Miller Park name change coming after the 2020 season

[RollieTime]

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.

 

I laughed way too hard at this!

[OnTheBlack]

I don't like the change because Miller Park fit perfectly but I'll still call it Miller Park. I never called the Bradley Center the BMO Harris Bradley Center. I still call the MECCA the MECCA (I literally don't know what the new name is, or what the several iterations have been). The tall office building in Chicago is the Sears Tower. The White Sox play at New Comiskey.

 

No big deal.

 

 

*Full disclosure: I like Miller High Life and detest craft beer. I think craft beer is overrated, overpriced crap.

 

 

I agree 100 pct. On both the beer and not caring about the naming. I do care in that it's going to bring more revenue to the Brewers and as such will hopefully increase the money we can spend. But I'll still call it Miller Park just like most people still call all the buildings you listed by their original names.

[TURBO]

If anyone thinks that the naming rights money will go into the players on the field, I think you are sadly mistaken...

[SeaBass]

If anyone thinks that the naming rights money will go into the players on the field, I think you are sadly mistaken...

Exactly. Even if it's the speculated $50 million over 15 years at best that's an arbitration payment for one Hernan Perez type player per season. Not going to have a huge impact. It's better than not having $50 million over that time but it is what it is. More likely it will go into a maintenance fund for the stadium or facilities or something like that.

 

That said, I'm ok with the name change, Miller Park was kind of perfect but life goes on and as many have said, a lot of people will still call it Miller Park anyway.

[sveumrules]

Unless the Brewers open their books at some point, we'll never know how the stadium naming rights or any other income is allocated.

 

I think we can all agree that the best way to increase expenditures is by increasing revenues.

 

Then again there is the school of thought that more money = more problems.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

If anyone thinks that the naming rights money will go into the players on the field, I think you are sadly mistaken...

Exactly. Even if it's the speculated $50 million over 15 years at best that's an arbitration payment for one Hernan Perez type player per season. Not going to have a huge impact. It's better than not having $50 million over that time but it is what it is. More likely it will go into a maintenance fund for the stadium or facilities or something like that.

 

That said, I'm ok with the name change, Miller Park was kind of perfect but life goes on and as many have said, a lot of people will still call it Miller Park anyway.

 

It's more money. It doesn't have to go to salaries to help them put a better team together.

[FVBrewerFan]

If anyone thinks that the naming rights money will go into the players on the field, I think you are sadly mistaken...

 

Except this doesn't take place in a vacuum. It's the cumulative effect of new TV/radio deals, naming rights, revamping concessions to increase sales, churning out new merchandise to sell, etc. Any one part of this doesn't seem like much, but it all adds up.

 

How they use it doesn't matter much either. Whether they use it to pay down debt, repairs, or even just add it to the bottom line. The better financial shape they're in, the more comfortable they will be spending more on player payroll.

[SeaBass]

It's more money. It doesn't have to go to salaries to help them put a better team together.

I don't think anything I said is contrary to that. But yes, it's more a big picture intake of funds than strictly payroll oriented and all of that goes into making the franchise as a whole more successful.

[istanbultaye]

Somebody stamp all those dollar bills with "Where's George" so we can figure out what the Brewers spend that specific money on!

[bork]

There's an interesting note. Hard to believe we're only 11 years away from having to worry about a new Brewers lease.

 

The sponsorship also runs beyond the team's current stadium lease, which expires in 2030. The final five years of the naming rights agreement, which would expire in 2035, is predicated on an extension of the Brewers stadium lease, the team said.

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/news/2019/01/22/american-family-inks-15-year-stadium-deal-plans.html

[nodakfan17]

There's an interesting note. Hard to believe we're only 11 years away from having to worry about a new Brewers lease.

 

The sponsorship also runs beyond the team's current stadium lease, which expires in 2030. The final five years of the naming rights agreement, which would expire in 2035, is predicated on an extension of the Brewers stadium lease, the team said.

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/news/2019/01/22/american-family-inks-15-year-stadium-deal-plans.html

This was one of my primary concerns about public financing for the new Bucks’ arena. I think it will heighten the uncomfortableness of future ballpark discussions.

[nodakfan17]

Some gems from Twitter:

 

Do you think AmFam would consider a name change to Miller Insurance?

 

This would be a great news if the team was called the Madison Insurers.

 

Maybe AmFam could endear themselves to Brewer fans by adding an adjustable roof to their logo.

[PlayerHader]

Where did the $50 million number come from?

 

I would bet it's significantly more than that for 15 years.

[BradWI]

Where did the $50 million number come from?

 

I would bet it's significantly more than that for 15 years.

 

No way. From the MLB.com article:

 

A source with knowledge of the deal's structure disputed Kanter's characterization of the new agreement, saying, "Any reports of the naming rights compensation offered by American Family being 'incredibly rich' are very exaggerated. The deal is very fair, consistent with the market size, and comparable to the amount teams are receiving in similar naming rights deals."

 

If they were getting $2 million/year from Miller, this deal is likely in the $2.5-3 million range per year.

[xisxisxis]

There's an interesting note. Hard to believe we're only 11 years away from having to worry about a new Brewers lease.

 

The sponsorship also runs beyond the team's current stadium lease, which expires in 2030. The final five years of the naming rights agreement, which would expire in 2035, is predicated on an extension of the Brewers stadium lease, the team said.

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/news/2019/01/22/american-family-inks-15-year-stadium-deal-plans.html

Very interesting.

 

Thinking about this decision a little more, I really think this is a perfect example of business decisions can sometimes be myopic. The team wants us to believe the decision is between offer1 and offer2, offer3, etc. But it really comes down to:

 

offer1 - "Goodwill" > offer2

 

where offer 1 = AmFam, offer2 = MillerCoors and "Goodwill" is the impact on your customer base to the decision.

 

The deal is reportedly for $50M over 15 years or roughly $3.33M per year. Let's say MillerCoors was only willing to pay going rate or $2.67M per year or $40M total. Just looking at those numbers it sorta makes sense, but what is the "Goodwill" impact? If we look at it on a per head count coming in the door. The Brewers average 2.56M a year in attendance since MP opened. That would equate to 38.47M paying customers over that 15 year window. So the $10M difference in offers means that the "Goodwill" would equate to roughly $0.26 per customer per visit. You can also look at it as fraction of average ticket price ($26 roughly for the last few years), so the "Goodwill" cost for the renaming is about 1% ($0.26/$26) of the average ticket price to a game. Given the current reaction (not on Brewerfan, but on social media) there are many, many unhappy Brewers fans. In other words, would you be happy with Apple if they made a change to your phone that only had an overall impact of 1% of the cost, but was universally disliked? They wouldn't do it as that "Goodwill" is important to them. The Brewers have a monopoly of baseball in Milwaukee so they can really do whatever they want, but the difference in the two offers is likely 1% of the ticket price and there really isn't a good chance that their is a huge base of fans that really love the idea of changing the name to "AmFamArama Park and claims kiosk" so there is a lot more downside to the "Goodwill" issue. I would think the Brewers could have looked at other methods to close that gap which would have reduced the "Goodwill" hit they are taking, like increasing the ticket prices 1% (or changing parking/suite costs/concession prices) for a quarter per headcount... Hey, that means someone has to do the heavy lifting while it's easy to just go with the bigger numbers...

[AmFamFan]

Been a lurker for years and enjoyed visiting these forums daily to feed my Brewer fandom. This recent news has finally pushed me to register. I am in management at American Family and can say that the reaction in house is not that different than I am seeing in the general public. I would, however, like to add some more information that may add some additional things to consider. This is not just a naming rights deal for American Family, this is just one aspect of a huge commitment to the greater Milwaukee area in general. American Family has shifted hard into investing in community efforts around the country and Milwaukee was chosen as their next location. Here are some of the other big investments they are making:

 

Milwaukee workplace: Combining the Pewaukee regional office with a mixed-talent group of targeted corporate functions, including local career-development paths.

 

Community investment: Creating deliberate and intentional partnerships with local businesses, government entities and charities to have a lasting economic impact.

 

University partnership: Aligning a variety of university relationships and programs with talent recruitment and development goals, such as tech scholarships, internships and youth development.

 

Institute for Corporate and Social Impact: Extending the mission of the Institute into this new market to increase the impact of our socially-minded investments and partnerships.

 

Storefront and recruitment center: Creating a first-of-its-kind center to provide continuous delivery to market, along with developing a diverse and talented sales base.

 

DreamBank: This will authentically represent and be easily accessible to the greater Milwaukee community through thoughtful and intentional focus on diversity and inclusion of staff, speakers, content, events, tools, resources, partnerships and paid media, all of which will differentiate it from the Madison DreamBank experience.

 

This is going to be a huge investment not only to the park, but also to the community as well.

 

 

All this being said, it will always be Miller Park to me also!

[PlayerHader]

I swear I read that Fiserv paid between 7-10 million a year for naming rights. Or at least that is what the Bucks wanted (which would put the final number well above 3 million, I would guess).

 

Why would the Brewers get a number significantly less than that?

[xisxisxis]

Why would the Brewers get a number significantly less than that?

 

It's the 2nd naming of the stadium, as many people have indicated it will always be "Miller Park" to them so there is often a hit with the 2nd naming as the new name is often ignored. It's very likely after the next naming contract for the Bucks that they get a lot less than the initial naming rights...

[PlayerHader]

Why would the Brewers get a number significantly less than that?

 

It's the 2nd naming of the stadium, as many people have indicated it will always be "Miller Park" to them so there is often a hit with the 2nd naming as the new name is often ignored. It's very likely after the next naming contract for the Bucks that they get a lot less than the initial naming rights...

 

Ah, that makes some sense.

[owbc]

I would think that naming rights for an NBA arena would be far more valuable than an MLB park.

[Iron Chef Napalm]

I doubt it would happen, but I think American Family could enhance their community standing and displace all the Miller angst by going in a slightly different direction. Maybe something like Uecker Field presented by American Family Insurance. The company gets the name recognition, a ton of community goodwill by embracing a local legend, and the fans get to call it The Uke. Sounds better than AmFam Field.

[BrewFan130]

As a Brewers fan the Miller corporation has always gone hand in hand with the Brewers organization. They can change the name all they want, but I’ll always refer to it as Miller Park. My biggest concern is how the stadium will look with a new sign on the face of the stadium. The Miller Park sign is a part of the aesthetics to the stadium and it’s difficult to picture it without it.

[WurstTo1st]

Well.....Kind of knew this was coming eventually. Miller had a 20 year deal for naming rights due to expire soon and I doubted they were going to re-up given declining sales of "macro" brews. Sounds like they would have re-upped at their price but AmFam made a "lucrative offer." The articles I read said that Miller was paying $2.06M per year and got exposure worth $2.47M per year, or whatever it was. My guess is AmFam offered significantly more than that. Whatever I guess. I don't go there because it's called Miller Park, I go there to watch baseball. The team will still be the Brewers and I can still get a Miller beer. Miller Brewing Co. sponsoring the stadium of the hometown team called the Brewers is a natural fit, but this is the nature of pro sports. Very few stadiums hold a name for more than 10-15 years. Don't know why we would think this would be any different. If the increased revenue is used to improve the stadium, fan experience, and product on the field then I'm all for it. The Attanasio led ownership group and front office have given us every reason to believe it will be.

 

Others have mentioned the possible connection to a uniform change. While not exact, the script M on the caps does certainly resemble the Miller M. This also coincides with Under Armor taking over the MLB uniform contract. Seems likely a uniform retooling is probably on the horizon. I just hope they don't do anything drastic if/when they make a change. I'd get behind using the current navy colored alternate caps with the ball and glove logo and that color scheme with the current script Brewers and Milwaukee. No pinstripes please! Continue the royal/pinstripe throwbacks for Friday nights. Get creative on a new alternate if you must.

 

BTW - Joined the forum a couple of years ago and shortly after got very sick, was out of commission for quite some time and just kind of forgot about this forum. Hope to check in more regularly now.

[PlayerHader]

As a Brewers fan the Miller corporation has always gone hand in hand with the Brewers organization. They can change the name all they want, but I’ll always refer to it as Miller Park. My biggest concern is how the stadium will look with a new sign on the face of the stadium. The Miller Park sign is a part of the aesthetics to the stadium and it’s difficult to picture it without it.

 

I bet they put a new sign up in its place.

[homer]

I still refer to Miller Park as County Stadium so this changes nothing for me.