MILLERCOORS LOSES NAMING RIGHTS TO BREWERS’ STADIUM
The home of the Milwaukee Brewers will have a different name starting in 2021 with American Family Insurance replacing Miller as the stadium’s naming rights sponsor. It’s unclear what the new name of the presently titled Miller Park will be, but Chicago-based MillerCoors confirmed to the Sun-Times that it will lose the naming rights to the facility after 2020.
“Late last year another Wisconsin company, American Family Insurance, pitched the Brewers an incredibly rich offer for the future naming rights to Miller Park, and we’re proud to welcome American Family to the family we’ve been part of for generations,” a MillerCoors spokesperson said in a statement.
“While the name on the stadium will change after the 2020 season, we fully expect Brewers fans inside and outside the stadium will continue to celebrate every home run and every strikeout with one of our beloved brands.”
American Family CEO Jack Salzwedel said the Madison-based company was approached by the Brewers last fall after the team came within a game of its first World Series appearance since 1982. The new naming-rights deal will be for 15 years.
“We’ve had a really long relationship [with the Brewers],” Salzwedel said. “The question of naming rights comes to us all the time from lots of different places across the United States, but this is right in our backyard. I was happy when they brought it up and we jumped on the opportunity.”
Brewers CEO Rick Schlesinger said, “This is a relationship with a very sophisticated Fortune 500 company that will widen our brand and it’s a collaboration between two dynamic companies with a passion for sports in our community.”
Miller Park, appropriately sponsored by one of the largest beer brands in the country for a franchise called the Brewers, opened in 2001 as the replacement for Milwaukee County Stadium. It’s well-known for its fanshaped retractable roof, which can open and close in roughly 10 minutes.
When the Brewers and Miller first struck a deal on naming rights in 1996, the $41.2 million pact was the largest stadium naming rights deal ever agreed to by an MLB team.
Miller, one of the oldest breweries in the United States, is currently part of the Molson Coors Brewing Company, which was formed by the 2005 merger of Molson and Coors. The brand was acquired by Molson Coors in 2016 after previous owner SABMiller agreed to divest itself of the Miller brands as part of its merger with Anheuser-Busch InBev.