Details of Braves’ sweetheart deal with Gwinnett released

Terms of the Braves’ sweetheart deal with Gwinnett County have been released. Gwinnett will pay $45 million for land and a stadium. $12 MM from tax payers, $33 MM from operating revenue Braves pay Gwinnett $250K per year, plus $1 per ticket. With average AAA attendance near half a million, that’s around $500K per year. This money will go […]

Terms of the Braves’ sweetheart deal with Gwinnett County have been released.

  • Gwinnett will pay $45 million for land and a stadium. $12 MM from tax payers, $33 MM from operating revenue
  • Braves pay Gwinnett $250K per year, plus $1 per ticket. With average AAA attendance near half a million, that’s around $500K per year. This money will go toward the $33 MM (along with all the other revenue it receives)
  • Naming rights to the stadium will be sold, and the Braves get $350K per year of those proceeds. Gwinnett keeps the rest
  • Gwinnett can host 10 non-Braves events in the stadium, things like concerts, and keep the proceeds
  • Braves pay for maintenance costs and will keep all revenue from concessions, advertising, and luxury boxes.
  • Parking revenue will be split 50/50

Basically, Gwinnett taxpayers pay $12 MM for 70 games per season for 30 seasons. That equates to the county paying $6,000 per game to provide entertainment for its residents (in addition to the cost of a resident actually buying a ticket).

In negotiations with Richmond, the Braves were planning to take on much more of the financial burden. The Braves expect to make a profit on their move to Gwinnett County.

In other news…

RTD reports that Richmond is barred from negotiating with other minor league teams until the R-Braves actually leave town. Looks like we might not know for months if there will be any baseball in Richmond in 2009.

There’s an online petition to save the R-Braves. Too little, too late.

  • error

    Report an error

West of the Boulevard News

This article has been closed to further comments.