Miller Park name change coming after the 2020 season

[FVBrewerFan]

Enough of the political talk please.

[jerichoholicninja]

Wouldn't naming rights have already been hashed out when the funding bill was signed? If the lawmakers granted that to the Brewers when the stadium bill was passed, then NO, the 5 county taxpayers wouldn't have any say in the naming of the stadium. That would seem like something specifically spelled out at the outset. I could be wrong.

 

It wasn't and they can't. It should have been part of the original plan, but it was negotiated by a bunch of politicians who generally are idiots...

 

I think we can safely assume this has never, ever happened in the history of publicly financed stadiums. And I see no reason why anyone would agree to it.

[JohnBriggs12]

So the franchise will now be called the Milwaukee Underwriters? The team is the Brewers and Miller Park made sense.

[Madhawk23]

I would imagine it'll be called American Family Field, that fans will eventually just start calling Am Fam Field. Not terrible, but I agree - Miller Park just made so much sense that this just seems wrong. One of the biggest US breweries HQ'd just down the street with naming rights of the MLB baseball team in the state that just happens to be nicknamed the "Brewers." I mean, has there ever been a more obvious naming rights sponsor? Will be interesting to see how many people just refuse to call it by it's new name after 2020 and continue to call in Miller Park?

 

Also, do people really think we'll ditch the current logo? I guess I never really thought we had that logo just because Miller was the naming rights sponsor of the stadium that we play in? I'd love it though if the trade off is that we get to go back to the ball and glove look as our primary logo/uni.

[TheEndless7]

So why assume it’s the Brewers’ fault? I put the blame on MillerCoors before I do the Brewers.

Because they make the decision. I don't really care about the name change. I just think it's an odd way of going about business. Two years before they needed to they announce a name change to the stadium.

 

Yet from my understanding, the Brewers hand was forced. The leaked memo that got the news was from Millercoors employees. The Brewers response seemed reactionary. It doesn't surprise me that these types of deals are negotiated years in advance and they'll take time to get up and running. I hate to think of the planning and what not that goes into just taking down the gigantic 'Miller Park' on the top of the home plate gate. I would think the Brewers probably didn't want to announce it yet, but would rather do so than go through the whole Fiserv thing with the bucks.

 

What are they going to do? Spend two years saying 'We don't know' about their naming rights after Miller already pulled out? To me it feels more like their hand was forced and they just said 'screw it let's just announce it'. I would highly doubt we'd be learning this today if not for the Millercoors memo. But maybe I have my timeline wrong.

 

That being said, public approval of stadium names is....not a good way to go about anything. And if the name of the building they play in affects anyone's enjoyment of Brewer baseball, then they should probably take a step back and take a deep breath. It's not like the team was 'The Milwaukee Government Bureaucrats' when they played in 'Milwaukee County Stadium' the notion that 'Brewers' is only validated by 'Miller Park' is absurd to me. Right up there with, "Well it just shows the corporation is gouging it's customers to be able to afford it!" Uh-huh. Cuz Beers aren't 10$ inside the ballpark. Or does it not count when the corporation with the snappier name is doing it?

 

Do I think Miller Park sounds better than Amfam Field? Yeah. But I don't think it'll be a 'Sears Tower' type thing given that we're going to hear it constantly on broadcasts and it'll eventually work it's way into the vernacular.

[JohnBriggs12]

When you think about it, this make sense. Used to be a lot of both car ads and beer ads. Now, virtually every ad is an insurance company and their nemesis, the trial lawyers. Guess it's the natural progression from cars and beer to insurance and lawyers. That's not their money their spending either. it's yours and mine.

 

Wonder if Badger Mutual will still advertise on game broadcasts?

[AJOHNSON104]

This article shows the amount paid for many naming rights deals.

 

http://www.espn.com/sportsbusiness/s/stadiumnames.html

[FVBrewerFan]

When you think about it, this make sense. Used to be a lot of both car ads and beer ads. Now, virtually every ad is an insurance company and their nemesis, the trial lawyers. Guess it's the natural progression from cars and beer to insurance and lawyers. That's not their money their spending either. it's yours and mine.

 

Wonder if Badger Mutual will still advertise on game broadcasts?

 

Actually, it IS their money and they can spend it however they want.

[nodakfan17]

I’m going to be upset if my homeowner’s insurance goes up next year.

[nodakfan17]

Actually, it IS their money and they can spend it however they want.

I think they’re now a mutual insurance company, so wouldn’t AmFam technically be owned by its policy holders? I got tons of mail about this ... probably should have read it closer.

[FVBrewerFan]

Actually, it IS their money and they can spend it however they want.

I think they’re now a mutual insurance company, so wouldn’t AmFam technically be owned by its policy holders? I got tons of mail about this ... probably should have read it closer.

 

Yes, like the Packers fans own the Green Bay Packers ; )

[folly412]

Gonna get some Badger Mutual Insurance runs at American Family Insurance Park by hitting a home run into the Northwestern Mutual Insurance Beer Pen, then watch Bernie go down the State Farm Insurance slide.

[dlk9s]

Disappointed that the stadium won’t have a simple/catchy name anymore. When you need to stop to take a breath half way through saying the stadium name, something isn’t right.

 

Damn, dude, buy some Nicorette or something.

[josh]

Calling for a grassroots movement to name the park "Ding Dong City".

[TURBO]

Calling for a grassroots movement to name the park "Ding Dong City".

 

[Baldkin]

Calling for a grassroots movement to name the park "Ding Dong City".

 

Gotta get Hostess involved!!

[OnaBadger58]

Tom Haudricourt

@Haudricourt

 

#Brewers COO Rick Schlesinger steadfastly declined to say how much AFI spent on 15-year naming rights deal. Miller has paid $2 million per year on its 20-year deal so you have to believe the new deal is worth at least $50 million.

 

3:30 PM - 22 Jan 2019 from Wisconsin, USA

[JohnBriggs12]

When you think about it, this make sense. Used to be a lot of both car ads and beer ads. Now, virtually every ad is an insurance company and their nemesis, the trial lawyers. Guess it's the natural progression from cars and beer to insurance and lawyers. That's not their money their spending either. it's yours and mine.

 

Wonder if Badger Mutual will still advertise on game broadcasts?

 

Actually, it IS their money and they can spend it however they want.

 

They got the money from you and me and everyone who pays premiums. Insurance revenue should be going largely to the insured who suffer losses. But Geico, Progressive, Farmers, State Farm, etc. etc. etc. end up helping the television networks with their billions in ad spending more than they do their insured.

[tmwiese55]

Tom Haudricourt

@Haudricourt

 

#Brewers COO Rick Schlesinger steadfastly declined to say how much AFI spent on 15-year naming rights deal. Miller has paid $2 million per year on its 20-year deal so you have to believe the new deal is worth at least $50 million.

 

3:30 PM - 22 Jan 2019 from Wisconsin, USA

 

Probably true that it's gone up. However, it also wouldn't surprise me if it stagnated or even went down either as corporations realize that things like this don't really increase revenues. But yes general inflation one would think it still went up

[MrTPlush]

Tom Haudricourt

@Haudricourt

 

#Brewers COO Rick Schlesinger steadfastly declined to say how much AFI spent on 15-year naming rights deal. Miller has paid $2 million per year on its 20-year deal so you have to believe the new deal is worth at least $50 million.

 

3:30 PM - 22 Jan 2019 from Wisconsin, USA

 

Whew! An extra $2mil a year! Don't kid yourself, this isn't helping improve the on field team even one sliver. $2-$3mil extra a year isn't going to make or break any addition. If we are competing we would spend the extra money anyway, if we aren't it is just going into the owners pocket.

 

I know why it was done and wouldn't expect them not to do this, but if you think this will ever improve the on the field performance...whew, rude awakening. This is just to make the team worth more and more profitable.

[patrickgpe]

As McCalvey mentioned on Twitter, the park immediately to Milwaukee's south is named after gum. Life goes on.

I don’t care that Miller isn’t the sponsor. The nice thing about Miller park and Bradley Center were they were corporate names that didn’t sound like one. Fiserv Forum is ok. American Family Field screams corporate sponsor. In general if the corporate name is more than one word, I’m not ok with it.

[OnaBadger58]

As McCalvey mentioned on Twitter, the park immediately to Milwaukee's south is named after gum. Life goes on.

I don’t care that Miller isn’t the sponsor. The nice thing about Miller park and Bradley Center were they were corporate names that didn’t sound like one. Fiserv Forum is ok. American Family Field screams corporate sponsor. In general if the corporate name is more than one word, I’m not ok with it.

Seeing that Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium is home of the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, I guess it could be worse.

[bork]

I haven't really cared about changing names since they attached BMO Harris to the Bradley Center. If it means more money, fine.

 

How many names have the Convention Center and the MECCA arena had now?

[homer]

When you think about it, this make sense. Used to be a lot of both car ads and beer ads. Now, virtually every ad is an insurance company and their nemesis, the trial lawyers. Guess it's the natural progression from cars and beer to insurance and lawyers. That's not their money their spending either. it's yours and mine.

 

Wonder if Badger Mutual will still advertise on game broadcasts?

 

Actually, it IS their money and they can spend it however they want.

 

They got the money from you and me and everyone who pays premiums.

 

Didn't Miller get its money from the beer we bought?

[anglotiger]

Team gets more money from AmFam? Great. It's a name of a building.

 

Exactly. As long as there's more money to improve the team I don't care one way or another.

 

I agree. I was surprised at the vehemence of some of the negative opinions expressed here, although I shouldn't have been, as I've experienced a parallel situation to this one:

 

From 1913 to 2006 my soccer team back home in London played at "Arsenal Stadium" - which we all just called "Highbury" (for the part of London it sat in). In 2006, the club moved to a new Stadium they had built (with private money) which held a lot more people. They did this to stay financially competitive. A part of that was, unfortunately, the sale of naming rights for the new Stadium (after 93 years of the same Stadium with the same name) - which were purchased by Emirates Airlines, leading to "Emirates Stadium". Much like the reaction here, Arsenal fans were up in arms about it at first but, like the views quoted above, we also realized that it was necessary to help keep the team competitive, so we stopped complaining. As we all hated the new name, most of us just seemed to adopt the phrase "going to The Arsenal" (which had been used by some for a long time anyway) or something similar, and that got us around our angst about the name.

 

The thing to remember, as said by others here, is that it's just the name on a building. If Mark Attanasio uses that money to improve the team and the fan experience, I'm all for it - even if the name becomes a mouthful. I'll just say "I'm going to The Brewers" instead of "I'm going to Miller Park".