By John A. Tures, Professor of Political Science, LaGrange College
Almost a decade ago, I found myself reading a sports article about how the Atlanta United, fresh from their championship, were doing it all right by the fans, while the Atlanta Braves, on their way up to Cobb County, presumably with their tail tucked between their legs, were doing it all wrong.
Boy, that didn’t age well.
As the Atlanta Braves clinched their seventh National League East Division in the last nine years, and their eighth trip to the playoffs, the Atlanta United team currently sports a record of seven wins, five draws and 14 losses. It’s hard to conclude that the Braves “did it wrong.” I searched high and low for that article, but couldn’t find it. I wonder if someone pulled it for how far off the mark they were.
My research shows that since the 2018 season, the Atlanta Braves in their new Cobb County digs, had a win percentage of 57.3 percent, eight playoff trips, and a World Series title. Even their lone losing season, the team was 76-86. It was one of two seasons that the Braves didn’t win an astonishing 88 or more games (the other was during the pandemic-shortened season, when the team made the NLCS). And the area around the stadium is a model for Major League Baseball.
Among Atlanta sports franchises, the ATL United Soccer team is second, with an average win percentage of .472486 for seasons counting only wins and losses, not draws, for obvious reasons. Five times the Atlanta United team has made the playoffs, though the soccer team is in the midst of a rebuilding season. They have that aforementioned championship, a well-deserved win.
The Atlanta Hawks have never been to the finals while in the city. The NBA team did tie their best winning percentage this year (56.9%) with the year they went to the Eastern Conference Finals. And though they lost this year in the first round, it was to the eventual champions, the New York Knicks. The team was at least good enough perhaps to have reached the NBA East Finals to face them, I believe. Overall, the team has won 44.7388% of their games, and made four playoff appearances.
As for the Atlanta Falcons, well, at least they aren’t a hockey franchise like the Flames and Thrashers, who couldn’t stick around. They have had nine years of both losing seasons and missing the playoffs, with a .415441 winning percentage.
What’s the Braves’ secret?
It would be easy to say the fan experience. But while the Braves are really second to none in the doing the best for attendees, the other franchises aren’t too far behind. Having gone to games for all four Atlanta area teams, I would rate the experience as superior to other sporting stadiums that I’ve been to.
One thing that I notice the Braves do better than the others is give players and coaches a little more patience, with longer term contracts and job security, which lets players play and coaches coach without having to constantly look over their shoulders. The team is able to scout the heck out of the league, finding gems that were overlooked, and winning nearly every trade in a lopsided manner. And Cobb County has gone a long way to answer the charges Sports Illustrated threw at them when they moved. I even watched the World Cup with my son at the Atlanta United zone, across the street from Truist Park, showing that Braves County can play a great host. And I worked some All-Star Baseball activities in downtown Atlanta.
The other Atlanta franchises would do well at looking how the Braves organization does the little things to make the postseason an inevitability rather than a rarity. The others already make going to the game a wonderful experience, just like what you’ll see in Cobb County. With a little work, those other Atlanta sports teams can send their fans home with a few more wins.
John A. Tures is a professor of political science at LaGrange College in LaGrange, Georgia. His views are his own. He can be reached at jtures@lagrange.edu or on “X” at @johntures2. His first book “Branded” a thriller novel where corporate greed, media manipulation and academic intrigue collide in a deadly game of product placement, has been published by the Huntsville Independent Press (https://www.huntsvilleindependent.com/product-page/branded). His second novel, “Independent Thought,” about a third-party candidacy that brings America to its knees, is published by HIP (https://www.huntsvilleindependent.com/product-page/independent-thought).