Legislation being introduced for future funding of American Family Field: UPDATE New lease through 2050

[Brewcrew82]

On 11/14/2023 at 2:29 PM, MrTPlush said:

In question of passing today maybe...but that was arguably one of the smoothest new stadium/major renovation deals in recent history. 

I worked at the Capitol a few years ago when I was still in school at UW and retain some connections there. It was a real dogfight to get this through the Senate. They didn't have the votes until early this morning when the Dem leader gave the go-ahead to the fence sitters in her caucus after the amendment for MKE representation on the board and the increased ticket tax. Wouldn't have passed otherwise. 

Compared to when they first built the stadium, though, yes this was smooth. 

[Brewcrew82]

2 minutes ago, patrickgpe said:

yeah the bucks deal was sailed through pretty easy. Politicians are getting more creative in getting these done because for most a sales tax increase is a non-starter. I like the idea of trying income tax into the deal, because thats money that wouldn't be available if the team left. 

Yeah. Employee income tax and seat fee is the way these days, and even that is hugely controversial.

You will never see anything like the 5 county sales tax again.

[MrTPlush]

18 hours ago, Brewcrew82 said:

Yeah. Employee income tax and seat fee is the way these days, and even that is hugely controversial.

You will never see anything like the 5 county sales tax again.

The 5-county tax was bad at face value...even worse the way they left it as an open checkbook with no concrete end date. Rules saying it had to be updated to stay within the such and such standard of stadiums. Just terrible. 

[owbc]

5 hours ago, MrTPlush said:

The 5-county tax was bad at face value...even worse the way they left it as an open checkbook with no concrete end date. Rules saying it had to be updated to stay within the such and such standard of stadiums. Just terrible. 

If the government is going to get in the business of stadium ownership then they need to be in the business of stadium maintenance. Or they need to be charging the Brewers enough rent to pay for the maintenance, which is well into the tens of millions of dollars annually. And that's just maintenance, not upgrades like a new scoreboard every 5 years. There probably should have been an additional pool of money to pay for these maintenance issues that were bound to pop up around the 25 year mark. 

These things are just money pits, period. Doubly so when you have a retractable roof. If the Brewers owned the stadium, their franchise value would go down. And we can't have that. 

[Axman59]

On 11/14/2023 at 1:34 PM, Brewcrew82 said:

They didn't have the votes until early this morning when the Dem majority leader gave the go-ahead to the fence sitters in her caucus after the amendment for MKE representation on the board and the increased ticket tax.

 

Dems are in the minority.

[MVP2110]

26 minutes ago, Axman59 said:

Dems are in the minority.

Not to get political but it was passed with both bipartisan support and bipartisan opposition. The Dem leader giving his go ahead probably pushed a handful of legislators to three support side of things and without those they don't have enough votes 

[Brewcrew82]

39 minutes ago, Axman59 said:

Dems are in the minority.

Typo. GOP majority didn’t have enough votes to pass, so they needed help from the Dems, which the Dem leader milked to get MKE representation on the Stadium Board.

[patrickgpe]

This is one of those things where I’m glad both parties worked together to get it done. Using income tax revenue and a tax on concerts meant that there was no tax on the residents of the state or the 5 county area and we can enjoy brewers baseball until at least 2050

[Axman59]

On 11/16/2023 at 3:14 PM, MVP2110 said:

Not to get political but it was passed with both bipartisan support and bipartisan opposition. The Dem leader giving his go ahead probably pushed a handful of legislators to three support side of things and without those they don't have enough votes 

He said Dem majority leader. The Dem leader in the State Senate is the Dem Minority leader because the Dems are in the minority.

[Brewcrew82]

12 minutes ago, Axman59 said:

He said Dem majority leader. The Dem leader in the State Senate is the Dem Minority leader because the Dems are in the minority.

Yes. It was obviously a typo. 

[Vgmastr]

16 minutes ago, Axman59 said:

He said Dem majority leader. The Dem leader in the State Senate is the Dem Minority leader because the Dems are in the minority.

You must be a blast at parties

[MrTPlush]

The Brewers sent out a survey today asking for opinions and interests as they embark on renovations, so check your email.

A few concepts were put up for consideration:

1) A revamped family area in the terrace. After answering questions about it, it then hints at the possibility of charging a special ticket package price to even have access. (Yikes)

2) Entertainment district for year round activities. It again asks if you want to pay for it (on non-game days).

3) VIP parking area and potential valet.

4) Fancy Membership (thousands $$)

5) New premium seating areas

 

So basically renovations for people spending big bucks and a reduction in economical areas of the ballpark.

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, MrTPlush said:

The Brewers sent out a survey today asking for opinions and interests as they embark on renovations, so check your email.

A few concepts were put up for consideration:

1) A revamped family area in the terrace. After answering questions about it, it then hints at the possibility of charging a special ticket package price to even have access. (Yikes)

2) Entertainment district for year round activities. It again asks if you want to pay for it (on non-game days).

3) VIP parking area and potential valet.

4) Fancy Membership (thousands $$)

5) New premium seating areas

 

So basically renovations for people spending big bucks and a reduction in economical areas of the ballpark.

Sounds like a rough parallel to some of the things UW is doing/has done regarding the fan experience at the Kohl Center & Camp Randall.

Not sure what their concept of an entertainment district would look like, but it sounds like a nice 'drawing board' idea.

[Jopal78]

1 hour ago, MrTPlush said:

The Brewers sent out a survey today asking for opinions and interests as they embark on renovations, so check your email.

A few concepts were put up for consideration:

1) A revamped family area in the terrace. After answering questions about it, it then hints at the possibility of charging a special ticket package price to even have access. (Yikes)

2) Entertainment district for year round activities. It again asks if you want to pay for it (on non-game days).

3) VIP parking area and potential valet.

4) Fancy Membership (thousands $$)

5) New premium seating areas

 

So basically renovations for people spending big bucks and a reduction in economical areas of the ballpark.

You expected something else? 
 

People who buy a $30 ticket and eat in the parking lot before the game are not as good of customers as corporate outings or special events with catered food and open bar, etc. 

[MrTPlush]

2 hours ago, Jopal78 said:

You expected something else? 
 

People who buy a $30 ticket and eat in the parking lot before the game are not as good of customers as corporate outings or special events with catered food and open bar, etc. 

I find a few of the things pretty surprising. Revamping the family area and wanting to charge for it, especially considering it is in the terrace level, as a weird direction to go. Though I imagine the reaction to that will be negative enough it never sees the light of day. I also found the whole charging for a potential 'ballpark' village pretty odd. I guess it depends on the details, but I don't know why you would make it in a way that it has an admission. I don't know of any other entertainment district that has a generic admission like that (minus a special event occurring).

 

[owbc]

At this point the Brewers have to be one of the only teams left who do not have a premium seating area directly behind home plate. If I were them, that would be my #1 priority with any renovations. But it may come at the cost of booting out some long tenured season ticket holders (who are probably paying the lowest prices in MLB for those seats). The VIP parking/valet would surely be packaged with the above. 

A dedicated family area is intriguing but an upcharge might be a tough sell, unless there is something truly unique about it. 

I didn't follow the legislation too closely, but they are spending a huge chunk of the funds on maintenance, right? And installing air conditioning? 

[Jopal78]

5 hours ago, MrTPlush said:

I find a few of the things pretty surprising. Revamping the family area and wanting to charge for it, especially considering it is in the terrace level, as a weird direction to go. Though I imagine the reaction to that will be negative enough it never sees the light of day. I also found the whole charging for a potential 'ballpark' village pretty odd. I guess it depends on the details, but I don't know why you would make it in a way that it has an admission. I don't know of any other entertainment district that has a generic admission like that (minus a special event occurring).

 

The family area doesn’t surprise me, right now they’re giving that stuff away for free. But even if only 15% of users were willing to pay it’s still better than the zero they’re getting now.

I don’t get the charging for admission to a ball park village, but I guess it would make sense in the context of restricting tailgating to certain lots ( mainly those the furthest away from the stadium and bathrooms) so it’s more convenient to simply eat and drink in the village before and after the game 

[AdvantageSchneider]

That survey reeked of we got too much money from the government and we have no idea what to do with it.  

The price points on all the premium seating services were ridiculous.  $300 or $400 a ticket!?  The best seats right now are what $125 a ticket without any discount.  Who in their right minds is paying $300 for one ticket to a regular season game.  Every game they are advertising suite rentals so they seem to be having problems selling tickets to premium areas for a first place baseball team.  Whoever did that survey does not seem to understand the Milwaukee market at all.  

 

[gypcasino]

6 hours ago, owbc said:

At this point the Brewers have to be one of the only teams left who do not have a premium seating area directly behind home plate. If I were them, that would be my #1 priority with any renovations. 

One of the only teams if not the only team. Even the A's have Diamond Level seating behind home plate. The Brewers really are a relic that lets the fans have the run of  pretty much the whole ballpark, for at least the first hour they're open anyway. You have to think that an actual premium seating area behind home with more comfortable wider and padded seats, a dedicated entrance and exit, f&b package, etc is tops on the list and something a lot of people would pay decent money for. With actual security checking people's tickets, not an 85 year old disinterested usher who lets me into the Club level now with a screenshot of my friend's ticket. 

[Jimbo]

8 hours ago, AdvantageSchneider said:

Whoever did that survey does not seem to understand the Milwaukee market at all.  

 

Possibly some out-of-town consulting group?

 

[MrTPlush]

9 hours ago, AdvantageSchneider said:

That survey reeked of we got too much money from the government and we have no idea what to do with it.  

The price points on all the premium seating services were ridiculous.  $300 or $400 a ticket!?  The best seats right now are what $125 a ticket without any discount.  Who in their right minds is paying $300 for one ticket to a regular season game.  Every game they are advertising suite rentals so they seem to be having problems selling tickets to premium areas for a first place baseball team.  Whoever did that survey does not seem to understand the Milwaukee market at all.  

 

My first thought when I saw the pondering of charging for a ballpark village was "Wow, this is what the state gets for giving the money before knowing what it was for and before the Brewers would commit to a ballpark village." I can't say I am surprised, but it is still pretty pathetic. Hopefully the Brewers can be like every other sports team under the sun that made an entertainment district and find a way to make money with something that is at least free to get in the front gate. 

As far as the insanely expensive all-inclusive areas, I don't know, that seems like a REALLY steep ask for the economical Wisconsin market. The current options are very economical and cheap...and even then often times are not filled with groups. Often they are much under the max capacity. Are Milwaukee businesses really going to go crazy dropping $400+ a ticket to take their groups there? I think a lot of it comes down to the lack of attendance, at least in certain sections. The club outfield is a notable ghost town. You could blow that up and just make expensive areas. 

 

[owbc]

11 hours ago, AdvantageSchneider said:

That survey reeked of we got too much money from the government and we have no idea what to do with it.  

The price points on all the premium seating services were ridiculous.  $300 or $400 a ticket!?  The best seats right now are what $125 a ticket without any discount.  Who in their right minds is paying $300 for one ticket to a regular season game.  Every game they are advertising suite rentals so they seem to be having problems selling tickets to premium areas for a first place baseball team.  Whoever did that survey does not seem to understand the Milwaukee market at all.  

 

Suites are outdated. They only work for large groups and they only sell well on weekends. The Brewers don't have a good premium experience for small groups (like 2-4 people). Hence the premium area directly behind home plate. 

$300-400 would probably still make them the lowest prices in baseball (remember, these seats usually include a bunch of other benefits like unlimited food and drink as mentioned in the comment above). The fact that you can get the best seat at AmFam for $125 is simply incredible in this day and age. 

You don't need a lot of those premium seats, only a couple hundred. There is definitely a market for it. The ones in Seattle are nearly impossible to get ahold of, when I see them on the secondary market they are usually in the $750 range on weeknights. They had to build a second premium area to satisfy the demand (which was basically a bunch of suites converted back into seating). 

Brewers fans are lucky that they don't nickel and dime the average fan as bad as other stadiums. They can make big money on these premium areas and it won't have much of an effect on anyone else who goes to games. 

[gypcasino]

17 minutes ago, owbc said:

Suites are outdated. They only work for large groups and they only sell well on weekends. The Brewers don't have a good premium experience for small groups (like 2-4 people). Hence the premium area directly behind home plate.

The suites are outdated and far from the field. A premium area behind home plate closer to the batter than the pitcher is would definitely sell. No other team has all those seats squashed together the same as they do up in the terrace level.  Maybe Detroit but they're redoing theirs after this season.

[Jopal78]

23 hours ago, MrTPlush said:

 

As far as the insanely expensive all-inclusive areas, I don't know, that seems like a REALLY steep ask for the economical Wisconsin market. The current options are very economical and cheap...

I think you may be being a bit naïve here. The average ticket price for the Bucks at the Fiserv Forum is $130. The court side seats are all sold out and those cost into the thousands. 

Likewise the Packers don’t sell a ticket for less than $135, and they go for at least  double or triple that on or even more on resale sites, where I assume it is not exclusively out of town purchasers.

So yes, if product on the field is good,  the evidence is already there that plenty of local customers are willing to spend premium dollars for sports entertainment. 
 

Of course with 81 games the Brewers will always need to have bargain seats, however like I said earlier  if the Brewers can get 500 people to spend $300 each on a game,  that generates more revenue than 2000 people who eat and drink their own stuff in the parking lot and buy a $45 ticket.

[Outlander]

Having families pay extra to sit in the Terrace and go to the family areas is a tough sell. Paying to go to a Deer District type area seems kind of insane. Some of the other premium seating areas in the survey would seem to make sense to earn more revenue and get the stadium up to date.