Ted Turner, the previous proprietor of the Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Hawks and World Championship Wrestling, has died at age 87. His firm, Turner Enterprises, introduced his demise on Wednesday.
Turner shared in 2018 that he had been recognized with the progressive mind dysfunction Lewy Physique Dementia, and in 2025, he was hospitalized with pneumonia.
The Braves launched a assertion concerning Turner’s demise:
“Our good good friend and former proprietor, Ted Turner, was one among a sort – an excellent businessman, consummate showman and passionate fan of his beloved Braves. Ted’s visionary management and revolutionary strategy to broadcast tv reworked the Braves into ‘America’s Crew.’ Below his stewardship, the ballclub skilled one of many biggest runs of sustained excellence in Main League Baseball historical past and introduced a World Collection championship to Atlanta in 1995.
“Ted was additionally a legendary philanthropist whose compassion and generosity prolonged throughout the globe.
“We’ll miss you, Ted. You helped make us who we’re at this time, and the Atlanta Braves are eternally grateful for the influence you made on our group and in our neighborhood.”
An Ohio native who grew to become a fixture of the Atlanta enterprise scene, Turner was a media mogul and cable-television pioneer who based CNN, the primary 24-hour cable information station, and TBS, the primary cable superstation, together with TNT.
Turner purchased the Braves in 1976 for a reported $12 million, turning the crew’s telecasts into signature programming for his fledgling WTBS cable community. Turner proved himself a promotional maverick as Braves proprietor, partly out of necessity. For the early years of his stewardship, the Braves had been reliably among the many worst groups in Main League Baseball, however their financial fortunes had been buoyed by Turner’s relentless, artistic promotional efforts. He even managed the crew for one sport in 1977 earlier than the Nationwide League stepped in and halted his experiment — and their eventual nationwide presence on TBS broadcasts.
The Braves’ fortunes on the sector in the end improved, beginning together with his hiring of New York Yankees coach Bobby Cox as supervisor in 1978. Cox served two tenures as Braves supervisor below Turner, nevertheless it was his second time period, beginning in 1990, that noticed Turner’s Braves turn into a dynasty. Because of a formidable homegrown expertise base, supplemented within the years to come back by commerce and free-agent acquisitions executed by normal supervisor John Schuerholz, whom Turner employed away from the Kansas Metropolis Royals in 1990, the Braves made the World Collection in 1991 and fell in a legendary Sport 7 to the Minnesota Twins.
That started an unprecedented run that noticed the Braves win 14 straight division titles and turn into a nationwide model thanks partly to their virtually nightly presence on TBS. Turner’s efforts with the Braves culminated within the 1995 World Collection title. The subsequent 12 months, Turner offered the Braves to Time Warner as a part of a large merger for roughly $400 million.
Outdoors of baseball, Turner owned the NBA’s Hawks from 1977-82 with the franchise solely successful a single playoff sequence throughout his tenure. He additionally based WCW in 1988 after buying the belongings of Jim Crockett Promotions. WCW grew to become the chief rival of Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation (WWF) with its signature “Monday Nitro” cable program beating McMahon’s “Monday Evening Uncooked” within the TV rankings for 83 consecutive weeks. WWF (now WWE) in the end regained its floor and finally bought WCW’s belongings from AOL Time Warner in 2001.
Turner was additionally an achieved yachtsman who gained the America’s Cup race in 1977. Turner Area, the place the Braves performed from 1997 to 2016, was named for him after it was rebranded following the 1996 Summer season Olympics in Atlanta. In 1991, Turner was named Time Journal’s “Man of the 12 months” for his groundbreaking management in cable information.
Turner is survived by 5 youngsters, 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.