MILWAUKEE — Wisconsin’s Afternoon News is dedicating a full hour of programming to dive deep into the debates over funding for American Family Field — the home of the Milwaukee Brewers and one of the biggest revenue generators in the state. You can tune in from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. to hear the discussion with local leaders, community members and representatives of the Brewers.
In anticipation of this deep-dive, WTMJ’s John Mercure spoke with Rick Schlesinger, the President of Business Operations for the Milwaukee Brewers. He detailed some of the specific needs allocated in the near-$450 million requested to renovate and improve American Family Field — a requirement for the team to extend its lease to remain at the stadium through 2043 at the earliest.
“It’s a lot of the guts of the stadium that fans may not see when they come to games, but clearly it makes the experience safe,” Schlesinger said.
Among the specific needs outlined by Schlesinger were replacements, improvements or repairs on the retractable roof, HVAC systems, plumbing, broadcast infrastructure, elevators, escalators, pavement, lighting, boilers and more.
“In the next several years, according to independent experts that have assessed the facility from the ground floor to the roof, have said ‘we’re gonna need upwards of $75-to-$80 million dollars in infrastructure upgrades and replacement parts and changes just in the next two years,'” Schlesinger explained.
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Furthermore, Schlesinger said that many of the systems implemented within the ballpark when it opened in 2001 were designed to last just 20 years before they’d begin to break down. Schlesinger fears that failing to address current renovations and needs at the ballpark could be more costly in the long run.
“The ballpark is going to start to degrade. That’s not really smart for anybody,” Schlesinger said. “The cost to then fix things that have been deferred is significantly a lot more expensive than to do it at the right time, and nobody wants to see this ballpark degrade to where it’s becoming a liability for the fans and for the state.”
Despite this being the case, Schlesinger expressed great optimism in the work being done in Madison to garner bipartisan support on a solution. He referred to both the team and the stadium as assets for the state, county and city it resides in.
“There’s no reason why we can’t be here past 2043, provided our landlord has the money to make sure it can meet its obligations past 2043,” Schlesinger said.
With the Oakland Athletics moving to Las Vegas — in part, due to disputes over ballpark maintenance and repairs – many have speculated that Milwaukee could lose the Brewers if this situation isn’t settled quickly and concisely. Schlesinger, on the other hand, expressed that he’s not afraid of a similar situation playing out here.
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“We’re not looking at Oakland as anything to our parallel,” Schlesinger said. “We’re not looking at Oakland as anything to our parallel. In fact, we’re looking at this as an opportunity for the state to expand the public-private partnership, keeping up here longterm in a great ballpark where we can generate the kind of attendance we need to generate to keep competitive teams on the field and to bring a World Series to Milwaukee.”
The Brewers’ President of Business Ops told Mercure that he encourages discourse around the topic of whether taxpayer money should contribute to the renovations required at American Family Field. He believes the Brewers and their ballpark are a “state asset.”
“We contribute millions of dollars to the state’s economy, both in terms of sales taxes and income taxes and greater economic benefit,” Schlesinger said. “That being the case, there’s no question that the Brewers — located in Milwaukee — generate the greatest economic benefit to the county and the city, and that was originally the basis for the five-county tax in 1996, was the southeastern Wisconsin counties benefitted disproportionately from the Brewers and the ballpark.”
In the grand scheme of things, Schlesinger is confident that the situation will be resolved and the focus will shift back to the team itself instead of the political conversation surrounding the ballpark’s funding.
“We’re seeing a general, broad consensus of wanting to get it done,” Schlesinger said. “The devil is in the details, but I’m optimistic this gets done.”
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