpse into how a modern sports team generates income and manages expenses.
Atlanta’s headline numbers are impressive: $312 million in quarterly revenue, up 10% from the same period in 2024. The team is generating more income from tickets, concessions, parking, and sponsorships, despite fewer fans attending games in 2025.
But buried beneath the headlines is Atlanta’s secret weapon: The Battery. The 75-acre mixed-use development surrounding Truist Park has become a cash cow for the MLB franchise. Nine million people visited The Battery in Atlanta last year, spending an average of nearly three hours on the property. Additionally, 21% of these visitors came from out of state, helping The Battery generate $67.3 million in revenue last year alone.
This is the blueprint for how every modern American sports franchise will make money in the future. Traditionally, sports teams are high-revenue, high-expense enterprises where success on the field often comes at the expense of slimmer profit margins. But by expanding into real estate, the Braves have created a unique flywheel with advantageous lease agreements, low costs, and high profit margins (e.g., 70%).
Even better, the Atlanta Braves get to keep all of this money to themselves because mixed-use developments are not subject to MLB’s revenue-sharing protocols.
So today, we’re going to do something special. Most of the articles you’ll find online about the Braves only include a surface-level breakdown, but I want to go deeper.
Today’s newsletter will explain precisely how sports teams like the Braves make money. We’ll use data to dig into the team’s most important details — payroll, ticket sales, sponsorships, merchandise, and concessions. But then I want to focus on The Battery specifically, including how the Braves structured their lease agreements to guarantee revenue increases, why they keep buying up additional property, and more.
This is something every sports fan around the world should care about because if your favorite team isn’t already building out a mixed-use development, it will be soon.