Source: Endeavor Group Holdings purchases nine minor league baseball teams, among them the Atlanta Braves’ AAA, AA and High-A minor league affiliates in Georgia and Mississippi
Since few people other than me really gives two shits about Minor League Baseball, how it works is that scattered all across the country are minor league baseball teams, with wacky names, goofy promotions, and smaller ballparks, who affiliate themselves with the 30 Major League Baseball organizations, where the baseball players of tomorrow work on their game and hopefully grow into useful players for the parent Major League club.
However, in a number of exceptions, there are occasionally some minor league teams, that are outright owned by their parent clubs. The Yankees, Cubs, Cardinals, Giants are examples of teams that one one or more of their affiliates. The Braves, own four of their affiliates: Danville (rookie), Rome (High-A), Mississippi (AA) and Gwinnett (AAA). Presumably, ownership of affiliates grants higher control and micromanagement of these clubs, and probably among the highest of priority is geographical lockdown of clubs, so that they never have to play musical chairs with their minor league clubs for when affiliation contracts expire.
But over the last two years, and most definitely not at all helped by the pandemic, minor league baseball has been in somewhat trouble, as far as its future is concerned. Even before the pandemic, there was lots of discussion of cutting large swaths of teams from MLB affiliation, and even rejiggering the whole holistic organization of minor league systems. If I had to guess, money is at the root of all this, considering the mass whistleblowing that had been occurring about how minor league players and personnel make less money than your average McDonald’s worker, and how cogs in a machine that earns billions annually, can allow this to happen.
All the same though, it appears that the Braves and several other franchises have decided to cut their obligations, even at the potential expense of control, and sell off their minor league affiliates. Make no mistake, these are entirely financial moves, and if I had to guess, the teams who have sold franchises probably all feel that the future of minor league baseball is too murky and uncertain for them to want to risk carrying the financial obligations of having their own minor league organizations. By selling them off now, they are basically betting that these teams will more likely suffer mediocre earnings if not outright fail in business, than becoming the next Dayton Dragons and sell out every game for 18 straight years.
The perception is definitely cold and callous, and to a degree sad for baseball fans and purists alike. No matter what, money controls everything in baseball as it unfortunately influences most everything else in everyday ordinary life.
However, there is very bright and silver lining to this. I don’t know who Endeavor Group or their slave companies who will ultimately operate these teams are, but now that these minor league franchises are all cut free from their parent organizations, the world is now their oyster when it comes to promoting these squads.
Especially the Braves, whom up until just a few years ago, all of their minor league teams were called “The Danville/Rome/Mississippi/Gwinnett Braves.” And only in recent seasons, did the Gwinnett. Braves change their name to the Stripers (in an embarrassing farce of a naming contest), citing that being so close to the Atlanta Braves, there were people actually dumb enough to accidentally purchase the wrong tickets, to the amount to warrant changing their name to eliminate future confusion.
But now, Rome and Mississippi are free to change their identities completely, and I really hope they do just that. Frankly, Gwinnett can go ahead and change their name too, if Stripers hasn’t exactly captured the imagination of local fans. And if they play their cards right, now freed from the stuffy and suffocating rules and brand guidelines of the Braves Corporate Organization, hopefully these teams can really bring in some creative minds to wisely and entertainingly promote the ever living shit out of these clubs.
The Lehigh Iron Pigs are a great example of a branding monster, as they are constantly releasing new merch and doing fun, interactive promotions. Cross-promoting with other affiliates, like their legendary Bacon vs. Tacos promotion in conjunction with the Fresno Grizzlies on the opposite coast. The Rocket City Trash Pandas rebranded from being the Huntsville Stars, and moved a gargantuan amount of merchandise before even playing a single game. And just last year, the Montgomery Biscuits tapped into the local Korean demographic and launched the greatest temporary team in history, the Montgomery Kimchi.
These are all examples of things that would be absolutely unheard of being run, by a team that was owned by their parent clubs. For years, the minor league Braves have all been operated in this stuffy and boring manner that is basically the antithesis of the fun and cheese of minor league baseball. And with the Braves no longer control of their minor league clubs, these clubs are free to do whatever the fuck they want, and hopefully succeed way more than they did than when they were owned by the big boring Atlanta Braves Corporate.
Change the Rome Braves into the Floyd County Archers, and play off the fact that they exist in Floyd County, and not the studio that creates Archer. Have Mississippi hire Ahmed Johnson to be their on-screen owner and change the team to the Pearl River Plunges in honor of probably the only notable thing to come out of Jackson, Mississippi, or run with the obscure fact that they were referenced in Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk.
Much like the latest season of The Handmaid’s Tale, where we see what life is like for those maids and Marthas who have escaped Gilead up in Canada, we have nine minor league affiliates who now have freedom and the capability to do whatever they want, in front of them now, and hopefully they’ll do something great with their newfound freedom.
