Scroll through the pics above for plenty of Opening Day tailgating images past.
In most Major League Baseball cities, a baseball gameday is about taking yourself to the bar and having a couple beers and a trademark local sandwich before heading to the ballpark.
In Milwaukee, it's very different. It's about bringing the bar and grill with you to the ballpark.
“It's part of the DNA of our fan base,” said Brewers COO Rick Schlesinger, who has seen more than 1,000 tailgate parties in the Miller Park lots in his years here.
Bob Buege, a Milwaukee baseball historian and author, has been around for nearly 5,000 home games in Milwaukee – the majority of which had fans enjoying their beer and brats right by their cars.
“It's just a Wisconsin thing that's developed, and it's an expected thing,” he adds.
It's been expected for decades in Milwaukee, but that's because Miller Park (and County Stadium) before it have something which you rarely find now: A big parking lot where every fan can tailgate.
“There aren't that many that have the parking that Miller Park has,” explains Buege, who says he has been to 36 MLB stadiums..
In fact, MLB.com says that only six stadiums in Major League Baseball have parking lots fully surrounding the field with no limits for tailgating posted online. The stadiums for the Chicago White Sox, Kansas City, the New York Mets, New York Yankees and Tampa Bay are the others.
Few ballparks have the number of parking spots that Miller Park offers – 12,500, all tailgate-available, for up to 45,000-or-so fans.
“Every stadium has a separate footprint,” said Schlesinger.
“There are a lot of politics as to where a stadium can be built and how much land (can be used). We were fortunate that when Miller Park was built, it was built with tailgating in mind, and that's why we built it on the footprint of County Stadium with 12,500 parking spaces.”
Miller Park is an anomaly. The footprint of most stadiums built the last 25 years is much smaller.
Of the 22 stadiums constructed in that time, only four stadiums – including Miller Park – have the footprint for a large parking lot unlimited tailgating. Most of those 22 stadiums are built in urban areas with few stadium-run parking lots.
The current wave of stadium construction began in 1991 with Camden Yards in Baltimore, a downtown stadium that is easily accessible for mass transit, for fans to go to bars and restaurants in a thriving neighborhood – or to strictly go straight to the stadium and spend their food and drink money inside, rather than on their own in a parking lot.
“If you have a city like Minneapolis, which has a beautiful stadium (Target Field), it has no parking around it, so people come in by public transportation, or there are warehouses where they can park,” said Buege.
“There are certain cities like St. Louis where it's a downtown ballpark, easily accessible by public transportation, but if you come by public transportation, you're not going to tailgate. You're not going to bring a tailgate with you.”
If a fan wants to go to a bar near Miller Park, that fan has to walk at least a mile to get inside the stadium. It's easier, and cheaper, to bring your own beer to the parking lot.
When Miller Park's precursor, County Stadium, opened in 1953 – the era when the automobile boom really began, it was the first Major League stadium to ever have a parking lot surrounding all sides of the stadium.
“The ballparks were built before World War I in most cases, or just after, and most people didn't have cars,” Buege told WTMJ. He said most fans would use streetcars or other public transportation to get around, not cars.
Those ballparks, just like most of today's, were easily accessible to the busy parts of the city and tucked away in neighborhoods – just like Borchert Field, the home of the minor league Brewers until 1952.
“The idea of tailgating, if there had been some before the 50's, would have come from Borchert Field, and Borchert Field was a neighborhood park with no parking at all. There was no way there could have been such a thing.”
The other factor about County Stadium that seems incredible to fans today: Milwaukee Braves fans could “BYOB” into the stadium itself.
“People would carry in a six pack. In some cases, they would bring in a cooler filled with beer. In some cases that were well publicized, fans would not only bring in their own cooler, but get an extra ticket for a place to set it,” said Buege.
County Stadium changed that police in the late 1950's, and fans started realizing – especially after a parking lot expansion in 1959 – they had acres of possible space to enjoy those beers and bratwurst before the game.
They could then copy the already-developed tailgate culture of football, one which Packers and Badgers fans have embraced for even longer.
All that has contributed to a tailgating tradition in Wisconsin that is one you'll rarely find around Major League Baseball, but one that is quintessentially Milwaukee and Wisconsin.
“People are friendly in this town. They like group settings. Â They like their Miller products and they like a good place to socialize and feel connected to each other,” said Schlesinger.
“Part of our culture and will remain so for a long time.”
WTMJ's Doug Russell contributed to this story.
