Milwaukee Brewers Announce Team Is For Sale!

The Milwaukee Journal/Sentinal ^ | January 16, 2004 | Milwaukee_Guy

[Milwaukee_Guy]

I am not a sports fan but I do have to pay taxes to support the recently built $400 million dollar Crystal Palace the Brewers call home here. The Seligs ponied up less than 20 million dollars for this extravaganza.

The Faustian Pact was, that the new taxpayer funded stadium would allow the Brewers to spend more on the players salaries because attendance would go up. Well, attendance is falling, the team is doing poorly, the new President was fired after only one year and the player salary budget was slashed to 30 million dollars.

This is Triple AAA salaries folks.

IMHO there is -no- real gaurantee that the Brewers will find a buyer that will accept terms that force the new buyer/buyers to stay in Milwaukee. When you spend hundreds of millions of dollars to aquire a sports franchise you do -not- accept any strings in the agreement.

Wish us luck, we'll need it......

[TommyDale]

There's a group in the Triad area (Greensboro/Winston-Salem) that was talking about bringing the Minnesota Twins down here, before the deal fell through. Maybe they can get the Brewers instead. Big draw from Raleigh to Charlotte...

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Maybe we should get together a FR consortium and buy the team! :-)

[brewcrew]

All the media is reporting is the positive spin the Brewers' board of directors is putting on this: the Brewers can't move because of the iron clad lease they have with the Stadium Board and Miller Park.

I say bull$#!+. Anybody who comes in with $120-150MM gets to write their own rules. My bride and I say the Brewers are gone before the year 2010, and all of us get to mop up the mess by continuing to shell out our hard-earned tax dollars to pay for their Taj Mahal.

The only way they stay is if they're purchased locally (Dick Strong, perhaps?).

[flashbunny]

We'd better start coming up with new uses for miller park soon. I forsee a lot of concerts coming to the area...

[brewcrew]

It'll be a damned nice place to watch a Triple A team, that's for sure.

[Semper911]

Milwaukee_Guy just said that the terms of the sale are that the new owners have to keep the team in Milwaukee, since the city built them a stadium with Milwaukee_Guy's tax dollars.

MLB needs to get rid of a few teams, but I doubt the Brew Crew will be one of them any time soon.

[Howie66]

I just checked my billfold and found that between the wife and the kids, I still have a 20 there. If they've got a 10, it's a deal.

[flashbunny]

Isn't that what we've been doing for the past several years???

[brewcrew]

Well, yes, except they'll be competing against other Triple A teams, so they might have a shot at - dare I say it - a winning season.

[Milwaukee_Guy]

I am aware of nothing that -legally- forces the Brewers to stay in Milwaukee, other than statements by the the Seligs.

Given our shrinking market, poor media revenues, poor fan support (it's all about the Packers here) and poor management. I wouldn't rule out MLB intervening and ultimately forcing a move out of Milwaukee.

Taxpayers be damned......

[billbears]

Good grief, I'd never get another day of work done!! Wasn't much on the Twins but I'll take ANY pro baseball team here in NC

[John H K]

I am aware of nothing that -legally- forces the Brewers to stay in Milwaukee, other than statements by the the Seligs.

It all depends on the stadium lease.

The way the lease is written for the Devil Rays, for example, essentially makes them unmoveable.

If Wisconsin and the city didn't have a similar lease for the Brewers after ponying up that money for the stadium they're even dumber than the Selig family, and that's pretty dumb.

[Milwaukee_Guy]

Miller Park may become the home for the "Battle of the 70's Hair Bands.

400 million dollars down the tube......

[The PeteMan]

Pretty sad when the stadium cost more than the ball club is worth.

[ambrose]

Los Angeles has it right...

Dodger Stadium is privately owned, as is Staples Arena.

When Al Davis demanded a new stadium, we told him to get lost.

[ambrose]

I hope this means we can finally be rid of Bud Selig. Baseball needs a real commissioner.

[krb]

Milwaukee Brewers Announce Team Is For Sale!

Is this one of those eBay jokes?

[eddie willers]

Well I'll take this opportunity to say, "Thanks for sending the Braves down here".

[Milwaukee_Guy]

Notice that the Journal/Sentinal article makes no mention of any agreement binding the Brewers to Milwaukee.