Milwaukee is a sports town. Wisconsin is a sports state. Perhaps unlike any other city and state of their size in America.
If you combine Milwaukee and Green Bay into one pro sports market, its NFL (Green Bay Packers) and MLB (Milwaukee Brewers) teams play in the smallest markets in their sport. The Milwaukee Bucks play in one of the NBA’s smallest markets as well.
Combined, those teams offer more seats per capita for major pro sporting events than any other major market in America. And based on attendance figures for the 2018 Packers, 2018-19 Bucks and 2019 Brewers, Wisconsin sports fans fill 89 percent of those seats – an incredible percentage.
The devotion to University of Wisconsin and Marquette University sports is similarly-sized, with the Badgers selling out almost every seat for football and men’s basketball, and both UW and Marquette in the top 10 in America in men’s basketball attendance among 350 NCAA Division 1 schools.
What’s the formula, besides winning?
During WTMJ 2020, Packers President Mark Murphy, Bucks President Peter Feigin and General Manager Jon Horst, former Brewers owner and MLB commissioner Bud Selig and UW Athletic Director Barry Alvarez joined WTMJ’s Greg Matzek for a one-hour panel discussion on Wisconsin sports. In that discussion, they shared their experience, knowledge and expertise on how and why Wisconsin sports fans gravitate so much to their teams. That’s just part of the one-hour discussion.
Listen above in the podcast player.