As I See It
Brewers threatening to take their ball and go to a new home
When you were a kid and didn’t like the way the game was going, you may just take your ball and go home. Apparently that is true for professional ballplayers as well. The Milwaukee Brewers want the state to help pay for improvements to American Family Field, and now, according to reports, are threatening to leave Milwaukee if they don’t get their way. The Brewers could begin the search for a new state by this fall if Wisconsin doesn’t come through, according to reports in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The Brewers say their stadium needs some $400 million in improvements, even though it has only been open for 22 years. They want taxpayers to help foot the bill, but that funding did not make it into the budget Governor Evers signed into law. The team apparently doesn’t want to spend its own money to finance improvements. But the Brewers did spend lots of money lobbying the Legislature to try to get state help. According to a report by The Badger Project, the Brewers spent $600,000 lobbying the state for stadium renovations in the first half of 2023. That is more than any other lobbying organization spent in Wisconsin. That money would have been better spent on stadium improvements. I’m tired of sports teams like the Brewers throwing a tantrum and threatening to take their ball and go home if they don’t get what they want.
Char
August 14, 2023 at 7:12 am
The Brewers should be using their own money to maintain a stadium built for them by the taxpayers. Just like we maintain our homes to maintain them. They make more than enough money each year to do that. If they cannot do that, maybe the organization is overpaying it’s people that work there as well as the owners and executives.
Randy Knapp
August 14, 2023 at 7:34 am
Bye bye Brewers. We need Road improvements more than paying for professional baseball.
Carol Herlitzka
August 14, 2023 at 7:35 am
They can be replaced! Who needs an arrogant team?
Mike Sladky
August 14, 2023 at 8:23 am
This story reminds me of the Minnesota North Stars NHL hockey team that demanded a new stadium in the Twin Cities to be funded by the tax payers: The fans told them; don’t let the door hit you on the way out. I think Minnesota was without a pro hockey team for almost 10 years; and we survived just fine.
david greener
August 15, 2023 at 4:58 am
If they can pay their players millions per year , they can pay for their own improvements.
Holly
August 15, 2023 at 1:39 pm
We love the Brewers to be here . They don’t pay rent using the stadium. They get to keep all the money that is taken in. Does Milwaukee get any income from parking fees?