Sports: Tom Haudricourt: AmFam deal helps Brewers be competitive.
There is one conversation that Milwaukee Brewers chief operating officer Rick Schlesinger never has had with principal owner Mark Attanasio.
“Mark has never said to me, ‘Hey, we’re not going to have a huge payroll, so you can take your foot off the gas a little bit with revenue.’ I’ve never heard him say that and never will,” Schlesinger said with a smile.
With that in mind, it was a big day for the club Tuesday when the Brewers announced a new 15-year ballpark naming
rights deal with American Family Insurance. The original 20-year deal with MillerCoors, which resulted in the name Miller Park, expires after the 2020 season, at which time the ballpark will be renamed.
The ballpark’s new name will be announced at a later date, and Schlesinger steadfastly declined to reveal financial terms of the deal with AFI. The 20-year deal with MillerCoors was for $40 million, and considering AFI stepped up to win this deal, you have to figure it’s worth at least $50 million.
The Brewers, who have 21 players signed for about $113 million, already are headed for their highest opening day payroll. They just signed freeagent catcher Yasmani Grandal to a one-year, $18.25 million deal, pushing their payroll to new heights (the previous high was $104 million in 2015).
So, every little bit helps. The Brewers are operating in the smallest market in Major League Baseball, so maximizing their revenue streams remains vital to competing against big-pockets clubs. Their next big negotiation will be for a local TV deal, which is expected to come up for renewal with Fox Sports Wisconsin after the 2020 season.
“From our perspective, we want to do everything we can to generate revenue to help (general manager) David (Stearns) with the payroll, at the major-league level,” Schlesinger said. “Particularly this year, because the team is poised for that kind of investment.
“Mark is always pushing us on the business operations side to do what we can but we always feel that way anyway.”
After opening the ’15 season with a club record payroll, the Brewers embarked on a massive rebuilding project that stripped salaries from the roster. They operated around $60 million for a couple of seasons before becoming competitive earlier than expected and boosting their payroll to about $91 million at the start of last season.
Now, after coming within one victory of the World Series, the Brewers must pay to keep their players and add others to remain competitive. One factor in their favor is booming ticket sales for the 2019 season after the team’s surge to the NLCS last fall.
Schlesinger said the club is “double digits ahead” in percentage of ticket sales from a year ago, when business was brisk. He said renewals of season tickets are at 98%, which “we have not seen in the past.”
“We have incredible fan support, so that really helps,” Schlesinger said. “I will tell you with a lot of confidence I am expecting a very, very robust attendance number.
“Our job is to responsibly to David can invest it wisely in the farm system and major-league roster, and we can invest it wisely in the facility here.”
Schlesinger would not provide details of where MillerCoors fell in the current negotiations, but it sounded as if that company had a chance to retain naming rights but was outbid considerably by AFI.
“We approached American Family last summer and broached the topic,” Schlesinger said. “We were very aggressive in talking to them.
“They checked a lot of boxes as a company that should be a focal point, so we pursued them early.”
Because the name Miller Park went so well with a club named the Brewers, the initial reaction among many fans was negative. That name will remain for two more seasons and Schlesinger said Miller will remain a big part of the club’s marketing.
Of that emotional attachment of fans to the ballpark’s current name, Schlesinger said: “What I’d say is fans will have some time to get used to it. We’re going to be respectful with the name, respectful to their heritage. Miller beer is a prominent part of our experience here and I don’t see that changing. I think at the end, the fans will appreciate that this is good for Milwaukee and good for the Brewers.”