Miller Park economic impact put at $2.5B
Tax that maintained, built it will sunset soon
Miller Park has generated $2.5 billion for the economies of the city of Milwaukee and the state of Wisconsin, according to a new study commissioned by the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce.
The study, conducted by Conventions, Sports & Leisure International, was released Monday by the MMAC. It comes as the original Miller Park lease is in its 20th and final year, and the five county sales tax that helped build and maintain the stadium is about to reach its sunset, long after originally expected.
“Twenty years ago, MMAC made the case to our members and to state policymakers that keeping Milwaukee a major-league city was a wise investment,” said Tim Sheehy, president of the MMAC. “This independent study shows that the actual return on that investment has exceeded our expectations.”
The study says the construction and continued operation of Miller Park generated $1.6 billion in direct spending, a total of 1,835 in annual jobs and $1.2 billion in personal earnings.
The $2.5 billion overall impact represents “cumulative net new impacts” that would not have been realized without the existence of the Milwaukee Brewers and Miller Park, the report says.
The study also confirmed what has been evident for years — the ballpark has been an overwhelming success in attracting fans to watch the Brewers play and attend other events, such as concerts.
Despite operating in the smallest market in Major League Baseball, Miller Park has averaged 2.7 million paid attendees per year, including 2.9 million in baseball attendance last year, eighth highest in the sport.
About 22% of ballpark event attendees come from the city of Milwaukee, 38% within Milwaukee County and 86% within the state’s boundaries.
“The other side of this is the good will to the community,” Sheehy said. “This is very much a good-for-business case from our perspective. Being a majorleague city helps us recruit and retain talent, and it helps us recruit and retain companies. That’s our stake in this.”
The Brewers supplied the economic data requested by CSL to do the study, and they obviously were pleased with its economic conclusions.
“Intuitively, I expected it to say that Miller Park and the Brewers have been good for the community, and the investment well worth undertaking,” said Rick Schlesinger, Brewers president of business operations. “It’s nice to see objective statistical analysis to justify those intuitive views. The numbers spell it out.
“The methodology used was not something invented for this study. It’s used quite commonly to evaluate the
impact both in the public sector and private sector to get a sense of direct and indirect benefits that a specific type of economic activity generates. It required me to read the report more than once, but I have a lot of confidence in the methodology and the numbers.
“It’s a great testament to a lot of people, including the MMAC, Mr. (Bud) Selig, the elected officials, the public in the mid ’90s to overcome some fierce objections from some people to not only build Miller Park but then for (current owner) Mark Attanasio to come in and see what Bud and Wendy Selig had started to make this a really fantastic place to watch games.”
One finding that piqued Sheehy’s interest was the $8 million per year in income tax from the salaries of Brewers players and their opponents.
“If we don’t have major-league baseball, we don’t have that revenue coming in,” Sheehy said. “So, but for this activity, we don’t generate this economic output. We don’t generate this tax revenue.”
During the boom in building sports facilities across the country over the past 30 to 40 years, with an overwhelming majority using at least some public funding, there has been much debate by economic experts about the actual economic benefit to respective cities and states. Some insist that impact has been greatly exaggerated.
A statement from CSL said the study used information bases on estimates, assumptions and other information developed from research of the market, knowledge of sporting events and other factors, including certain information provided by the Brewers and other stakeholders.
“CSL has not independently audited or verified any information provided to us, and we have assumed such information is correct,” that statement said.
Asked why skeptics should believe the figures generated by the study, Sheehy said, “These numbers could be much larger but less believable if CSL hadn’t found this methodology. This is not saying every dollar that was spent wouldn’t have been spent somewhere else.
“This is carving out the dollars spent because of the baseball stadium, for people coming from outside the state and coming from elsewhere in the state to Milwaukee. So, we’ve got a lot of confidence. We used a similar methodology when we talked about funding the new stadium for the Bucks.
To date, approximately $605 million in taxes have been collected to pay for the construction of Miller Park and the Stadium District’s ongoing financial obligations to operate it. Since 2001, the Brewers have paid $19.8 million in rent to the district and another $106.8 million to maintain and enhance the ballpark.
For those leery that the study was commissioned as a reason to extend the 0.1% sales tax in Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington, Waukesha and Racine counties, beyond its announced sunset in March, Sheehy said no such agenda existed.
Last fall, the Legislature passed and Gov. Tony Evers signed a bill that requires the sales tax to disappear by Aug. 31.
Sheehy made it sound as if further financial commitment of some sort could be necessary to keep Miller Park as a state-of-the-art facility.
“All you can do is run the lap with the baton you are passed,” Sheehy said.
“The funding of Miller Park up to this point, we haven’t dropped it. We’re carrying it forward. It’s something the community is going to have to think about again because the solution that is Miller Park, and the financing that went into supporting that, gave us this lease period.”
He added: “As we come to the end of that and look forward, we’re going to have to think about what we do as a community to make sure there is baseball being played here in 2040. We tried to do our part when we got the baton, and somebody else is going to have to pick it up.
“We’re not trying to scare anybody. But we’re going to have to continue to make that kind of investment because it never ends.”