by Jon Styf
The Milwaukee Brewers have reportedly threatened to look into moving the team, currently leading the National League Central, if they do not receive the taxpayer funding they want to renovate American Family Field.
The legitimacy of those threats, published anonymously by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, are being questioned.
The Brewers have been pushing hard for the taxpayer subsidies, spending $575,000 on lobbying efforts at the state level already in the first half of 2023 despite no concrete commitments to a return.
Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred made a similar threat in Milwaukee in May.
But, as Neil DeMause of Field of Schemes points out, the story does not state which side of negotiations the source was on and the “non-threat threat” is a common tactic used when teams are looking for stadium subsidies that he outlined in his book with the same name, Field of Schemes.
“It is at least a little alarming, if not entirely surprising, to see a major newspaper playing along with the threat without questioning it in the slightest, let alone without following journalistic ethical principles by saying, ‘Yeah, if you want to throw that allegation out there, you’re going to have to be willing to say it by name, what do we look like, stooges willing to turn over our news coverage to anyone in a position of power who wants to get something into the headlines?'” DeMause wrote.
Economist J.C. Bradbury of Kennesaw State University in Georgia follows stadium subsidy issues across the country, especially the Atlanta Braves’ Truist Park. The Braves, of course, moved from Milwaukee in 1966 and Milwaukee got a new team when the Seattle Pilots declared bankruptcy after one season and moved to Milwaukee.
He said it’s really hard to tell how real relocation threats are.
“Perhaps they are persuasive to legislators, especially when presented in the owner’s box during game,” Bradbury said. “I think it’s important to remember that voters really don’t like handing over tax dollars to pro sports teams (many polls show this, if you would like some links), which is why most teams have stopped the blackmailing strategies that were popular through the 1980s. Voters don’t like it, and they have a tendency to vote out representatives who approve the handouts.”
Bradbury pointed to George Petak, the Wisconsin state senator who was voted out after playing an important role in a senate vote to approve building Miller Park in 1995 using a 0.1% five-county sales tax. Petak, from Kenosha, went against strong opposition from the Racine County Board to include Racine in that sales tax.
Milwaukee County Supervisor Sheldon Wasserman recently proposed reviving the five-county sales tax to raise $400 million for stadium renovations while Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley has also asked for permission to spend some of the county’s new sales tax haul on other pension costs, freeing up funds that would have been spent on pensions for the stadium renovations.
Those proposals have been strongly opposed by County Supervisor Peter Burgelis, who said residents are strongly opposed to the sales tax.
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Jon Styf is a staff reporter at The Center Square.
