Gov. Tony Evers wants to hand the Milwaukee Brewers nearly $300 million from Wisconsin’s budget surplus to enact repairs and renovations at American Family Field. The governor’s office announced Tuesday that his executive budget will include $290 million from the surplus for stadium repairs. In exchange for the money, the Brewers have agreed to extend their lease at the stadium by 13 years through 2043, the administration and the team said.
“As governor, and also someone who happens to be a lifelong Brewers fan, I’m so excited about the historic opportunity we have today to keep Major League Baseball here in Milwaukee for another twenty years and to usher in a new generation of Brewers fans in Wisconsin who can grow up rooting for the home team just like I did,” Evers said in a statement.
The agreement is far from a done deal, however. Evers is set to release his full 2023-25 budget on Wednesday. Republicans on the Legislature’s powerful finance committee will spend the next four months revising it before sending to the full Senate and Assembly for approval. From there, the spending plan goes back to Evers, who can rewrite it again using his powerful partial veto powers.
The money for the stadium repairs would be a one-time cash payment from the state surplus, which currently stands at around $7 billion. But the proposal is sure to rekindle old arguments over whether privately owned sports teams deserve public handouts to continue operating — especially the Brewers, who have benefited immensely from a sales tax that helped build the stadium.
