This week, I noticed that the Milwaukee Brewers were spending some of their recently acquired taxpayer money on upgrades to their ballpark. This week, the team installed three new items:
- Added a “new main scoreboard” to center field
- Added a new scoreboard to right field
- Brought in a new food place to the ballpark
According to the Brewers, the new main scoreboard will be one of the biggest in all of baseball “boasting full-screen, edge-to-edge coverage, and is more than twice the size of the current display at 5,940 square feet”. The bill for these purchases was $6.45 million. But not to worry as it all is fully paid through the Southeast Wisconsin Professional Baseball Park District, i.e., taxpayers. Those sound like solid improvements. They don’t sound like dire and mandatory capital repairs that needed fixing now.
Last year, people should remember how the Brewers argued about their incredible and immediate need for this money. Also don’t forget that the amount of money that the Brewers demanded from taxpayers for repairs changed often.
- One minute they need $77 million.
- Next moment they need $100 million or else they would leave the city!
- Wait, they meant $290 million!
- Now it is $400 million!
- Wait, in a few years, it will be almost $700 million!
I have no doubt that the ballpark does have repairs that require fixing. When you see a team asking for $77 million for repairs one day and $400 million for repairs the next day (I am exaggerating time-wise), it tells me that the team is trying to see how much money they can get from taxpayers without completely angering the fans and/or local government. It doesn’t tell me that the ballpark suddenly has $400 million dollars worth of needs.
UrbanMilwaukee wrote an excellent article discussing the Brewers demands. In it, like me, he is trying to figure out exactly what the taxpayers are paying for with these wildly different estimates.
“Other than saying the proposed bill would guarantee the stadium lasts until 2050, it’s vague on what exactly the taxpayers are paying for. The original estimate of likely costs through 2040 was $87 million, followed by a consultant…which upped the estimate to $428 million, and followed by (an increase) to about $572 million. Now we’re at a $700 million to take us through 2050. How was that determined? How can these estimates be so wildly different? What precisely will taxpayers be paying for? No one has explained, probably because the more you specify the more it looks like normal business expenses that the Brewers should pay” — UrbanMilwaukee, 10/10/23
Do people remember how the Brewers tried to sell the public on this money? This money was going to fix the dying ballpark! The power, lights and heating/cooling were all about to fail!
The Brewers air conditioning is about to die!
“(The air conditioners are) obsolete. Replacement parts are not being made, so we have to scrounge for them…You’re one failed motor away from a completely useless system” — Brewers President of Business Operations, Rick Schlesinger, Fox 6, 07/13/23
The circuit breakers could make EVERYTHING FAIL!
“The average fan is not conscious of any of this and doesn’t see it. But, if the air conditioning fails, electrical systems fail, absolutely the fans will notice it…A lot of the electrical systems for the ballpark will not work…All the electrical power, the lights, the sport lights, the scoreboards, the emergency lighting, everything that this ballpark generates for power is at the mercy of the circuit breaker” — Brewers President of Business Operations, Rick Schlesinger, Fox 6, 07/13/23
The ballpark power pumps are dead! We need EBay help!
“They’re obsolete, so again, there are no replacement parts,” Schlesinger said. “Literally, if something were to break down, we’d have to find replacement parts on eBay or a secondary source” — Brewers President of Business Operations, Rick Schlesinger, Fox 6, 07/13/23
The Brewers may not even have HEAT for their executives!
“(The ballpark’s boiler) systems are running up to their useful life” — Brewers President of Business Operations, Rick Schlesinger, Fox 6, 07/13/23
The ballpark camera system? Last fixed in the 1990’s or something!
“This is 1990s technology. As you can see, it’s really makeshift, ad hoc connections being done to make sure we can broadcast, because the technology for the trucks is far more advanced that what you’re seeing here…A lot of this is abandoned or obsolete cable runs. All of this needs to be replaced with fiber. This is triax and coax cable. Much of it is antiquated, we need all fiber runs” — Brewers President of Business Operations, Rick Schlesinger, Fox 6, 07/13/23
Dear God, fix the freezers, and please think about where the players can keep their players and executives alcohol!
“We’ve got to keep the beer cold” — Brewers President of Business Operations, Rick Schlesinger, Fox 6, 07/13/23
Do fans want to walk into the ballpark? If so, we require money or else fans may suffer walking over buckling concrete!
“Not only is it unsightly, but it’s a trip hazard…This is concrete that over the course of 20 years of thawing and freezing with our wonderful Wisconsin weather, the concrete is buckling. It’s an ongoing, annual process for us to repair and replace some of the concrete” — Brewers President of Business Operations, Rick Schlesinger, Fox 6, 07/13/23
The Brewers bring in more magical money than anyone else in the universe!
“From every measurement, the Brewers bring to the state economy well more than what it’s looking like we need for funding for the next generation” — Brewers President of Business Operations, Rick Schlesinger, Fox 6, 07/13/23
How in the world did the reporter not follow up and ask Rich where a single measurement showed that? How is that not the first and only thing you would want to know if he said that?
Anyway, back to the Brewers. The only chance that Milwaukee has of making some money back from this spending spree is if development occurs around the ballpark and grows out. But keep in mind that the team already told public officials that it didn’t want to do that because it would cost them parking spaces. In reality, they would rather not spend a dime on it because they wouldn’t get direct revenue from it. This is on top of the fact that the Brewers pay zero in property taxes every year.
