#25 - Mike Plant - President & CEO of the Braves Development Company

Mike Plant has spent his career at the intersection of sports, business, and development. From competing as an Olympic speed skater to helping bring the 1996 Olympic Games to Atlanta, Plant eventually joined the Atlanta Braves and played a pivotal role in the team’s move to Cobb County and the creation of Truist Park and The Battery Atlanta.

In this episode we cover:

• Competing in the Olympics and building a career in the Olympic movement

• Moving to Atlanta to work for Ted Turner and eventually joining the Atlanta Braves

• Building Truist Park and The Battery Atlanta in just 30 months

• Creating a mixed-use model that has attracted sports organizations from around the world

Sunbelt Developers is in partnership with Northspyre.

Northspyre's platform is built to modernize the development process, replacing outdated spreadsheets and error-prone processes with automation, analytics, and AI.

Check them out at northspyre.com

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If you have any commercial real estate needs, please reach out.

Tim Wright

770-990-6180

tim.j.wright@cushwake.com  

More info: https://linktr.ee/timwright.cre

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

If you've developed anything, you know this one. The forecast and budget lives in one spreadsheet, the draw package lives in another, and somebody on your team spends the last week of every month stitching them together into a report that's already stale by the time it goes out. Northspire was built by a real estate developer to end that. One platform for budgets, forecasting, draws, scheduling, and vendors across every project you've got. Northspire has facilitated more than $500 billion of projects. Please visit Northspire.com. Again, that's Norspire.com. Now back to the show. Hey guys, welcome back to the Sunbelt Developers Podcast. My name's Tim Wright. I'm a broker at Cushman in Wakefield. Today we have Mike Plant, who is the CEO of the Braves Development Company. Mike is an incredible guy that has pulled together an incredible plan amongst with a team and all up in the Cobb Galleria area of Atlanta. They were uh responsible for pulling the Braves into what is now just really the um I say epicenter and kind of the the gold standard for sports and entertainment arenas. And um he has an unbelievable career of uh doing some Olympic skating, speed skating. And um I'm just really excited about this conversation. Mike, we've uh I know we've had to figure this out logistically, and um I mean, frankly, you've been on my list probably since day one since I started this project of wanting to have come on and hear your story. So I'm I'm really excited about this project and um excited to about this conversation too. Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:37

Good morning, Tim. Uh I apologize that I have to do this from my car. I was saying earlier it's a special day for us with Andrew Jones, our our great legendary center fielder. Next weekend we'll go into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. So today, Delta is dedicating gate A25 for Andrew Jones for the rest of time. That was a number he played with as an Atlanta Braves. So um I'm multitasking today with talking to you and trying to make my way to the airport at the same time. Sorry about that.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

No, that's right. That's that's exciting, and um we appreciate you making making a minute and um I'll have to go check it out. Are they putting up any like plaque or anything that's gonna be?

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Oh yeah. No, absolutely. It's a pretty pretty cool. That's what the unveiling is with Ed Bastion, the the CEO of Delta and all the pomp and circumstance. So it'll be a it'll be a fun, uh, fun morning doing that.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Cool. Cool, man. Well, if we could kind of go back in time, I would love to hear kind of your background. How do you get how'd you get into speed skating? Like where'd you grow up, like all all the things. I I heard you didn't really take the typical path into your career. Maybe you you didn't take the typical college route, and now that all kind of inspired. But yeah, I'd love to hear hear all the.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

Sure. Look, I I grew up in uh Milwaukee, West Allis, Wisconsin. And at that point where I was growing up, I was typical boy, played basketball, football, baseball, uh, was actually really good at it with three other friends that I grew up with. I mean, I tell people I I never lost a game until I was 12 years old, and we won everything. And it was just I had no idea what losing was because we won everything. Um and then all of a sudden my older brother got into speed skating because where where I grew up in West Dallas, that suburb of Milwaukee, that was the only 400-meter refrigerated speed skating track in America. And um the president of the U.S. Olympic Committee, Phil Crumb, lived in a suburb of Milwaukee and he decided, hey, I'm gonna build a 400-meter speed skating track. So my brother uh gets uh enticed into giving it a try and uh, you know, liked it. And the next year he said you should do this. I'm now 12, really kind of late for speed skating. But um I, you know, I trained and practiced in that for about two, three months, and you know, thought it was I was pretty good at it. And and then my first weekend, five races straight over two days, I was DFL in every single race, dead, dead freaking last. So um I was like, well, that's enough of that. Um and my dad said, So that's it. I was like, yeah, that's it. I'm not gonna do that. I'm gonna go back to doing what was good, winning everything, you know. And he said, Oh, okay. I thought you had a little bit more Indian than that. And that was like a dagger in my heart, you know. And um, and so four years later, I made my first junior world team. I made uh six world teams after that, was on the 1980 Olympic team with my good friend Eric Haydn and my brother also, and Eric obviously won all five gold medals, uh, set um, you know, Olympic history will never be done again in our sport. Although we have a great young phenom now out of Wisconsin who just won two gold and a silver medal in Milan. But it started me on a path of um very quickly I got thrown into the business political side of Olympic sport. We went to the 80 Olympic Games Lake Placid. You might remember the boycott of 1980 for the Summer Games in Moscow. Our team did not go. I was asked to represent speed skating in meetings at the White House to try to convince President Carter that it was a bad decision. So I went back and forth uh with a group of about 35 other athletes to the White House several times in March and April. We were obviously unsuccessful. Uh next thing you know, people said, Hey, you you know, you seem to have a pretty good grasp for this and you're passionate about it. I um I started a career for 40 years and leading various things in the Olympic movement. I was eventually became the chairman of the athletes group for the U.S. Olympic Committee on the executive committee for decades. The board chaired all sorts of different committees, and then that migrated into an international role. Um I also raced as a pro in cycling for a couple years. Eric Haydn did the same after our speed skating years. 30 years in the International Uh Federation of Cycling, their executive committee. I was a president of USA Cycling, president of USA Speed Skating, helped Atlanta get the games on their board, saw Lake get the games on their board. Um and, you know, none of those paid me. Uh, but they were an entree into meeting and and connecting and creating relationships with pretty influential, affluent, uh, successful people. And um I was just kind of a sieve for learning. And so, as you said, my path was not traditional. I college was going to be a piece of paper for me, and it was gonna be very difficult because I started living in Europe when I was 16 years old, um, about five to six months a year, because speed skating, that's where it was. And um so I my path was you know becoming street smart, connecting with people, learning from people, creating relationships with people, establishing my own standard of excellence and learning how to be accountable, responsible, um, and uh and and collaborating with people at an early age. And college would have been a piece of paper for me, you know. Um so, anyways, that that at the same time that led to me um taking on the role of uh the associate executive director of USA Cycling in 1988. We decide my good friend Greg Lamont wins the Tour de France in 86. Um, we're like, hey, we can put a Tour de France on in America. Where should we do it? Do it in the mid-Atlantic, the East Coast. That's where there in a lot in the population of people are, plus, we have some mountains there, so we had a good competitive environment. And um, long story short, I fire form a partnership with a guy named Donald Trump and NBC Sports to put on the first tour to Trump in 1989. Um and so uh that that lasted for two years. Then I sold that uh to DuPont because they became a big sponsor of ours. But my company essentially owned the owned the event. And then in 1995, I sold my company to Turner Broadcasting and uh moved down to Atlanta to work for Ted Turner directly and and uh my good friend Harvey Schiller. I blew up Ted Turner's Goodwill Games, um, and he fortunately was gave me a lot of discretion to completely change direction of the event. Um we put on a number of the Goodwill Games events, did the first winter games in Lake Placid in 2001, and had those things all set up and ready to roll, had five different cities for the next 10 years all pretty much established to keep rolling out in the summer and winter games, but then AOL came in and kind of blew up Turner Broadcasting and Time Warner, and and so um 2003 I was asked by the new chairman of Turner Broadcasting, Phil Kent, would I be interested in help going and running the business for the Atlanta Braves? And uh thought about it for a while. At that time, I was overseeing a lot of television for Turner Sports, over a thousand hours of all the different television properties that we produced and and owned rights to. And so I gave it some thought and said, sure. So here I am 23 seasons later, you know, as the president and CEO of the Atlanta Braves, the development cut side. Derek Schiller and I are the two guys that run the enterprise for Terry McGurk, the chairman. So that's been kind of my dual path in the Olympic world, um, at the same time establishing um uh a business career in that and and running various businesses.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

That's unreal. It's been a good ride. It's been a good ride. I'm drawing out a timeline here, like Olympics, cycling, tour to Trump. I actually didn't know about the Tour de Trump. I I um I was born in '96, so a lot of this stuff was a little before me. I I want to ask So 19, how old were you in the 80s Olympics? Hey, real quick, if you have a growing company with constantly changing real estate needs, please give me a call. My team and I work with groups across the country on finding new office spaces and warehouse space. I put my personal contact info in the show notes below and we'd be happy to chat. Now back to the show. So I was uh 21. 21. Yeah. Okay. And so there was like six, seven years between so you were like helping out with all these committees and kind of campaigning for Olympics.

SPEAKER_02 10:18

Well, yeah, I mean, I I got, like I said, by by nine, so by nineteen eighty-eight, I became the chairman of the athletes group, which put me on the executive committee. And um, and so during eighty to eighty eight, I was again just moving up the ladder in the Olympic movement. You know, there's look, there were some times I was gone 40 weekends a year just traveling because I had very all these different roles. And as I said, I'm not getting paid to do any of that. My paid position was I was uh paying paid bills during all of that. Well, I became I I I I became the executive director of Canoe Kayak for 18 months, and then my good friend Jerry Lace came to me and said, Hey, you know cycling. I need a number two in a lieutenant for USA cycling. So I was getting paid at the same time, but you know, think about it. I wasn't selling insurance and then doing Olympic stuff on the side. They were they were intertwined. Yeah. And yeah, and so I was one of the few that had touch points across both sides of the spectrum in that. So my car shut off on me, so I need some air conditioning here. So yeah, so it was yeah, it was it was a unique position to be in. Very unique position to be in.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

Has anybody else done this kind of run? Like do you have any peers that you're gonna do?

SPEAKER_02 11:31

You know, as like you know, it's funny I tell people uh, and I because I think back about that, and I I feel pretty comfortable saying no, because you know, my my unique perspective, and again, it helps me when you go back to, yeah, I don't have a piece of paper. But I made sure all three of my kids I paid for them to have a piece of paper. But I also said, your part of your learning is what you're gonna learn from me, same thing I learned from my parents, the foundation of how you grow up. I mean, I learned about respect early, I learned about ethics and integrity early. I learned about how to be responsible and accountable. You you don't you don't get taught those things in college, you know? And those are the found and then I learned about a work ethic from my dad. And so I always say, you know, I can't teach you what your standard of excellence is. I know what mine is, and I'm gonna put it forth every single day in what I do. And I don't care if it's 10 years old and you're told to sweep the kitchen floor. You you have to understand what is your standard of excellence, and you don't want to ask me, is this good enough? Um because you don't want to ask your boss that, because that's not a not a good question to be asking your boss, you know, because you should bring your A game every single day in what you do. And so, yeah, when I look at my career, I was an elite-level athlete, then I I touched the political governance side of Olympic sport. Um, I did it domestically and internationally. I helped Olympic, you know, organizing committees and and that uh achieve the Olympic Games, you know, um go after being awarded them and then being part of the governance side of that. And I work in this business every single day. I mean, I had Milan was my 23rd Olympic Games, and um and so I've had various roles that I understand it at all different levels. So when you want to talk about athletics, I can understand what it's like to be an athlete, but you want to talk about the governance side. I've been the president of two national governing bodies um in Olympic sport, and and so it gives you a very unique perspective, and I don't sell life insurance every day, I do this every day. So um, as I said, it's been it's been a great career. I've got this gray hair, I'm on the downside now. I gotta try my whole thing as I always say, I I need to stop trying to wear a watch. I I want time to be irrelevant to me. So you should switch to the whoop.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

You can get you can get some health data and I've got the aura.

SPEAKER_02 13:55

I've got the aura. There you go. You're already tracked. I I bet I've I've I fortunately I've I invested in Aura before anyone knew about it. So it's been a good run.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

Cool. Cool. Yeah, I I know Google's about to launch one, and dude, I Aura and Woop have just been running away with it. It got some they're great. They're great.

SPEAKER_02 14:13

I dude Sometimes I don't like hey, I don't know about you, Tim, but sometimes I don't like what it says in the morning.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

No, no, no, no, no. Yeah. My wife makes it fun of me. She's like, all right, what's your magic conch telling you? Like, what's what's we're gonna do like? But there's I mean, there's there's days where it's like, okay, I can definitely push through, but I mean, as as an athlete, like I've done two Half Iron Man, did a marathon. We ended up we had a kid, and I was like, I can't go run out for six hours on a Saturday and leave my wife with a you know a ton of so I'm kind of in the in the down part of of training, but but before that, I mean I I I just remember pushing myself so far and I would get sick all the time just because I'd I'd I pushed too far. So the Whoop helped me figure out sleep and and strain and um I know Aura does all that stuff, but it it's it's helped me a lot. Sure. Yeah, that's great. They're good tools. Yeah, we can go in a bunch of different directions here. Like I I'd love to get your take on like what what does it take to represent these these athletes, the like the committees you're on. Like, I mean, you're you're advocating for uh let's just take the the Carter meeting that you had. So you you went to him and said, Hey, look, we we have all these incredible athletes that have been training around the clock. We need to represent America. Like I'd love to just get some silhouette or a glimpse into what that um that campaign was like.

SPEAKER_02 15:34

Yeah, you know, it's it's funny because he's he was a Braves fan. And and as I take took this role on, at least once a year he'd come and sit with us in our bunker seats next to the dugout. And I'd have to remind my wife, so between my wife and I, we have five Olympic medals. And um, and what I always make sure I tell people is so I between my wife and I, we have five Olympic medals. She has five and I have zero. So uh but together we have five. So my wife was uh one of the greatest swimmers in in kind of the swimming history. She was Madame Butterfly, Mary T. Maher. She was um she set her first world records when she was 14 years old, and then set you know numerous world records all the way up till she was 18, and two of those lasted for 21 years in uh the 100 and 200 butterfly. So she was 15 when she made the 80 Olympic team in Moscow. Of course, they didn't go. So as you know, she and I are married 32, 33 years now. Carter would come to our games, and I would always say, Hey, hey, off limits, we're not talking about that. And once she was with me in New York in '98 before the Goodwill Games, and and Mary and I and President Carter and Rosalind had breakfast together, the four of us. And there was, you know, Jimmy Carter, he he, President Carter, he he opened up saying, Oh, so what Olympic teams were you guys on? You know, and Mary was like, Well, I was on 80, 84, and 88, and you know, I put my hand on her knee under the table, just squeezed her knee a little bit, saying, like, let's ease off this a little bit here. Well, look, the truth of the matter is he told us that that was the worst decision he had ever made. Because, you know, we were, we, and fortunately, like I said, I went to Lake Placid. They didn't get to go to Moscow. Fortunately, she won all of her medals in 84 and 88. So she she had other experiences, but she had teammates that never made another Olympic team. And so we when athletes are used as pawns or people are used as pawns in life, that's just not a good thing, you know. Um and the difference, I guess, in just a I shouldn't say I don't want to say this disparagingly, but the difference using a person as a pawn, no, use them as a pawn at war, terrible, tragic. But if if you were the way an athlete was affected is you trained a pretty good part of your life, you dedicated it for that one moment in time, and that got taken away from you because of a political decision. Um, and then the political decision, as we were in my in the White House and uh Brzezinski's Secretary of State, he's got his there was no laser pointer, there was the stick, the wood stick, like you know, the nuns in grade school, and he's pointing the tanks coming in from Russia, and they're going into Afghanistan, and blah, blah, blah. And we're like, but what does this have to do with us? We're a bunch of dumb jocks here, man. This has nothing to do with us. And at the end of the day, it had zero impact. Remember, they they the Russians were there for another 15-20 years. Um so, anyways, we when you use as a pawn, it's uh it's a little frustrating. We were powerless, tried everything we could. Like the Vietnam War, people turned on athletes saying, you know, you're greedy, you guys are, you know, you're you're you're not Americans, and it was like, wait a second. Um fortunately, social media didn't exist then, so so it wasn't as bad as it would be today. But anyways, that's that was the downside.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

Sumbbell developers is brought to you by Northspire. Here's what Northspire does. On a development project, things become true long before they become visible. A vendor mentions a delay in a meeting, a cost assumption quietly breaks. Weeks later, it finally lands in the forecast. And by then, the cheap fix is gone. Northspire was founded by a real estate developer to close that gap. Budgets, forecasting, draw management, scheduling, vendor and bid management portfolio analytics, one platform, and it's all connected. Teams cut manual work by up to 80%, and leadership sees the whole portfolio and real estate instead of waiting on month end reports. Northspire has facilitated more than $500 billion of projects, and every customer works with a real estate transformation consultant. That's an actual industry person and not a support queue. If you're interested, visit Northspire.com. Again, that's Northspire.com. Now back to the show. Okay, okay. And well I know we have you for maybe right at an hour. I I'd love to switch gears and and hear the story of how true as Park, Centrus Park, the battery came to be. And um I I I've heard that you you spoke at at lunches and usually the raving reviews are are coming out of those lunches saying it's just an amazing story. And um I I've never heard it. So I I would love like I I know bits and peace. I if you could so I guess where we left your timeline, you're it was like 2003, you joined the Braves. Maybe we start there and how you Yeah, well, that's where that's really that's where it starts, Tim.

SPEAKER_02 20:48

It's uh I realized in six months, and again, I had history with Turner Field because on the board with Billy and and others for the Olympic Games, how how the Olympic Stadium was built. Great, great idea to go go uh form a partnership with the Atlanta Braves so that you don't leave this 80,000 seat Olympic Stadium there, um, as they call white elephants, you know, like many other Olympic cities. So it was all part of a transition, make it the Atlanta Braves Stadium after the games are over. That was fantastic. We had a 20-year history there, lots of memories, lots of great achievements there. Um but as I get there in 2003, I realized very quickly we are one mile plus separated from downtown. We're not connected to downtown, and there's no reason to go there other than watching games. And it was not a great experience getting in. Ingress, egress was terrible for 50,000 people with two access points. We have 46 acres of asphalt parking lots. The neighborhoods around us had some challenges, created challenges for us, obviously, and our our fans when they were coming and going, and and so not a great overall experience until you got inside. And so very quickly I said, Look, we have got to figure out a way to create a lifestyle center here. And within six months, man, I had a two thousand square foot, billion and a half dollar plan that I put together and went to the Atlanta Fulton County Rec Authority. They were the landlord. We were the exclusive tenant. Neither party could do anything inside or outside the facility without the other's approval. All my two-page MOU said was, I want to give give us the ability to explore uh creating a mixed use development. And oh, by the way, we'll pay for it all. You have no money and you have no statue of governance to do any of that, and you have no expertise. You're a seven-person volunteer board made up of city and Fulton County representatives. Eight years couldn't get a two-page MOU signed because they could never understand the fact that I said very distinctly and consistently, whatever is built outside our front door, we will control. Because we're the ones that would be adversely impacted financially and operationally if it wasn't done right. And but we're going to pay for it, you know. Um couldn't never get that signed. And then 2011 went to Mayor Reid, Peter Amund was his chief of staff, had a good conversation, said here's four options that have to happen that could happen. Number one, we want to happen. Let us build a mixed-use development lifestyle center. And by the way, in 2016, our lease is up. And and when our lease comes up, this place is going to need about $150 million of renovations. If you want us to renew our lease and stay here, you have got to put some money up. It costs $15 to $20 million to replace 50,000 chairs. They're way past their lifespan than when they were put in for the Olympic Games. Those lights are going to cost seven to eight million to replace. I mean, this is your house. Your house doesn't exist without putting a new roof on it every once in a while, a new HVAC system, a new water heater. It gets magnified when you look at a facility like ours. I thought we were going down the right path because number four was we're going to leave. And we were like, no, no, we're not going to leave. Um, because we really didn't have any options to leave. And the bottom line is we've spent two years until 2013, and I felt like we were in a time warp. We just never made any progress. Granted, uh, at the same time, they're negotiating with the Falcons and Arthur to build a new football stadium. And, you know, look, I'm not naive. We're not naive. We're in football country down here. And Braves are a big, huge brand. Braves are a national team because of Ted putting them on the satellite, obviously, many years ago. So us and the Cubs get a lot of play, a lot of attention in states that don't have a team. But um the focus was on that that football stadium. And when you look at economic impact, you know, no disrespect, Rich and Arthur are our friends. It's just a numbers game. We play 81 games and we bring three million people here, and 20% of them come from outside the state of uh or outside the city of Atlanta, and they come from outside the state of Georgia. It's it's numbers. We are a massive economic impact, way beyond um what the Falcons can generate. But all the all the attention was there, and so finally we got our backs against the wall. July 3rd, 2013, I went and had a great three-hour lunch with Tim Lee, the chairman of Cobb County. I'd never met the man. We met at the Marietta Country Club, and three hours later I walked out of there saying, I think this guy gets it, and I think we can do a deal. And lo and behold, that's when it all started.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

Most development teams don't have a data problem. They have a timing problem. Something goes sideways on a project, and by the time it reaches the forecast, your only options left are a change order or a contingency draw. Northspire is the development intelligence platform that closes that gap. Budgets, forecasts, draws, and vendor data connected in one place. So your team sees the exposure while there's still room to act. Built by a developer for developers, Northspire.com. Again, that's Northspire.com. Now back to the show. How did that once come about? Like, did he reach out to you and said, hey, I think I got some ideas for you?

SPEAKER_02 26:21

No, so in June of that year, I remember coming home one night and told my wife, I'm down by six touchdowns at the half here. I need to figure something out. I knew we were not going anywhere. I took a delegation of Georgia House and Senate leaders to our Braves games in Colorado to see what the Lodo district in Colorado is like, where it's got unbelievable energy around course field. Now the team didn't own any of it, but it all morphed and was built after they built Course Field, showing, hey, this is how you can create a lifestyle mixed-use development center that lives way beyond games, you know? And um, they all got it. Um and I took a couple city representatives with me, who I was dealing with, I won't mention names. But when I got back, I remember saying, all right, what are we gonna do here, man? We we got to go. I'm I'm I'm tired of being patient. I know what's happening here. All I know where all your attention is. We got to go. And basically they said, Where are you gonna go, Mike? I said, you know, look, this is where we want to stay, obviously. Um, but you need to put up $150 million. And they said, Well, Mike, we don't have any money. I said, Well, in our current contract, you're in for at least $50 million. Mike, we don't have any money. And it was kind of like they threw the gauntlet down, and I and it was like, where are you gonna go? Because they thought they had us boxed in. And truth of the matter is, so did I. Because we had just moved the Richmond team and built a brand new AAA facility in Gwinnett. So we're not going to Gwynette. I looked at the CAB, and believe me, I looked at that GM site. But I mean, to create a public-private partnership at that point with the Cab County was going to be a little challenging. They just were not, the people, I don't think, the personnel uh were not aligned with creating public-private partnerships, um, nor the financial resources do that. And so Cobb was left, and so I didn't know Tim. Uh, I knew someone that did. I said, Can you arrange a lunch for me or a time to meet him? And they they did, and July 30 was it, Marietta Country Club. And uh from that point forward, Tim and I became the best of trusting friends, and that's that's what helped make this work. I trusted him, he trusted me. I told him three times at that lunch, I'm not doing referendums, Tim. Those are code for kill in this business. We can't get past the noise that's generated by the guys that buy Ink by the Barrel. Because all the narrative is going to be is that this rich professional sports team is going to fleece the taxpayers. Don't do it. There's a narrative out there still today from a professor up at KSU that thinks he knows our business more than we do. I don't make the numbers up. The report that we just put on the table last month of $42 million in cash just from our 60 acres to Cobb, Cobb schools in the state of Georgia, it's down to the penny. I don't make the numbers up. You know, so that piece of property was doing $360,000 a year in property tax. That was it before we bought it. So um, so, anyways, that's Tim got it. And fortunately, timing was great because he was looking for the next big thing for Cobb because the last big thing happened to be Dobbins Air Force Base 50 years earlier. He needed a catalyst, he needed a stimulus. What are we doing? The galleria office complex was built 30 years before that, or 25 years before that. And so timing was perfect. But when I told him three times no referendum, he said, I don't need it. I need four or three votes, I think I can get four. Um and he was never going to do this deal if it was a standalone facility, baseball stadium, basketball stadium, hockey arena. It was all about understanding the mixed-use development because that's where all the money is. So that's that's where in two weeks Tim and I had the framework of a deal done. Um and granted, I told my family, I'm gonna take some personal shots, our organization's gonna take some shots. People never could understand um why we did it the way we did, but we're not like when we acquire a player, we're not negotiating the public. You know, we're not we're not negotiating. This is this is we're a business, and I know people are attached to our business emotionally, and we love that with our fan um fan affiliation and attachment, but we can't negotiate a long-term business deal in the newspapers. And so that's why we did it the way we did.

SPEAKER_00 30:55

So tell me about the site. Like I I'd heard the two-week. I I guess in my mind, I'd maybe it was down the you know, the telephone game. Like I thought the two-week timeline was y'all acquiring the property, but that was that was the the contract and agreement between Braves and Cobb.

SPEAKER_02 31:12

Well, and that was like you said, a framework of a deal in in about two weeks, and then really two weeks or so after that, um during actually during that first two weeks, we had identified five sites in Cobb. Cumberland Mall, Acres Mill Mall being some of them saying, okay, what would that cost for us to go buy those places? Obviously, they were gonna be expensive. And and this site, and and like, you know, lo and behold, you're like, why is this main 60 acres 80? We bought 82 acres total. Why is that sitting there at 285 and 75? Well, there are three gas pipelines going right through the middle of it. So, Tim, you know, once we find it out, we're like, oh damn. You know, no wonder it's sitting there, you know? And so it's like, how can we do like it had some had some hair on it? Oh yeah. Look, it became a waste dump for when they built 285 and 75. I mean, we found car parts, houses, fences, uh, I mean, a buried 80, 90 feet below the surface when we were dirt drilling caissons for the the ballpark. So, yeah, it was it was a little bit of a waste dump. But the real inhibitor was the three gas pipelines that no one ever thought you could do anything on that property because they ran right through the middle of it. So once that was disclosed to us in the first two weeks, it was like they tried to figure out every way with, you know, I'd already started a team of people. We were doing bore samples in the middle of the night. I didn't want anyone know, anyone to know what potentially could happen there. You know, the broker that had the land never knew until the day you knew when we announced um that what we were doing there. Um we kept it that tight. I mean, we went uh went and negotiated the deal with with Mr. Saul, the 82-year-old man in Baltimore, uh, when we bought the property. But before we we you know we pulled the trigger, I went and had a meeting with the CEO of Colonial Pipeline. And it was one of those great, those great times of your life where you walk out of there going, Did that just happen? I know, we didn't have any renderings or anything. I mean, I had a crayon book saying, hey, you know, this is kind of what we're thinking about doing. He was like, You're gonna build a minor league stadium there? And I was like, No, we're gonna move our major league team there. And he was just about fell off his chair, and then he said, Guess my pipelines go right through the middle of that property, huh? And I said, Yes, sir, they do. Guess you'd like me to move them, huh? And I said, Well, that'd be really great if you could. And he said, Yeah, we can do that. You just need to pay for it. No one ever asked the question. No one had ever asked a question. Now, it was $14.5 million to move them around the perimeter, but it opened up that main 60-acre site.

SPEAKER_01 33:56

And, you know, Viola, there we go. Yeah, I'd probably be sitting in my car after that meeting, like, what just happened? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:05

We're good. It was like it was 10 minutes. I took my GC, uh Greg Greg Heller. Yeah, it was 10 minutes. I took uh Greg Heller was with me, our GC, and he and I walked outside his office. We were high-fiving each other, saying, holy cow. That was like that was awesome. Now we didn't know it was gonna be 14 and a half dollars, but that was that was nothing compared to obviously what it opened on the main site.

SPEAKER_00 34:26

Yeah. Incredible. Okay, so from there you're blowing and going, you build this incredible stadium, and you know, Comcast joins, you get office tenants, you get TKE elevators. Was that a part of the original? Like that.

SPEAKER_02 34:41

No, that was I call phase two, phase three. Yeah. But you know, look, I I'd I'd say before we get to that point, you know, we had an idea, we had a vision, um, and now it's become this model that I I'm I'm not exaggerating. It's 300 plus teams from all over the globe, and they just keep coming. It's almost every week. Um, even during the World Cup, we've had four different countries, all the representatives fly here if they weren't playing here. And, you know, it's a it's a time suck for us, but we try to be professional and accommodating. Um, but also look, we have a PhD in how to do this now. And um, there's a lot of agencies out there I see trying to get in this space, and I'm kind of scratching my head going, I'm not sure how much experience you have in this. This is a very unique experience. This is this is not just being a developer. A developer, and I always say to all my development friends, no disrespect, because they're saying, Well, Mike, you guys are sort of developers, and in the real estate business. I'm like, no, we're really in the World Series winning business. Everything we do is to support trying to win another World Series. And and we're not going anywhere. We're not building things and then leaving and selling them, flipping them, moving on, which again, no disrespect. That's a really great business from a development side. We're in it for the long haul. We build it all, we own it all, we manage it, we control it, we operate it, we activate it because that's how we bring 9 million people there a year, and that's how that thing um is continuing to hum. And, you know, our relationship with tenants is very different. It's not just landlord tenant. We have a vested interest in them being successful. Um, so so it's just a different dynamic there, and that's obviously a uniqueness to understand and how to build that. But that vision was how do we create a lifestyle center as I go back Turner Field? 81 days a year, we know what we're doing. What do we do in these other 265 days a year to drive people here and create that lifestyle center? And what do you need? You got to have an office environment because that brings people. You want multifamily, you know, um, and and people living there, living on site. And then what's the draw to get them there throughout the year? And part of that vision was look, no disrespect to Applebee's and McDonald's, great, great QSRs and restaurants that do well, obviously. We've got to create an authentic lineup of entertainment and restaurant opportunities here. Um, and you know what, Tim, we were fortunate, as I tell every team, you can't cut this main 60-acre site out and plop it somewhere else in Des Moines, Iowa, and say, oh, it'll work just like the battery. No, we solved for something that Northwest outside the perimeter of Atlanta didn't have. They all had to go to Buckhead. And we cut that off in between where we created that opportunity. But that's that's that was all part of the vision, obviously, and took a lot of planning and a lot of and we a lot of pivoting. I'm not gonna lie to you, but you can pivot when you own everything and control everything.

SPEAKER_00 37:44

So I I guess on that topic of pivoting, what from the original vision to what it is now, was there anything that you were maybe very emotionally attached to in your original vision that you had to maybe not do?

SPEAKER_02 37:56

Or like I'm curious about it for uh Yeah, I I wouldn't say emotionally attached to, but let's look at one of the pivots that we had. One of the pivots right out of the box was all the research said to us, uh I might have the number wrong, but 50% soft boutique retail, 50% you know, restaurants. Don't get too overburdened with restaurants. And then all of a sudden we're like six, eight months in and you know, we're we're blowing and going and we're moving dirt and starting to build infrastructure. Um I was like, man, every day I go home, my wife's got that brown box on the front door. And I don't think people shopping. I mean, you're laughing because your wife does too, right? Yeah, that's yeah. Yeah, I don't think people are shopping the same way they are, because it was originally like, oh, the women are gonna come here and shop during the day and then they'll stop and have lunch. And it's gonna be great. We're talking of Lululemon and anthropology and all this. And of course, at that point, they're they all want us to buy the business. They all want us to put up a ton of TI. And I'm like, that's not a good idea. They have no no you know, no sweat or money into the game here. So their their motivations, you know, if it doesn't work, they're gonna hand us the keys. So we pivoted quick from that and made a uh a conscience decision to say, you know what, we're gonna be more restaurant-centric, more entertainment-centric, and um, and get away from the soft goods boutique retail. Um that that 92,000 square foot office that that uh was spaces and now Shake Shack moved their southeastern headquarters in. That was a parking lot. And all of a sudden, you know, we were gonna build our first main office, and we uh also leased the whole thing to Comcast. So, like, man, I mean, even that. We had an office developer partner. I went and had drinks with them one night, and we hadn't signed any documents and that. And I just said, hey guys, we want to let you know you're out. And they said, What do you mean we're out? We're not even in yet. I said, Yeah, no, I don't, uh we don't we don't need you. We did a lease deal on our own, you know. And so that's the other thing I learned very quickly in this business that we we started to understand because of the uniqueness of what we built, people wanted to deal with us. And I mean, Derek and I basically negotiated almost every one of those leases. We were at the table, we were either at the table or we created them. Because the one of the biggest things was parking. Parking was such uh an intense part of every discussion because if you're a tenant there, you're wondering when we're playing games, how are people still coming into my establishment if they don't have it they have an interest in going inside? And where are they going to park? You know, so I can't tell you how much I despised parking discussions, but they were number one on everyone's list. And because we control it all, we also have 7,000 parking spaces, so we have plenty of parking, but it was a lot of interesting dynamic and discussion. But when you control it all, you're you and you can be at the table. But you know, no disrespect to you guys in the broker community, you can't have that same conversation. And that trust level probably is a little different by Tim telling a tenant, yeah, yeah, don't worry, this is what's gonna happen, and versus me telling them because I'm not going anywhere. You know, if it doesn't work, you're coming right back to me. So so that's why we had to be so engaged in every discussion. Um, but it look, it's worked, and I'd I always say to people, I'd be lying to you if I told you this is exactly what we thought was gonna happen. It's way surpassed our expectations and I think a lot of people's expectations.

SPEAKER_00 41:34

Well can I ask about Pennant Park? What what was the thought there? How did that deal come together? And um I think you've said y'all don't have any public plans of it yet. If if there's anything you can share about about maybe the future there, we'll love to hear.

SPEAKER_02 41:54

Well, you know, look, as I said just a little earlier, we're not really in the real estate business, which you know people find laughable since we have three million square feet of it now.

SPEAKER_01 42:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:04

Yeah, yeah, I know. Um our our main focus is on winning World Series championships. That is our that is what we all focus on, obviously. We do this, we think, very well at the same time to complement that, you know. Um, but none of us lose sight of what our main mission is every year. But Pennant Park was a strategic opportunity for us. We were parking 1,500 to 2,000 cars a game over there. Um, you know, it's it's a stone's uh throw from the ballpark, obviously, in the battery. And um the financial deal that we were able to struck strike um made a lot of strategic sense for us. So that's why when I get a call tomorrow from someone that's got a piece of property a mile and a half away, that doesn't make strategic sense for us, you know. Um so and look, it's 763,000 square feet. Um no one it hadn't had a lot of attention to it uh because the previous owner, I think, had had thoughts for a couple years that they were gonna sell it and flip it, and and so we were able to very quickly establish a really good solid working relationship with all the tenants. We've spent about five, six million dollars, and we've got more to come on some improvements over there, things that needed some attention, but other other enhancements and amenities. They understand now the value being party part of our team. They've seen some value added of being in in uh in the Braves lineup and stuff. So it's it's working really well for us, and I think it's working well for the tenants. We're starting to renew some leases over there and bringing some new tenants on board. Um, so it was totally just a strategic play for us. And you mentioned TK E before. I mean, uh once again, control it, own it, set your own destiny. When that first was brought to me, they wanted to build an elevator test tower on and on that that site, and I was like, Well, how many employees are they gonna bring? They said, Oh, Be like 40 or 50. I said, no, no, we're going to build an office there. It's a great office site. And I said, so I'm not interested. They came back to me a couple months later and they were like, well, what if we brought like 100, 150 employees? Like, no, no, we're going to build a big office there. And so that's I'm not interested in that. Eventually that led to, well, what if we created a North American headquarters and you know, we'd move, we'd take 150,000 square feet, we'd bring, you know, all everyone from North America. I was like, all right, well, now we have something to talk about. And that's how that kind of evolved, obviously. Um, and so, you know, stay true to what your objectives are and your your mission is. And um, we know we have a unique offering through securities, obviously, a thousand people working on new headquarters. People want to be close to these lifestyle centers. They want to be close to uh activity centers in that. And that's why I mean we activate almost 400 events a year on site. We're constantly driving people there. Last year, a little over 9 million. This year we're tracking a little bit ahead of that again. So that's all part of how we think we do things a little bit differently to create a uniqueness, authentic opportunities that are constantly driving people to a very safe environment, um, something that is clean, something that's easy to get in and out of. And um that's kind of the magic uh recipe that we think work.

SPEAKER_00 45:24

Okay, so we we talked a little bit before we we started recording. Uh there's a lot of talk about a hockey team coming to the greater Atlanta area, either that's North Point Mall or Furside County. Um I'd love to just get your perspective on I don't know what what that would take or what your thoughts are.

SPEAKER_02 45:45

Yeah, I mean, I'm I wouldn't weigh in and say that I'm representing a viewpoint of the Atlanta Braves or like, you know, we're thinking about making a play for a hockey team and that. I'll just I'll just tell you, you know, from my understanding of professional sports, which I think is pretty uh pretty vast, and and I think I have a pretty good understanding of how the economics work in that. Yeah. Um, you know, I've I've I've had discussions with obviously the various representatives and that. I just I'm I'm struggling to understand how all the economics would work when you have to build a new facility and you have to pay an entry fee um to uh to a league, and it'd be the NHL, MLB, say it's the same thing for everybody. So um it's you know it starts with understanding your revenue sources, and you just have to look in today's world across the the hockey teams, you know, you find uh you know a high-end, low-end, and can you make the numbers work um in based on the revenue that gets generated there? The game changer for us again is the mixed-use development is where most of the revenue is generated. When when Tim Lee made a decision to partner with us on the ballpark, because the public participation is in Truist Park. There is zero into really the mixed-use development. But that's where all the money is generated that goes back to the county, goes back to Cobb Schools on an annual basis. And so I always said, I mean, the numbers, I don't make them up. They don't lie. This is the one of the greatest examples of public-private private partnership you're gonna find anywhere in America because of what because of the mixed-use development and uh the cash that it puts into the the bucket every single year. So so uh again, I I don't know. I I'd like to see how someone's figuring out how the the math is adding up.

SPEAKER_00 47:37

Yeah. Me too. I we've heard the the two billion dollar number. I think we had Bronfman come in. Um that was maybe a month or two ago. And he I guess at the time it was really early, couldn't share much about what Jamestown was doing with New York wife at at North Point Mall, but we'll see. I mean it regardless of what happens, North Point Mall, it could it could use some extra activity and uh a good refresh. So yeah, yeah. I don't know too much about the for scythe site, but uh I that I could probably use some help too. It's all all these malls are getting kind of new lives. We had um we had Herbert Ames come in and talk about North Cab Mall and the Lula Hill project. I don't know how if you're familiar with with what they're doing over there. They're they demoed the entire mall outside of maybe uh one or two of the retail slots, but it's a 75-acre site. They were trying to put a Costco on the site for like 15 years, and you know, there was a lot of economic push to get it in, uh, but the neighborhoods, rounding neighborhoods, just weren't weren't excited about it at all. And so just between the city and and the site, uh the zoning was really up for question. And um, anyways, Herbert and his team, they they ended up just buying it and just I mean, I think they had a a good idea that they could get the entitlements for what they were trying to do, but so now I mean they've they've totally demoed it, they've gone vertical on their parking deck and they've um they've topped out there and I think they just had some big announcement about LL Bean, but it's uh it's exciting. And then like I guess right down the street from there, Emory's just purchased um North, what's the other mall that's right there? Not North Lake, North North to Cab. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:25

Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 49:27

I maybe okay, which one? There's North Decab that I thought it was Lula Hills. Whatever. Whoever if you're listening to this, Google it. There's another name. But there's two giant malls that are like right down the street from each other, getting a whole new life. And uh I guess there's there's more malls that need need need it.

SPEAKER_02 49:44

That's I mean, look, when growing up as a kid, that's where you went. You went to the mall. Yeah. You're right, that world has definitely changed, right? And it's the same thing. I think they're really they're getting they're getting a better understanding, they're getting getting good at activating to drive people. And that's what we do at the battery. We we create a lot of activation events and that to drive people to our campus, as I said earlier, make it make it easy to get in and out of, make it a safe environment so they feel comfortable and create opportunities for them and the for their families and diversification of it, and um and that's what's leading to a lot of our formula success.

SPEAKER_00 50:23

Yeah. It was funny, so just jumping back to the Herbert conversation again, he had all this all these stats, you know, talking about you know, the brown box that ends up on your your doorstep every day. I think his stat was women control like 95% of all retail dollars in this country. And uh he was like, for any of these retail experiences, it's gotta be about the women. And he's like, you want you want to make sure that your parking decks are well lit, that you paint the ceilings, that you um you don't have like a drainage crate that their high heels could get stuck in. He had like all these funny little quips that I mean, you just you and I just it's it's just there, but like you start thinking about it like, oh wow, this this really is um important, important to get right. So for sure. I'd like to ask, uh you've had 300 plus athletic groups, different teams, organizations come through. I mean, who's who's done it similar, or is there anybody that um has actually you know acted and get away from it?

SPEAKER_02 51:27

I'd say who's actually done it right now. There's very few that are kind of up and rolling. I mean, I look at what Wake Forest is doing. Tennessee is now starting um to move forward on actually building from a pro standpoint. I mean, you got Steve Cohen up in New York, the Mets. I mean, it's gonna take probably a little while. We've got a lot of brownfield things around City. Um I know he's got casino aspirations and that. So uh there's a lot of teams. Uh Kansas City is another one that are are in the mode of planning, but very few are in construction mode. But um I mean look, I'm we've we've had a number of conversations with people that they've got the ideas, they're they're they're making sure they can acquire land. And you know, it's a process to go through, obviously, when you're you're building a mixed-use development site uh, you know, with infrastructure and permitting and civil and utility. I mean, we've got $110 million under the ground. I mean, you know, when we started and thought we had a pretty good handle on things, but again, we're making this up as we go along and we're blowing and going. I mean, we built that first stage in that entire ballpark in 30 months all at the same time. Um, our hair was on fire, I'm not gonna lie to you, but that's I go back to saying you I told I told a lot of tired people on our team every single day. Um, and I had to convince myself as I'm you know, I'm we're still playing games and running our whole team operation, you know. So I'm getting home at one o'clock in the morning from games and then back up at 5:36 headed north, you know. So I was tired like everyone was tired, but I say, Gotta bring your A game every day. And I'd have to be the kind of the ringleader convincing everyone, you know, rah-rah, let's go, guys. And I saw a lot of tired people. I sent I sent flowers to wives that I knew were gonna get packing up the bags and taking the kids and because their husband was not there, you know. So uh but I always said, look, we're gonna put our fingers on something for the rest of our life. It's gonna be your legacy of doing what no one thought was possible. So it really was my time. Okay, I'd like to switch. But but anyways, it's it's it's hard. Yeah, it's it they're hard projects. And you know, I always say to people, our this is a 10-year project. And we did the first one in less than three years. But I'll go back to that's where I go back to to Tim Lee. You cannot get bogged down in government bureaucracy. And that's what you see happen a lot of times, is as I Tim said to me when he and I shook hands on a deal, he said, What's the most important thing I can do for you to make you successful? And I said, Stay out of my way. I said, What I mean by that, Tim, is I'm gonna need a lot of your help. I can't afford to have your staff get up in the morning, put their cape on, and go, hey, I'm here to save the day. We're making this up as we go along. There's no blueprint, there's no manual on how to do this. And so let me ask for your help. And I'm gonna ask for a lot. Um, but let me ask for it. And and our communication was great. All his senior team, fire marshal on down, you know, we had monthly meetings, but then there were tons of interaction in between that. But, you know, it was incumbent upon us to be forthcoming with information and making sure they were part of the whole planning process so there were there were no surprises. But I said, you know, there's a uniqueness to this, and why would you think we would screw this up? We're here for 30 years and have a billion five of our own money in this. We're not gonna screw this up. So it's you you let's make sure we trust, have a trusting understanding of that. So that's that's also part of the public-private partnership. They have to really be a partner with you and not a not a barrier, you know. I hope you don't mind. I'm gonna start driving to the airport.

SPEAKER_00 55:24

No, that's all right. As I'm talking. If we could we could switch gears a little bit to more of of you personally, I'd like do you still train or do any? I mean, when's the last time you did speed skating? Have you turned your skates on?

SPEAKER_02 55:40

I used to skate every year in Salt Lake because I have a home in Park City in the mountains. And Salt Lake is the fastest ice in the world. There was the track was used for the 2002 Olympic Games. And so um, yeah, but I haven't in a couple years for no particular reason. I ride still a lot. Um I've ridden outside a just a little less, just um um in August of 2023 in Park City. I went off the side of a mountain at 50 plus miles an hour on my road bike. Oh and so um oh yeah, I bit it pretty hard. I I broke seven bones. I laid the bike down. My pro cycling days kicked in when I knew I wasn't making this corner, and you never want to go off the side of a mountain um upright. Now you're gonna break your head, your neck, and a whole bunch of other things. So yeah, I laid the bike down and broke seven bones on my right side, hole in my lung and a hole in my artery in my head. And so, but I walked out of there after eight days, and uh, I was on my bike three months later. Uh, you know, my nature is uh Eric and I, when we Eric Haydn is in Park City, we ride a lot. You know, we're still thinking he and I on our pro cycling day, so we're descending at 50 miles plus an hour down the mountains and that and not realizing we're in our 60s. Yeah, and I ski that way too. So now it's kind of like, hey, stupid. Like grow up, you know, this is about getting exercise and uh going home and having some soup, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, anyways, but I try to try to put miles on, but now it's probably just because of lack of time, it's more like on the pelletop, you know, yesterday morning I pounded out 45 minutes, and the funny thing is my brain is still aiming at my age. I'm gonna be in the top five percent no matter what, regardless of age. It's just if you're gonna do it, go after it.

SPEAKER_00 57:35

So yeah, yeah, yeah. You just you got that that competitive bone. Yeah. Did uh did your kids pick up skating or or anything?

SPEAKER_02 57:46

So no, no, and Mary and I, you know, we were very protective about people understanding our backgrounds. When our kids were the two, I have three kids, my the two younger ones were now late twenties, thirty. I've got grandkids and that, but uh when they were they were younger, just didn't want people putting this pressure on them, you know. Um and they're you know, they were whispering all the time, you know, their parents are they're both Olympians, and uh that's just they didn't need to hear that. They started hearing it a little bit more, which um, you know, I don't think is such a great thing, but that's why, you know, when I'd go to their games and that I'd never say a word, other than have them go tell the coach it to him, but thanks for coaching me today, coach. And it just was keeping it all in perspective of uh there's no consequence to winning or losing games when you're little. It's about sportsmanship, there's a commitment to practice and be a good teammate and and get some exercise. So yeah, try to keep in perspective. You see a lot of parents don't have that.

SPEAKER_00 58:48

Sure. Um What other projects do you have going on? I I think you kind of alluded to it earlier. I mean, you're you're in your 60s now. I mean, are you you gonna go? Some some guys like to go till 75. I mean, you can go till 80. I'm curious.

SPEAKER_02 59:05

Look, you know, I had a lot of my friends say, I thought you a lot of my friends said, I thought you said when you won a ring, you were done. And I was like, Yeah, I did say that, didn't I? But then I realized you have two hands. So, you know, this look, this is this is this is fun. I work for a great team, great organization, uh, great teammates. Um, you know, I just millions of people care about what we do every single day. They're passionate about our team. Our fans are fantastic, and you know, it's a it's a great business to be in. I've been in the, like I said, the sports business my entire life, and I, you know, I get to do pretty cool things with people. And so I'm still having fun. Um, Terry's great, gives us, you know, I'm not encumbered. He gives us a lot of leadership. Um, our whole organization, we uh we've got a lot of smart people and we collaborate together, we work together, we're all on sync. So it's just not a lot of barriers uh to me for me to say, yeah, I just you know, I've never had a day where I sit there and go, ah, I hate what I do. You know, as I I'm uh I'm passionate about what I do and we've done incredible things together, and but you know, I realize, look, I've got this gray hair now, and you know, I'm getting to the point where it's time to let somebody else take the take the lead and uh try drive it forward. And you know, the truth of the matter is and if you look at our main 60-acre campus, we don't we don't have the ability to do too much more there. The Henry Project uh is a partnership of ours with Goldenrod and Zach Wiegert. Um Zach's been fantastic as a partner, but they're driving that. But that's you know, those two off those two towers are two 22-story towers. Tower one is topping out uh this week. Tower two starts going vertical in a couple weeks. Um that's and we we built a bridge connecting them this year. That's additive to the our bring once again bringing more people to the campus.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:04

So so um yeah, that's uh that's about it right now. That's a lot.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:11

That's a lot, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:12

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:13

Well, Mike, I this this really is a treat. I appreciate you taking a minute. Um and we just appreciate what you've done for the city and for the Braves, and uh I guess you really made your mark on the sports world both in all these Olympic committees, but also in just sports entertainment and whatnot. Great.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:33

Well, thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:34

It's uh as I said, I I I feel that I've outpunted my coverage a long time ago, and you know, my world was about taking a left, wearing tights and taking a left every hundred meters. And if you did that, life was good. But um it's uh it provided me an incredible platform to do some great things in the world of sport and been fortunate that I've done it with good people and good teams and uh you know had great experiences with a lot of incredible leaders around the world and learned from them and been able to kind of pay that forward now.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:12

Good deal. Well, hey, good luck on the uh the big unveiling. Um we'll be looking out for some press release or or something to to see what it looks like. And um I guess have a great weekend, Mike. All right, you do the same, Tim. Thank you very much. Enjoyed it.