Is Miller Park being underutilized?

[Invader3K]

I don't really see what the appeal of basketball at Miller Park would really be. The Bradley Center is a perfectly suitable venue.

[paul253]

I don't really see what the appeal of basketball at Miller Park
would really be. The Bradley Center is a perfectly suitable venue.

Tell that to the Bucks : ). The only reason I want to see basketball is because it would either be a marquee non-conference game (Michigan St, Wisconsin, maybe a team like North Carolina or Kentucky), a game that would easily sell the BC out. Or I still think third and fourth round NCAA tournament games would be a good fit. I don't know if you'd necessarily sell it out, but I'm sure you could draw more than the 18,600 the BC can fit. Plus it would be a nice way to promote the stadium and if successful would lead to more NCAA tournaments. They seem to stick to the same venues quite a bit (Indy, Minneapolis, Greensboro, etc.)

[temke]

some thoughts on what has been posted already...

 

supercross racing: i was watching this a couple weeks ago on TV and thought the same thing. i checked out their schedule, and it is done by may. as was mentioned, the heating may be an issue if they tried to do an event in even march. and i think it would be tough to get the grass to grow if it were covered in all that dirt for a week or so before and during the event.

 

badger hockey: they stopped playing the showdown in milwaukee due to a lack of interest. back in the "bring the NHL to milwaukee" days they had no problem selling the joint out for a couple games. at the end the attendance was verging on embarrassing. they have also already done lambeau and are doing camp randall next week so that may be close to getting played out.

 

hoops: as was said, the heat problem would come up. also, it would be tough to configure the seating. people who went to ford field said there were maybe a couple thousand good seats for hoops. the rest were crap. for any game played at the cowboys stadium, if it is set up like ford field, more people will watch the game on the enormous screen than the actual live action on the floor.

 

ncaa tournament: marquette is the official host for the tournament games, and they have repeatedly said they would rather host first and second round games because they have the opportunity to host 8 teams instead of 4 during the regional round. they can only host every 4-5 years, and i cant imagine they will lose out on the rotation as the NCAA likes to make sure that every area is covered geographically. some of the places out west arent the greatest venues, but they continue to use them to keep the geography balanced. UW does not have enough hotel rooms available to host first and second round games (at least they didnt a couple years ago) so milwaukee wont lost anything to them. the rotation of chicago, mpls, indy, milwaukee, and detroit will likely stay in place. i dont see UW getting another regional either. they are moving many of these to domes also...3 of 4 in 2010, 3 of 4 in 2011, 2 of 4 in 2012.

 

the biggest problem is that it is hard to do these events during the baseball season, and you always run the risk of it being too cold to hold an event during the offseason...assuming you cant schedule anything there until november http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[TooLiveBrew]

I think they could heat it up for basketball, just need a bunch of portable heaters in the court area.

You don't seriously believe portable heaters would solve the problem of heating that gigantic space, do you?

[Invader3K]

Basketball at Miller Park would just be...weird. I don't see how the seating would be configured to make it palatable at all. That aside from the fact they wouldn't sell enough tickets to make it worthwhile.

[pitchleague]

supercross racing: i was watching this a couple weeks ago on TV and thought the same thing. i checked out their schedule, and it is done by may. as was mentioned, the heating may be an issue if they tried to do an event in even march. and i think it would be tough to get the grass to grow if it were covered in all that dirt for a week or so before and during the event.

 

 

Many of the supercross events that are in baseball stadiums tend to be scheduled for December or January, giving the grounds crew plenty of time to get the field ready again. Not saying you're wrong (Miller Park already has sunlight problems and random problems with the grass in general.)

 

 

 

hoops: as was said, the heat problem would come up. also, it would be tough to configure the seating. people who went to ford field said there were maybe a couple thousand good seats for hoops. the rest were crap. for any game played at the cowboys stadium, if it is set up like ford field, more people will watch the game on the enormous screen than the actual live action on the floor.

 

And this is one of the reasons why hoops is played in small-ish (20,000) arenas. If you get too far away from the action, which is confined to a small court, the players look like ants and it's pointless to attend. It's why I'll never bother trying to get final four tickets, because unless you know someone and get the good (read: expensive) seats, you won't watch the floor and instead will watch a glorified big-screen the whole time. Heck, so many sporting events aren't "worth" attending since you'll get a much better look at the event (football, baseball, you name it) on you television. The only thing "worth" a hill of beans is the "experience" of "being there."

 

But a World Series in Miller Park will be SOOOOOOOOOO "worth it!"

[ilovebeer]

They did have a big bowling event threre a couple of year ago and maybe uwm should play all there games there or have a tournament

[BREWERPRIDE]

They dont re do the field like every other outdoor field, so I dont think they would want it to get torn up.