Brewers encouraged by funding discussions for American Family Field

MILWAUKEE — While Wisconsin lawmakers continue negotiating mechanisms to fund the future of American Family Field, this week’s National League Wild Card Series offers the Brewers an opportunity to showcase the ballpark at its best.

“Playing postseason games helps a lot,” president of business operations Rick Schlesinger said as the team entered its fifth playoff appearance in the past six years. “It’s great for the fans, great for the brand. Doesn’t hurt on the revenue side.

“We mean a lot to the community, we generate a lot of excitement and a lot of revenue for the state, and I think that’s relevant in terms of the debate that we’re having.”

Brewers principal owner Mark Attanasio calls it “dialogue” with Wisconsin lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, who have been discussing the future of the franchise since the spring. The Brewers’ current lease with the Southeast Wisconsin Professional Baseball Park District, a state-created agency which has owned and maintained the stadium since it opened as Miller Park in 2001, runs through 2030.

Wisconsin’s Democratic governor, Tony Evers, proposed $290 million in the state budget in February as part of a plan to fund close to $450 million in upgrades, in exchange for the Brewers extending the lease through 2043. Republicans who control the state legislature introduced their own plan last month calling for $600 million from state and local sources, with $100 million coming from the Brewers. Under the Republican plan, the lease would be extended through 2050.

That funding would go to capital projects from the boilers in the basement to the stadium’s fan-shaped convertible roof, plus other projects to keep American Family Field on par with current standards across Major League Baseball, as required by the lease the team signed with the state prior to construction in the late 1990s.

“We’ve actually had really good receptivity, bipartisan receptivity, and I think that’s because this is a model private/public partnership for 20 years,” Attanasio said. “We could point to any number of examples in cities where it doesn’t work. We don’t need to do that other than to point to all the successes here.

“I’m very excited that we can keep baseball in Milwaukee until 2050 if this all works out.”

The team generates around $20 million in annual state income and sales tax revenue, including income taxes from players. A study commissioned by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Association of Commerce in 2020 contended that the stadium generated $2.5 billion in statewide economic impact from its opening through 2019.

Schlesinger and other club officials will be in attendance on Thursday when the Assembly’s Committee on State Affairs holds a hearing about the stadium funding issue.

“We’ve had really good dialogue with the Democrats. We’ve had really good dialogue with Republicans. They’re going to work at their own pace,” Schlesinger said. “As much as I would like to accelerate things, I think I’ve realized in this process that you can’t rush politics.

“The word consensus is usually not a word used in Madison these days, but I’m hearing really good talks and discussions from people. They want to objectively make this work.”