braves and f1

Access to professional sport financial information is generally challenging since many organizations are privately owned. A few, however, are publicly owned or by a parent organization. Such is the case of the Atlanta Braves and Formula One, who are owned by Liberty Media Group. A such, their financial position can be generally obtained through the annual report.

In 2022, the Braves earned $588 million from all team generated revenues. This includes league and local derived revenue, along with real estate income. The operating expenses are substantial, as this includes the player salaries, leaving an EBITDA of $49 million. Once depreciation is entered, operating revenue is negative, as is net income, showing a loss of $35 million. The cash flow position when adding back depreciation, and making other adjustments, shows an increase in cash of $53 million. This can provide a general overview of the financial position of a baseball franchise.

During the 2022 year, Formula 1 generated $2.5 billion in total revenue, or over 4x the revenue generated by a single franchise. Their cost of operations were $1.75 billion with sales, general and administrative cost adding an additional $288 million in expenses. This leaves an EBITDA of $535 million, a net income of  $562 million with an overall cash flow increase of $534 million.

Annual reports are a great way to get a glimpse in the annual activities of an organization, and sport is no different. The reports lack some of the specific lines that would be of interest, but they do provide a general overview of the operating environment of sport organizations.