Taxpayers Lose Again

It looks like a done deal. Two parties that can’t seem to agree on the time of day can come together on one thing: handing over a half billion dollars in the taxpayers’ hard-earned money to billionaires.

That’s the upshot of the bill that is almost certain to pass the Assembly tomorrow. The bill would give the Milwaukee Brewers $546 million in state and local tax dollars to maintain and fix up AmFam Field. Gov. Tony Evers has said he supports the deal along with Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley. That should assure the Democratic votes needed to supplement whatever Republican votes Speaker Robin Vos can scrape together.

At this point the details aren’t all that important. State taxpayers get ripped off for about $411 million while Milwaukee taxpayers get slammed for $135 million. And this will happen without:

• Anyone demanding to know why the billionaires who own the team can’t pay for their own improvements to their physical plant.
• Anyone demanding that the team open its books and drill down into what exactly will be paid for to make sure that (as I suspect) normal business expenses aren’t being rolled into what is being billed as maintenance and improvements. Well, actually, Democratic Sen. Tim Carpenter from Milwaukee has demanded that, but nobody is listening.
• Anyone demanding that, if the taxpayers are going to spend a half billion dollars in investments that will increase the value of what is already a $1.5 billion asset, the taxpayers get a share of the team.

Professional sports teams don’t want to own their own venues because buildings are a depreciating asset while the teams themselves are very rapidly appreciating assets. That’s why taxpayers get stuck with the costs of stadiums and arenas while the owners get all the upsides of the taxpayer investments in the facilities they play in and profit from. They don’t have to own them outright to pretty much control the venues entirely. They even profit from other events that have nothing to do with their team, like concerts. For the billionaires it’s all gravy. For the taxpayers you get stuck with the bill whether you go to the games or even like baseball or not. I love baseball and I still think a taxpayer subsidy for the Brewers is absurd.

You expect this kind of shameless corporate welfare out of the Republicans, the party that would have shoveled billions over to Foxconn. But Democratic leaders should really be embarrassed by their support of this. This is what they want to spend a half billion dollars on? Not early childhood education, not improved day care, not middle class tax relief, not protecting communities hit by forever chemicals, not the UW? But this? Really?

And on a slightly related matter… Brewer fans like me are still reeling over our team’s early exit from the playoffs — again. The Crew has made the post season five of the last six years, a playoff run during which they’ve won just one game. Actually, we’ve got good company this year. In the wild card series’ three of the four favored teams got swept in two games, the Brewers included. Then in the divisional series the three teams with the best season records all got eliminated. In fact, the Orioles, who had not been swept in a single series all season long — 52 of them — got swept out of the playoffs by the Texas Rangers. There’s something wrong about this. A team shows excellence over a grueling 162 game season and then is tossed to the curb over two or three games. (The Brewers actually had a better record than all of the four remaining teams in the playoffs.) My solution? Keep the playoff format — it’s too much fun and keeps fan interest alive for much longer in the regular season — but give trophies (and checks) to the teams in each league with the best regular season record. So, this year, the Braves and the Orioles would have been “Regular Season Champions.” and then go on with the playoffs and World Series as usual.

And on an even more tangentially related matter… As an owner of a professional sports franchise myself (I’ve been a member of the ownership group of the Green Bay Packers for two decades) I plan to offer my thoughts on the future of the Brewers to their general manager, Matt Arnold. I plan to advise Matt to go for it all in 2024 and let the future take care of itself. Specifically, I suggest that we keep Corbin Burnes and Willy Adames with the club next season, despite the fact that we’re likely to lose both to free agency in 2025. Burnes is among the best, most reliable and durable pitchers in the game. He can’t be replaced and I’ll take his services for another year even it’s his last in Brewer blue. Adames is an above average defensive shortstop, he hits for power (something this ballclub desperately needs) and he’s the life of the clubhouse. As for Brandon Woodruff, I’d trade him and get what I could in the form of a power hitter. Woodruff is out for all of next season recovering from shoulder surgery, so it’s not clear what he’d fetch on the trade market, but the point is to convert him to somebody, anybody, who can help out in 2024. My overall point is that the Brewers should be a playoff team again next season and, if this postseason proves anything, it’s that it doesn’t matter how you get there. Let’s keep the outstanding pieces we had in 2023, add some hitting, make the playoffs and hope for the best.

And still more on baseball (I really like baseball)… The recent rule improvements have made the game better. The average game was shorter this season by almost a half hour — kind of weird that fans want less of a thing they pay to see, but nonetheless a crisper game is a good thing. But there’s also less hitting and more strikeouts. That’s due to bigger, stronger, better coached pitchers, but also due to there being more of them. Teams now routinely carry 13 or even 14 pitchers, up from 11 only a decade ago. That means guys can come in and throw as hard as they can for an inning. What to do? Limit the number of pitchers a team can carry to 11. Simple. You’re welcome, Rob Manfred.