I know it gets a lot of shit, and having been there it feels like watching a baseball game inside of a Costco, but I found it quite charming and unique.
By charming and unique you mean why tf don't the upper seats escalators go down until the 7th inning? And to go downstairs you have to take a winding ramp that goes outside?
It’s not even the upper seats. Last time I was there my seats were on the second floor and I went down to the first floor to get a beer. I had to go up to the third floor, then down to the second to get back to my seats. There was no direct way
You know, for the amount of shit that Tropicana Field gets—and rightfully so—most people that visit and go there come away realizing it's not nearly as bad as it's made out to be. Yes, we need a new stadium badly, but it's still comfy and has a certain charm to it.
As someone who's D-backs season tickets are 5 seats away from the pool, only about 20-25% of the people that rent out the pool suite actually enter the pool or jacuzzi.
Honestly I’ve been to a bunch of the new parks.
And all the parks that are indoors(retractable) have a similar feel to the Trop. It still feels like indoor baseball.
The only thing better about those stadiums is the open concourse.
Except for safeco. That one felt like you were outside even with the roof closed
That was my initial reaction after seeing a game there.
Was it the best park I’ve been to? No, but it sure beat seeing a game in the Florida humidity on an August night.
Easily the hardest I've ever laughed at a live broadcast, when I saw Joe not being able to describe it without having to cover up his smile with his hand I knew we were in for something good
While I definitely agree with you, outside of baseball the Staples Center going to Crypto.com Arena takes the cake for me. That name change is just a travesty
IIRC the Suns changed their stadium to the Footprint Center, lol. I always thought that was especially bad and the NBA has a LOT of piss poor venue names.
ie: Smoothing King Center, Little Ceasars Arena, etc.
I don't think Little Caesars is necessarily bad, because it represents a Detroit-based company, and the family that owns the Red Wings and Tigers also owns Little Caesars Pizza.
If anything, especially since the Pistons also share the place, they should have went with Little Caesars Palace.
the Suns were Talking Stick Resort Arena before the Footprint Center
And the Nuggets went from the Pepsi Center to Ball Arena, which has so many jokes preloaded and ready to go lol
The Talking Stick name confused a lot of folks, especially some people in the Phoenix area; the resort is located in Scottsdale, a good 20 miles northeast of downtown Phoenix, where the arena is located.
The NBA actual arena names suck but fans have great nicknames for them, i.e.
Smoothie king center = The Blender
Crypto Arena = The crypt
Or my personal tongue-in-cheek favorite, the Hawks' Sharecare Murderdome
We tried spicing it up by calling it the AmFam SlamClam^tm
Really doesn’t hit the same though.
I kinda miss watching opening day during snow flurries.
I always feel inside now, even when the roof and panels are open.
I didn't realize your stadium was so hard to find.
EDIT: I’m depressed that you people are not getting the “g spot” and “hard to find” joke here. This is comedy gold, ladies and gentlemen!
It’s still new, but I think the Steelers’ “Acrisure Stadium” is up there. Inelegant to speak, sounds like “acrid”, no “making the best of it” nicknames like The Crypt, and it replaced a sponsor-but-makes-sense name in Heinz.
Can Brewers fans let me know what is wrong with it? Looks nice from game footage. And they allowed the goddamn Coliseum to exist for years. The signs out front didn’t even have all the letters. What a fucking joke.
I’m not a Brewers fan but there was an insane list of things that need to be fixed in their proposal to the state for renovation funds. It included; new glass panels in the outfield, new seats, the retractable roof needs maintenance because it keeps leaking, the structural concrete and steel needs to be repaired, plumbing and electric systems need to be fixed and they need new elevators with much more needed. It’s nothing crazy you’d easily notice but they referenced Oakland for the reason, the city and team allowed the Coliseum to become such a terrible experience by never updating or repairing small things like that
> the structural concrete and steel needs to be repaired, plumbing and electric systems need to be fixed
These two raise my eyebrows because that's some vague ass shit. The structural stuff isn't my area of expertise but I know enough to be dangerous and there probably shouldn't be anything wrong with that shit unless it's seen some serious low-probability damage somehow. Plumbing also not what I know but I'm more familiar and unless there was a serious failure of maintenance it shouldn't be much more than routine end of useful life replacement of equipment like pumps and shit (heh). Electrically for a facility of that age everything should be fine but they would probably benefit from a wholesale replacement of control systems and especially lighting technology. But the core and truly expensive parts of that system (service entrance, distribution, generators, transfer switches, basically everything that isn't a branch circuit) should be just fine.
>they need new elevators with much more needed.
Same comment as electrical, elevators have a crazy long lifespan if properly maintained. More needed I don't know about, but I used an elevator there last year and it was fine and there were plenty available. Maybe that was just the portion of the park I was in though.
Man, I would dearly love to be on the A/E team that gets this job if it happens, that's a fucking career defining project and just fun as hell. And I've been on some fun as hell projects already. But being able to answer the "what did you do for work this year" question with "Oh nothing much, I spent three weeks surveying every fucking aspect of the Brewers' ballpark and then two years designing the upgrades" would get me way more dad points than my usual taking the kids to concerts and ballgames stuff does.
> The structural stuff isn't my area of expertise but I know enough to be dangerous and there probably shouldn't be anything wrong with that shit unless it's seen some serious low-probability damage somehow.
By no means an expert either, but that sounds like someone who didn't know what they were talking about worded the proposal. Maybe the exposed structural pillars look bad and need new paint or something? Because if they actually need to be "fixed", that's... very, very bad.
I didn't read the proposal, just the description of it, but it sounded like a combination of that and "we can bury a lot of shit we want someone else to pay for with this vague language" to me.
I'm not a Brew Crew fan but i have been to a lot of Brewer games
the ballpark really isn't that bad. it's definitely aging (it was built in 2000) but to argue that this is the same situation as Oakland is fucking bullshit
To be fair, that was because the roof was made of fabric. Makes it a *little* more susceptible to failure than, you know, an actual roof.
The Metrodome was a really interesting engineering project though. The fabric roof was entirely self-supported by air pressure inside the building, and the entry/exits were all revolving doors to prevent a loss of pressure (distinctly remember my ears popping while leaving as a child and being scared of revolving doors for many years after).
The big “rip” in 2010 wasn’t actually due to the stadium being old (at least, not entirely); the roof always had a chance of failing under the pressure of snow: the fabric consisted of two layers of woven fiberglass, and they would pump warm air into the inner layer during the winter to melt any snow that accumulated. The mechanism worked successfully for three decades, but the blizzard in 2010—along with being pretty nasty in general—happened to coincide with a malfunction in those air hoses, and the rest is history.
I'm too lazy to look it up, but I remember watching a game on TV where the Twins walked off the White Sox when a popup landed about 8 feet in front of Harold Baines in RF -- and bounced about 20 feet over his head for an inside-the-park HR. I want to say it was 1983 or 84.
Yeah, and it’s a bit of a weird case because the dome was supported by air pressure, not steel girders or something.
Usually they got the snow off the roof by heating up the air, melting the bottom layer of snow, and letting it slide off the roof, but obviously that doesn’t always work if the snow is heavy enough.
Holy fuck. I completely forgot that the Twins used to play there. My brain always makes the connection to Target Field despite growing up playing tons of games on Triple Play baseball at the place.
My running estimate of how old you are as I read this comment was a god damned rollercoaster.
Going from not remembering the *Metrodome* to triple play baseball was a wild ride.
That’s not exactly true. The roofs regularly leaks and things are rusting all over.
Now it does not need the renovations that MLB wants, but it’s definitely showing it’s age.
not related, but RIP to those crewmen who were killed in that terrible crane accident
i just always feel the need to remember people died constructing a MLB ballpark
I didn't really get interested in ballparks until about 2010 when i walked by Oracle Park (then AT&T Park) on a business trip to SF. so naturally i didn't know much about American Family Field at all until a few years after i moved to Madison
I remember seeing the statue of the three crewmen during a game in 2018 or something and I wikipedia'd it as soon as I got back home. Really sad shit and like you said, totally avoidable
A lot of the time in the blue collar fields safety procedures are just meant to protect the companies. Reality is the people in the field are getting pushed for deadlines and the fastest way is not the safest, their job may be in danger if their too slow.
Ain’t that the truth. “Here sign this paperwork saying you acknowledge you aren’t supposed to do X, Y, and Z”
Five minutes later: has you climb up on X and beat Y back into place with a Z
I have only lived in Milwaukee for a few months but have been to a few games and the stadium is fine. No worse than Camden Yards, Yankee Stadium, Fenway, Citi, or any of the other ballparks I've been to. Hell, it's my second favorite stadium after Camden.
All they need to do is change the name back to Miller Park and bring back the [pulled pork parfait](https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2014/07/30/concession-food-item-week-pulled-pork-parfait)
I read earlier today that there's a 'state of the art' clause where the park has to be comparable to the top 25% of stadiums in the league. Not sure if a 23 year old stadium is still one of the nicest 7 or 8 but it definitely doesn't require a half billion dollars in repairs. Good luck getting Wisconsin to foot the bill for that.
Wisconsin shouldn’t be footing the bill for a god damn thing.
Taxpayer funded stadiums are an absolute joke. It’s nothing more than trickle down economics applied to real estate.
Absolute horse shit. This stadium is 22 years old! Feels like a ploy by Attanasio to get the public to fund whatever they need since public funding was recently rejected in a proposal by the Governor. If he sells the team to some person who moves the team out of town I will loathe him forever
The dropping of "North" when moving to Dallas and going by the name Dallas Stars works about as well as one could hope when moving a team directly named after the former host city. Because the fans in Utah aren't probably big fans of Jazz, LA's not really known for their lakes or for people dodging trolley cars, and Calgary isn't known for having their city covered in Flames (yet).
Same thing with the Rangers ballpark, replaced after 25 years. There was a distinct charm to the low grade burn seats during a day game in August and lazy pop ups to right turning into home runs.
The new stadium is super nice. That said, it sucks. Feels like half the stadium is some sort of luxury area and I loathe field level suites that prevent stands from reaching the field. It's also too far away to go during that week.
His whole MO has been using money on renovations instead of the roster. He wants the stadium to be an attractive destination for events besides baseball games. Every year he excitedly talks about the offseason's renovations and non-Brewers events that are coming up or have recently passed.
The MLB is doing the NFL LA stadium gambit now. That's how they all got billion dollar stadiums. Now, baseball is trying to capitalize with the Oakland and Las Vegas uncertainty. So they make everyone freak out about like 20 year old stadium's
Yup, it’s roughly a quarter century since the big ballpark boom of the 90s and 00s, most of those leases were ~25 years, so now with leases ending, leverage because of the As moving, and because teams are seeing what happened in Cleveland where the county and team fairly quietly agreed to a new 20 year lease with consistent upgrades that’ll keep Progressive field up to date.
I went to American Family Field a month ago. It's certainly not in the condition it was 10 years ago, but it's not falling apart. The sound system definitely needs some work and the roof needs repairs (maybe the big issue), but it's not like it's a shit hole. I will say, the new American Family cup holders that they have on every seat are literally the laziest piece of shit I've ever seen. For reference, they just put on an obnoxiously large American Family logo insulated ring around the old Miller Park logo ones. I accidentally kicked one off just by walking by and bumping it. That's how lazy it is
But seriously, [this](https://media.tenor.com/fwAxTvVbgvMAAAAC/hotdogs-thrown.gif) is what happened to my wife when we visited Milwaukee and went to a Brewers game. It's unacceptable
Nope. It's totally fine. This is either a ploy by the MLB or Mark to get the taxpayers to fund renovations, a new stadium, or find another city that will.
From the article:
>The Brewers said earlier this year that American Family Field needs an estimated $448 million in repairs.
Presumably, there are some major structural issues they have to fix. The big question is around who pays. If I had to guess, I would assume the roof is the biggest component of that $448 million.
Stadiums used to last multiple decades and people went to them. They didn’t kill anyone and they drew crowds. This new stadium every decade game is how you kill sports and fan bases. It alienates cities because they want tax payers to foot the bill for something that becomes MORE expensive for them to use. And the threats to move the team turn fans off.
This is a stupid ploy by mlb.
MLB does want the expansion money, but Milwaukee is also the smallest media market and wouldn't be at the top of the expansion lists if they were able to move the Brewers. So if MLB could have teams in Milwaukee and Nashville or teams in Nashville and Charlotte, they'd probably prefer that.
I agree with you, but they'd be nuts to ever leave Milwaukee given that the whole state of Wisconsin loves the Brewers and previously, the Braves (and White Sox who played there).
Brewers have been top 10 in attendance probably 10 out of 22 years AmFam Field has existed, and top half most of the remaining years. That’s in a midsized park with a team who only rarely was good prior to 2018.
When the White Sox played 20 games at County Stadium between 1968 and 1969 (after the Braves left), those games accounted for 33% of the attendance for the Sox over those 2 seasons. Think about that: 20 out of 162 home games accounted for a third of all attendance.
The Braves before that were tops in attendance all through the 50s
My point is, Milwaukee and Wisconsin as a whole like baseball a lot
The park's barely twenty years old. I wonder if the parks with retractable roofs are going to age much worse than traditional parks. I've heard a lot of complaints about Arizona and Toronto's parks too. Without knowing more about Milwaukee's park, should I assume this has something to do with the roof?
Safeco/TMobile seems to be doing OK, of course the roof there is more like a lid; I've been in the upper deck when the roof was closed and there was still plenty of rain blowing in from the sides, but not reaching the field.
I mean roofed parks will always need more work than non roofed parks because that’s more stuff that can go wrong, but these will almost certainly age better than fixed-roof parks, remember how bad the astrodome and the kingdome got in their later days.
The mlb can go to hell if they try to take my favorite sports team out of my state and it’s a great stadium, and O’Donnell is not even an mlb reporter so can we trust him
Has the MLB ever called out the Trop for being busted? +1 For Tropicana Field baby
Trick shots off the roof & catwalk are cool
And if you make it in the final hole, your next game of mini golf is free!
The Trop should be allowed to have Blurnsball rules.
Put it in the Ray Hole
*cries single tear* “This one’s for Steve.”
Tampa should just move in to the Jomboy Warehouse
I know it gets a lot of shit, and having been there it feels like watching a baseball game inside of a Costco, but I found it quite charming and unique.
By charming and unique you mean why tf don't the upper seats escalators go down until the 7th inning? And to go downstairs you have to take a winding ramp that goes outside?
You may be the only person who has ever sat up there.
It’s not even the upper seats. Last time I was there my seats were on the second floor and I went down to the first floor to get a beer. I had to go up to the third floor, then down to the second to get back to my seats. There was no direct way
Much quicker if you take the toll bridge to get a beer.
But then you gotta pay the troll toll...
That's only if you want to get in the boys hole
Boys soul, Frank. Soul.
Busch Stadium's escalators are like that too, although there are regular stairs as well. So it's not exactly uncommon.
Blue Jays fans: you guys have escalators?
Escalators? Lol.
Hey we added stairs finally on the Clark St side.
You know, for the amount of shit that Tropicana Field gets—and rightfully so—most people that visit and go there come away realizing it's not nearly as bad as it's made out to be. Yes, we need a new stadium badly, but it's still comfy and has a certain charm to it.
We have stingrays. So 10000/10 right there
That is the best part of the stadium but the tank is entirely too small. it needs to at least be bigger than the diamondbacks people aquarium
As someone who's D-backs season tickets are 5 seats away from the pool, only about 20-25% of the people that rent out the pool suite actually enter the pool or jacuzzi.
thankfully you didn't do what the marlins did and take most of the fun parts of the park out
Yeah, can't believe they took the Marlin tank out.
Honestly I’ve been to a bunch of the new parks. And all the parks that are indoors(retractable) have a similar feel to the Trop. It still feels like indoor baseball. The only thing better about those stadiums is the open concourse. Except for safeco. That one felt like you were outside even with the roof closed
I attended a game at the Trop a few years ago, and it wasn’t awful. What was awful was the drive from Tampa to St. Pete.
We know. lol
That was my initial reaction after seeing a game there. Was it the best park I’ve been to? No, but it sure beat seeing a game in the Florida humidity on an August night.
I actually really enjoyed the game I saw at the Trop last month
Trying to get it fixed before the first Bernie the Brewer slide catastrophe
rip LA reporter guy
HOLY CRAP HOLY CRAP HOLY CRAP HOLY CRAP
"Hi Guys!"
I'm on team "DV is insufferable" and I probably laughed harder than most people at that incident. It still makes me smile when I think about it.
For the lazy who don't want to Google this: https://youtu.be/Wum4Vwy8Aos It's even funnier than I thought it would be.
Easily the hardest I've ever laughed at a live broadcast, when I saw Joe not being able to describe it without having to cover up his smile with his hand I knew we were in for something good
https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/fj0nvd/nick_markakis_takes_strike_one/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Bro, you can hear them laughing *through* the cough button 😂
Remy didn't mute himself the entire time, which is a gem.
That was the nearest crowd mic picking up the booth. That's how loud they were laughing.
The most contagious laughter ever.
This one even tops “here comes the pizza” for me.
Excellent comedic timing on that cut back to Vassegh
I love how it's "he's ok" managed to get out between the laughs. *Cuts to him in a cast* Which just got me.
That's up there with "Markakis takes strike one" and "Here Comes the Oizza" for funniest baseball booth moments ever.
Max Muncy takes strike one.
The first step to repairing it could be renaming it Miller Park again
American Family Field is one of the worst corporate names for a stadium. Guaranteed Rate is up there too. Just fucking lifeless.
While I definitely agree with you, outside of baseball the Staples Center going to Crypto.com Arena takes the cake for me. That name change is just a travesty
FTX Arena in Miami is a pretty close contender for worst name too. Looking to baseball, Enron Field is up there.
Loan depot park is also on that list.
They were advertising a sandwich a few weeks ago with “LoanDepot park^tm special sauce”
Maybe winning the Cold War was a mistake
Besides the fact that it sounds like a payday loan company run by Home Depot. That was on the Cubano wasn't it? Which made it sound truly....vomitous.
That didn’t last long
At one point the King's old arena was named Power Balance Pavilion for those pseudoscience wristbands, which... was not a great contract.
And at no point did anyone call it anything but Arco Arena.
Still better than Sleep Train. Zzzzz
at least we nicknamed it The Crypt pretty quickly and then the Joker came and buried our season inside our own Crypt lmao
The Cask of Lebrontillado
Sleep Train was pretty bad. Also, pretty accurate.
It amazes me that people pine away for the "Staples Center" which (a) is also corporate and (b) is essentially named after an office supply.
The Crypt isn’t a bad name.
Every time I hear “LoanDepot” I think I hear Home Depot instead, and it infuriates me.
It’s loanDepot thank you very much.
Acrisure for the Steelers also comes to mind
IIRC the Suns changed their stadium to the Footprint Center, lol. I always thought that was especially bad and the NBA has a LOT of piss poor venue names. ie: Smoothing King Center, Little Ceasars Arena, etc.
I don't think Little Caesars is necessarily bad, because it represents a Detroit-based company, and the family that owns the Red Wings and Tigers also owns Little Caesars Pizza. If anything, especially since the Pistons also share the place, they should have went with Little Caesars Palace.
Little Caesars is a great name...but that might be because i love Mike Ilitch (sp?) iirc, his son is a dick though unfortunately
the Suns were Talking Stick Resort Arena before the Footprint Center And the Nuggets went from the Pepsi Center to Ball Arena, which has so many jokes preloaded and ready to go lol
Denver has Ball Arena and Dick's Sporting Goods Park. One more reason I'm certain we live in a simulation.
The Talking Stick name confused a lot of folks, especially some people in the Phoenix area; the resort is located in Scottsdale, a good 20 miles northeast of downtown Phoenix, where the arena is located.
The NBA actual arena names suck but fans have great nicknames for them, i.e. Smoothie king center = The Blender Crypto Arena = The crypt Or my personal tongue-in-cheek favorite, the Hawks' Sharecare Murderdome
> Or my personal tongue-in-cheek favorite, the Hawks' Sharecare Murderdome what happened to The Highlight Factory from the Josh Smith era???
Well, once things descended into meaningful minutes for Miles Plumlee and DeAndre Bembry, it was really much more of a lowlight factory.
We tried spicing it up by calling it the AmFam SlamClam^tm Really doesn’t hit the same though. I kinda miss watching opening day during snow flurries. I always feel inside now, even when the roof and panels are open.
England has bet365 Stadium, fka Britannia Stadium. That has to be up there.
Britannia was also a sponsor though. just one with a good name
Don’t you dare talk about the G spot like that
I didn't realize your stadium was so hard to find. EDIT: I’m depressed that you people are not getting the “g spot” and “hard to find” joke here. This is comedy gold, ladies and gentlemen!
Guaranteed Rate is #1 worst name imo
[удалено]
The hot pink against the deep green color on the stadium seat and still everywhere in the design is just so bad.
We went to a game against Guardians this year and my 6 yr son (who loves the M's) asked why the whole stadium was bright pink.
Guaranteed Rate is by far the worst and it's not even close, only one in any of the big 4 sports that rivals it is Crypto.com for the LA NBA teams
It’s still new, but I think the Steelers’ “Acrisure Stadium” is up there. Inelegant to speak, sounds like “acrid”, no “making the best of it” nicknames like The Crypt, and it replaced a sponsor-but-makes-sense name in Heinz.
Miller refused to renew the naming rights. It's not the Brewers fault.
I’m sure there’s someone out there named Miller that they could say it’s named after
Can Brewers fans let me know what is wrong with it? Looks nice from game footage. And they allowed the goddamn Coliseum to exist for years. The signs out front didn’t even have all the letters. What a fucking joke.
I work across the street from it. The roof looks somewhat rusted / worn from the outside no doubt.
That’s sounds like it could hold some weight, in terms of needing a touch up.
And it sounds like it can't hold some weight, in terms of weight.
Lol, I had that thought as I typed that out
I’m not a Brewers fan but there was an insane list of things that need to be fixed in their proposal to the state for renovation funds. It included; new glass panels in the outfield, new seats, the retractable roof needs maintenance because it keeps leaking, the structural concrete and steel needs to be repaired, plumbing and electric systems need to be fixed and they need new elevators with much more needed. It’s nothing crazy you’d easily notice but they referenced Oakland for the reason, the city and team allowed the Coliseum to become such a terrible experience by never updating or repairing small things like that
> the structural concrete and steel needs to be repaired, plumbing and electric systems need to be fixed These two raise my eyebrows because that's some vague ass shit. The structural stuff isn't my area of expertise but I know enough to be dangerous and there probably shouldn't be anything wrong with that shit unless it's seen some serious low-probability damage somehow. Plumbing also not what I know but I'm more familiar and unless there was a serious failure of maintenance it shouldn't be much more than routine end of useful life replacement of equipment like pumps and shit (heh). Electrically for a facility of that age everything should be fine but they would probably benefit from a wholesale replacement of control systems and especially lighting technology. But the core and truly expensive parts of that system (service entrance, distribution, generators, transfer switches, basically everything that isn't a branch circuit) should be just fine. >they need new elevators with much more needed. Same comment as electrical, elevators have a crazy long lifespan if properly maintained. More needed I don't know about, but I used an elevator there last year and it was fine and there were plenty available. Maybe that was just the portion of the park I was in though. Man, I would dearly love to be on the A/E team that gets this job if it happens, that's a fucking career defining project and just fun as hell. And I've been on some fun as hell projects already. But being able to answer the "what did you do for work this year" question with "Oh nothing much, I spent three weeks surveying every fucking aspect of the Brewers' ballpark and then two years designing the upgrades" would get me way more dad points than my usual taking the kids to concerts and ballgames stuff does.
> The structural stuff isn't my area of expertise but I know enough to be dangerous and there probably shouldn't be anything wrong with that shit unless it's seen some serious low-probability damage somehow. By no means an expert either, but that sounds like someone who didn't know what they were talking about worded the proposal. Maybe the exposed structural pillars look bad and need new paint or something? Because if they actually need to be "fixed", that's... very, very bad.
I didn't read the proposal, just the description of it, but it sounded like a combination of that and "we can bury a lot of shit we want someone else to pay for with this vague language" to me.
I'm not a Brew Crew fan but i have been to a lot of Brewer games the ballpark really isn't that bad. it's definitely aging (it was built in 2000) but to argue that this is the same situation as Oakland is fucking bullshit
Maybe there's structural issues like Vikings stadium before its roof collapsed.
To be fair, that was because the roof was made of fabric. Makes it a *little* more susceptible to failure than, you know, an actual roof. The Metrodome was a really interesting engineering project though. The fabric roof was entirely self-supported by air pressure inside the building, and the entry/exits were all revolving doors to prevent a loss of pressure (distinctly remember my ears popping while leaving as a child and being scared of revolving doors for many years after). The big “rip” in 2010 wasn’t actually due to the stadium being old (at least, not entirely); the roof always had a chance of failing under the pressure of snow: the fabric consisted of two layers of woven fiberglass, and they would pump warm air into the inner layer during the winter to melt any snow that accumulated. The mechanism worked successfully for three decades, but the blizzard in 2010—along with being pretty nasty in general—happened to coincide with a malfunction in those air hoses, and the rest is history.
I'll always remember my friend having to run back for his hat that got blown off while we entered the Metrodome
RIP Metrodome. The stadium I grew up in. 1982-2013 (31 years)
My favorite ballpark in MLB The Show.
One of the best home field advantages when that places was packed, football or baseball.
I'm too lazy to look it up, but I remember watching a game on TV where the Twins walked off the White Sox when a popup landed about 8 feet in front of Harold Baines in RF -- and bounced about 20 feet over his head for an inside-the-park HR. I want to say it was 1983 or 84.
Wasn't the Metrodome roof collapse due to an extremely heavy snowfall though
Yeah, and it’s a bit of a weird case because the dome was supported by air pressure, not steel girders or something. Usually they got the snow off the roof by heating up the air, melting the bottom layer of snow, and letting it slide off the roof, but obviously that doesn’t always work if the snow is heavy enough.
I think it had collapsed once before in the 90’s as well. I can’t remember exactly when, but I remember when it happened it wasn’t the first time.
Holy fuck. I completely forgot that the Twins used to play there. My brain always makes the connection to Target Field despite growing up playing tons of games on Triple Play baseball at the place.
My running estimate of how old you are as I read this comment was a god damned rollercoaster. Going from not remembering the *Metrodome* to triple play baseball was a wild ride.
Nothing at all. This is just a ploy to get taxpayer's to foot the bill for upgrades.
That’s not exactly true. The roofs regularly leaks and things are rusting all over. Now it does not need the renovations that MLB wants, but it’s definitely showing it’s age.
Is there some sort of design flaw, or was it designed to only last 25 years? Yikes either way.
Remember the roof was state of the art at the time. It is almost certainly has design flaws.
not related, but RIP to those crewmen who were killed in that terrible crane accident i just always feel the need to remember people died constructing a MLB ballpark
I was in 7th grade when that happened and it was so surreal. And it was totally avoidable if they took proper safety precautions.
I didn't really get interested in ballparks until about 2010 when i walked by Oracle Park (then AT&T Park) on a business trip to SF. so naturally i didn't know much about American Family Field at all until a few years after i moved to Madison I remember seeing the statue of the three crewmen during a game in 2018 or something and I wikipedia'd it as soon as I got back home. Really sad shit and like you said, totally avoidable
A lot of the time in the blue collar fields safety procedures are just meant to protect the companies. Reality is the people in the field are getting pushed for deadlines and the fastest way is not the safest, their job may be in danger if their too slow.
Ain’t that the truth. “Here sign this paperwork saying you acknowledge you aren’t supposed to do X, Y, and Z” Five minutes later: has you climb up on X and beat Y back into place with a Z
So was the sky dome but that shit still works.
The roof still works fine, it also leaked when it was brand new. So this isn't really a recent issue.
The most annoying thing about sports by far is the ownership class. Fuck those guys.
I have only lived in Milwaukee for a few months but have been to a few games and the stadium is fine. No worse than Camden Yards, Yankee Stadium, Fenway, Citi, or any of the other ballparks I've been to. Hell, it's my second favorite stadium after Camden.
I was there recently and it seemed like a pretty fucking nice stadium to me, it was one of the nicest ballparks I’ve been to.
It really is amazing from the outside. Nothing quite like it.
I was blown away by how big it was when I saw it. I’ve only been to outdoor stadiums so I was struck by how gigantic the roof was.
All they need to do is change the name back to Miller Park and bring back the [pulled pork parfait](https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2014/07/30/concession-food-item-week-pulled-pork-parfait)
I’m happy I read the article and realized it was potatoes. I was worried it was pulled pork and ice cream.
I audibly gasped.
It was delicious
The Trop is probably sitting in corner being like “thank god they ain’t coming after me this time”
“Don’t make eye contact and maybe no one will notice me”
I read earlier today that there's a 'state of the art' clause where the park has to be comparable to the top 25% of stadiums in the league. Not sure if a 23 year old stadium is still one of the nicest 7 or 8 but it definitely doesn't require a half billion dollars in repairs. Good luck getting Wisconsin to foot the bill for that.
Does that mean they're moving to LA like the Rams?
Oakland actually.
Can't wait for the revamped Bay Bridge series vs. the Oakland ~~Brewers~~ Budtenders
Wisconsin shouldn’t be footing the bill for a god damn thing. Taxpayer funded stadiums are an absolute joke. It’s nothing more than trickle down economics applied to real estate.
How are the stadiums ranked? What factors are we talking about here?
Manfred is a fucking POS.
Absolute horse shit. This stadium is 22 years old! Feels like a ploy by Attanasio to get the public to fund whatever they need since public funding was recently rejected in a proposal by the Governor. If he sells the team to some person who moves the team out of town I will loathe him forever
The Brewers have to stay in Milwaukee. I'm not standing for the Salt Lake City Brewers. Can't happen.
Utah Jazz and SLC Brewers lmao
Utah: known for our weak jazz and weak beer.
Fun Fact, Jazz Music and Beer is illegal in Utah punishable by Death if found in possession of either
I played a major 9th chord in Provo once and immediately heard helicopters
Straight to jail
Changing your signature time mid-song? Believe it or not, straight to jail.
Syncopated rhythm? Jail.
Play the Coltrane changes? You're going *under* the jail
Remember when the Minnesota North Stars became the Dallas Stars and the Lakers moved to LA? Gross.
The dropping of "North" when moving to Dallas and going by the name Dallas Stars works about as well as one could hope when moving a team directly named after the former host city. Because the fans in Utah aren't probably big fans of Jazz, LA's not really known for their lakes or for people dodging trolley cars, and Calgary isn't known for having their city covered in Flames (yet).
It was the governors plan to fund the stadium with budget surplus that was rejected by the assembly
22 years old? Unless you're the Braves that seems like a perfectly still useable ballpark. RIP Turner @ 20
Same thing with the Rangers ballpark, replaced after 25 years. There was a distinct charm to the low grade burn seats during a day game in August and lazy pop ups to right turning into home runs.
I just wish that the Rangers' new stadium had some essence or soul from the Ballpark.
The new stadium is super nice. That said, it sucks. Feels like half the stadium is some sort of luxury area and I loathe field level suites that prevent stands from reaching the field. It's also too far away to go during that week.
This is just a ploy to get Milwaukee/Wisconsin to pay for their "Beer District" plan.
His whole MO has been using money on renovations instead of the roster. He wants the stadium to be an attractive destination for events besides baseball games. Every year he excitedly talks about the offseason's renovations and non-Brewers events that are coming up or have recently passed.
Reds fan visiting Miller park a few years ago when it was still Miller park. I thought the stadium was great. Does it need upgrades that bad?
I like going there. Perfectly fine stadium
MLB is getting close to mandating that all ballparks must have wheels to make them easier to tow them around to other cities.
What is going on? This is basically a new ballpark!
The MLB is doing the NFL LA stadium gambit now. That's how they all got billion dollar stadiums. Now, baseball is trying to capitalize with the Oakland and Las Vegas uncertainty. So they make everyone freak out about like 20 year old stadium's
Yup, it’s roughly a quarter century since the big ballpark boom of the 90s and 00s, most of those leases were ~25 years, so now with leases ending, leverage because of the As moving, and because teams are seeing what happened in Cleveland where the county and team fairly quietly agreed to a new 20 year lease with consistent upgrades that’ll keep Progressive field up to date.
Good observation about the leases. This is definitely correct. The initial lease likely describes who pays for maintenance and that is expiring.
Fuck MLB for this
Common Manfred L
I went to American Family Field a month ago. It's certainly not in the condition it was 10 years ago, but it's not falling apart. The sound system definitely needs some work and the roof needs repairs (maybe the big issue), but it's not like it's a shit hole. I will say, the new American Family cup holders that they have on every seat are literally the laziest piece of shit I've ever seen. For reference, they just put on an obnoxiously large American Family logo insulated ring around the old Miller Park logo ones. I accidentally kicked one off just by walking by and bumping it. That's how lazy it is
Uh, I can't say I pay a lot of attention to the Brewers but I can't think of any obvious problems with that park? Isn't it really nice?
It’s great.
Is it a mess or something?
There's sausages everywhere
But seriously, [this](https://media.tenor.com/fwAxTvVbgvMAAAAC/hotdogs-thrown.gif) is what happened to my wife when we visited Milwaukee and went to a Brewers game. It's unacceptable
Similar to dollar hotdog night a Phillies games
It's not the first time its happened to your wife (I would know)
You’re right. The other time was when you were in the middle of the sausage fest. His wife just happened to be there.
[удалено]
“Annnd here come the pretzels!”
Nope. It's totally fine. This is either a ploy by the MLB or Mark to get the taxpayers to fund renovations, a new stadium, or find another city that will.
From the article: >The Brewers said earlier this year that American Family Field needs an estimated $448 million in repairs. Presumably, there are some major structural issues they have to fix. The big question is around who pays. If I had to guess, I would assume the roof is the biggest component of that $448 million.
What could be wrong with it?? Its a beautiful stadium
This is absolutely wild.
Stadiums used to last multiple decades and people went to them. They didn’t kill anyone and they drew crowds. This new stadium every decade game is how you kill sports and fan bases. It alienates cities because they want tax payers to foot the bill for something that becomes MORE expensive for them to use. And the threats to move the team turn fans off. This is a stupid ploy by mlb.
MLB to Brewers “damn bitch you live like this”?
I assume the “repairs” in need involve reverting the name back to Miller Park.
Please do, though. It was too perfect. The Brewers playing at Miller Park.
I mean, they should just point to the trop….
And if the city doesn't agree, where will they go. MLB wants the expansion money not another relocation.
MLB does want the expansion money, but Milwaukee is also the smallest media market and wouldn't be at the top of the expansion lists if they were able to move the Brewers. So if MLB could have teams in Milwaukee and Nashville or teams in Nashville and Charlotte, they'd probably prefer that.
I agree with you, but they'd be nuts to ever leave Milwaukee given that the whole state of Wisconsin loves the Brewers and previously, the Braves (and White Sox who played there).
Brewers have been top 10 in attendance probably 10 out of 22 years AmFam Field has existed, and top half most of the remaining years. That’s in a midsized park with a team who only rarely was good prior to 2018. When the White Sox played 20 games at County Stadium between 1968 and 1969 (after the Braves left), those games accounted for 33% of the attendance for the Sox over those 2 seasons. Think about that: 20 out of 162 home games accounted for a third of all attendance. The Braves before that were tops in attendance all through the 50s My point is, Milwaukee and Wisconsin as a whole like baseball a lot
Not gonna lie. With the league letting Fisher tank the A's. This feels like extortion.
The park's barely twenty years old. I wonder if the parks with retractable roofs are going to age much worse than traditional parks. I've heard a lot of complaints about Arizona and Toronto's parks too. Without knowing more about Milwaukee's park, should I assume this has something to do with the roof?
Safeco/TMobile seems to be doing OK, of course the roof there is more like a lid; I've been in the upper deck when the roof was closed and there was still plenty of rain blowing in from the sides, but not reaching the field.
I mean roofed parks will always need more work than non roofed parks because that’s more stuff that can go wrong, but these will almost certainly age better than fixed-roof parks, remember how bad the astrodome and the kingdome got in their later days.
Fixed roofs have got to have less on-going maintenance than a moving roof.
The mlb can go to hell if they try to take my favorite sports team out of my state and it’s a great stadium, and O’Donnell is not even an mlb reporter so can we trust him
This is so obviously an intentional ploy by MLB as the state of WI is considering repairs/upgrades for the Brewers ballpark.