The Brewers’ Fake Grass Coalition

It’s the All Star break. A week — well, really only four days — without baseball. Still, time to stretch and, for me, an opportunity to toss some fastballs up and in at the Brewers’ ownership group, just to keep them from crowding the plate.

The Milwaukee Brewers play on real grass at American Family Field. But the group pressing for a massive taxpayer subsidy for the Brewers’ ballpark is likely made of Astroturf.

(End baseball analogies here.)

We can’t say for sure because it’s a shadowy organization. The obvious question, of course, is why would it need to be shadowy if it were truly grass roots?

The Home Crew Coalition was launched in March, shortly after Gov. Tony Evers proposed a $290 million state taxpayer giveaway to the billionaire, California-based owners of the Brewers to remodel their stadium. Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, miffed that he hadn’t been involved in the proposal. declared Evers’ idea DOA and created his own task force to come up with an alternative.

The Coalition is now running misleading ads on the Brewers’ radio broadcasts. The ads feature an unveiled threat that the Brewers will leave Milwaukee if the state doesn’t come up with the money to pay for stadium maintenance and upgrades. The ads are misleading because they imply that somehow it’s the taxpayers’ responsibility.

It is not. Principle owner Mark Attanasio and his pals are making out like bandits. They can afford to pay for the upkeep and improvements to their own physical plant just like any business owner would be expected to do.

The Home Crew Coalition ads are being paid for by something called Wisconsin Small Businesses United. That is in itself a shadowy group. It doesn’t even have a website, although we know that it’s run by long-time lobbyist and Republican strategist Brandon Scholz. But where the money comes from to support this “small business” group is not known. Could it come from the Brewers’ owners, who want to hide their support for this “small business” effort? You bet it could.

Things get curiouser when you consider that former Republican party chair and mega-donor to conservative causes Mike Grebe is a board member of the Home Crew Coalition and also a member of Vos’ task force. Scholz, no doubt, is well known to Grebe. What are the chances that all of this isn’t coordinated between Vos, Grebe, Scholz and, quite possibly, Attanasio?

Here’s the bottom line. Attanasio and his fellow investors may make money in any given year or they may lose some, but that’s hardly the point. What they have in the Brewers is a breathtakingly appreciating asset, the value of which is tied in part to the stadium. A better, fancier stadium increases the value of the ball club whenever they get around to selling it. So, any investment in the ballpark should come from the team owners. Simple as that. Unless, of course, you want to give the taxpayers a stake in the team. No, didn’t think so.

Attanasio and associates bought the Brewers for $223 million in 2005. Today the club is worth, conservatively, $1.3 billion. That’s six times the original investment and it’s about $150 million more than if they had invested the money in the stock market. And the Brewers will be worth even more after some stadium upgrades.

The stadium authority stashed away a responsible $77 million to pay for renovations before the sales tax that was used to build the stadium was finally retired a few years ago. That should be enough. If the owners want to do more they should pay for it all themselves. Trust me, they can afford it. Don’t believe everything you hear on the radio.