Of all the MLB teams with 20something-year-old stadiums, the Milwaukee Brewers (opening year of current stadium: 2001) haven’t exactly been at the forefront of upgrade demands: There was talk of the team owners tapping around $90 million in a stadium district reserve fund early last year, and in June one Milwaukee County official proposed building a ballpark district around the Brewers’ stadium and kicking back property taxes to the team. But mostly all has been quiet on the midwestern front, no reason to believe there’ll be any massive public subsidies coming down the—
Governor Tony Evers would allocate $290 million from the state’s surplus towards upgrades to American Family Field in exchange for the Milwaukee Brewers extending their lease at the stadium through 2043, 13 more years…
“As governor, and also someone who also happens to be a lifelong Brewers fan, I’m so excited about the historic opportunity we have today to keep Major League Baseball here in Milwaukee for another twenty years and to usher in a new generation of Brewers fans in Wisconsin who can grow up rooting for the home team just like I did,” said Evers in a statement announcing the plan.
Evers’ proposed largesse appears to have been prompted by, honestly, nothing: The Brewers’ lease has another seven years left to run with another ten-year lease option after that, there has been zero talk about the team relocating, and no one with the Brewers has breathed even a word about wanting a nine-figure payout. If anything, it looks like Evers noticed that the state is sitting on a $6.6 billion surplus thanks to a flood of federal pandemic cash, and figured this was a good time to give some of it to the local not-quite-billionaire.
The most rose-colored interpretation is that Evers is looking to use the budget surplus to ward off any threat of a Brewers move come 2030 and instead push it off until 2043. Even then, though, $290 million is a high price to pay for locking a team down for just 13 more years: At $22.3 million a year, that would be the biggest per-year MLB lease subsidy in history, and until recently would have been second only to the Indiana Pacers‘ $23 million a year for the more generous in all of sports, though the New Orleans Saints and Baltimore Ravens have surged past that record since then.
The state legislature still needs to approve Evers’ proposed Brewers stadium spending. Assembly speaker Robin Vos tweeted disparagingly this morning that Evers had “drop[ped] this bomb in the budget” without working with the legislature, then immediately followed up by saying “I look forward to working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to insure that the Brewers stay in WI,” so this is surely going to go well.
It’s always good to remember that the stadium scam is a thoroughly bipartisan undertaking.
Ballpark Digest said this morning (in an emailed article) that this money is for maintenance that the state has to contractually provide. Did they get it wrong?
Knowing Ballpark Digest, probably. $23m/year in contractually required maintenance? (Or really $41m/year, since the current contract only has seven years to run.)
OK thanks!
Well, it was nice that he admitted his professional conflict of interest as a life long Brewers fan (is he younger than 50? If not he’s older than the team…) before failing to recuse himself and announcing his personal plan to commit other people’s tax dollars to pay for something his favourite team hadn’t even asked for.
And remember, other cities stealing your team is wrong*
*your mileage may vary. Optional equipment shown. Price as advertised is not for the model depicted in this ad
If astronomical ticket prices and multi billion dollar stadiums guarantee success, why haven’t the Yankees been to the World Series in 13 years? If the Yankees don’t make the World Series this year, they will match their longest drought, set in the dark days of 1975 when Abe Beam was mayor and New York City teetered on bankruptcy. The Yankees were also suffering the ultimate insult of playing in the Mets Shea Stadium. What is their excuse now? Too much gold plating ruining the sight lines? Fans can’t find their way back to their seats from all the bars? And Governor Evers thinks throwing $290 million into Miller Park, or whatever, will do anything for Wisconsin? Charlotte has been clobberring Milwaukee economically without a MLB team, and Austin has been clobberring everyone without a professional sports team. Building those palaces for the Brewers and Bucks has done wonders for Milwaukee.