RIP Ted Turner

[Wild Bill]

Lots of different opinions on the man, I'm sure.

PHILANTHROPIST, ENVIRONMENTALIST AND CABLE PIONEER TED TURNER PASSES AT 87

 

[Rack Daniels]

Wow!!!!! That’s crazy. I wonder what will become of his legacy. I’ve heard lots of theories about his post-mortem intentions. RIP

 

[TheTone]

The amount of Atlanta Braves baseball I watched as a kid due to Ted’s TBS and team ownership is insanely high. Also watched a ton of wcw wrestling due to his ownership. RIP Ted, thanks for making my childhood tv viewing wonderful

 

[Nameless Range]

Basically every Friday evening from ages 11-14, my dad would get a Pizza from Papa Rays in MT City, and we would sit down and watch MonsterVision, hosted by Joe Bob Briggs. It was there my appreciation for rated R horror movies censored to meet FCC thresholds was born, and that was on Turner Network Television, so thanks, Ted.

 

[Handlebar]

162 Braves games every year and endless reruns of the Andy Griffith show, I am forever grateful

 

[Bonasababy]

Brash and outspoken, big environmentalist, donated billions to worthy causes.

Way before the internet, CNN was the 24 hour window into breaking news around the world.

Sounds like Lewy Body Dementia at the end, sad way to go for a man so full of ideas and vision.

 

[Oak]

The Braves were a key asset and I had to go for it. Major League Baseball was high-quality programming for Channel 17 and by owning the team I would control its long-term TV rights. Plus, buying this franchise would really put our company on the map. There was just this one little problem—I couldn’t afford it. Our other businesses were performing pretty well but we still had a lot of debt and even if I could scrape together $10 million it would be hard to justify paying that for a business that was losing a million a year.

I might have had room to negotiate on price, but I decided to focus on terms. I told Dan [Donahue], “Look, I’ll buy the team, but I can’t afford to pay cash. How about I give you a million dollars down and you give me nine years to pay the rest, with interest?” He said he’d need to talk to his partners and would get back to me. I knew that since I’d been given the first look I needed to put in a strong bid. My offer was unconventional, but it would allow them to tell the world that they got their $10 million asking price. Dan got back to me quickly and told me my offer had been approved. I was elated, but we were only halfway home.

The next hurdle was approval from the Major League Baseball owners. In addition to my not fitting their mold, I think I was the first person to try to buy a team with less than 100 percent cash. Some were also concerned about my ultimate intentions on the TV side of things. I would be just the second owner who controlled both a team and its broadcast station, and I had made a few comments about distributing WTCG on cable outside Atlanta. Some owners worried about what this might mean in terms of TV competition in their home markets. But the Braves were a bad team in a relatively small southern city and I don’t think many of them saw me as a threat.

Still, I couldn’t take any chances so I went into full sales mode and did everything I could to get into baseball’s good graces. In a lucky break, the guy running national sales for Channel 17 just happened to be Stan Musial’s son-in-law, and when it came time for me to meet with commissioner Bowie Kuhn and the rest of the owners, none other than “Stan the Man” provided my flattering introduction. I was also careful to make sure that Bill Bartholomay agreed to stay on as Braves chairman after our deal closed. Through our previous rights negotiations I learned that he was a man of integrity and I knew that the other owners liked and respected him. Major League Baseball was a new world to me and Bill’s presence would be very helpful.

We successfully resolved our financing and league approval issues through the fall of ‘75, and in January ‘76 Turner Communications Group took over as owner of the Atlanta Braves. It was a thrill for all of us at the company. The team might have been losers, but they were in the big leagues, and now so were we.

—Ted Turner

 

[Wild Bill]

View attachment 407651

I always thought this was a fun story.
The one night he took over as Atlanta Braves manager

 

[rmyoung1]

I wonder what happens to those ranches. He bought some attractive pieces of dirt.

 

[Catskill.Joe]

I wonder what happens to those ranches. He bought some attractive pieces of dirt.

I was wondering the same thing

 

[Wild Bill]

I wonder what happens to those ranches. He bought some attractive pieces of dirt.

I have no idea, but I'd assume that Ted had succession plans for his properties. I imagine a guy that cared enough about conservation and preservation to spend as much money as he did would want the land to continue to be preserved.

But I suppose he could have left the property to whom ever he wanted to. We'll see.

The gal that cuts my hair, her husband works on the Turner ranch with the bison. Maybe she'll have some kind of intel.

I love driving through his place west of town, here. I imagine a lot of it looks as it has for most of time.

 

[Bonasababy]

I wouldn't presume to know but I know he has a number of kids. Wonder if he left the land in their care. Was sharp enough to avoid trouble in doing that I think assuming he wanted management there to continue as it has been.

 

[Brad]

I doubt inventing the 24hr new cycle is worthy of praise. On the other hand, there are few more responsible landowners here in Montana.

RIP Captain Outrageous.

Turner Ranches - Turner Enterprises

www.tedturner.com