Roll out the lease extension! The Milwaukee Brewers will continue having a barrel of fun in Wisconsin for 25 more years. The Wisconsin Professional Baseball Park District voted 11 to one Wednesday morning to extend the Milwaukee Brewers’ lease agreement at American Family Field through 2050. This monumental lease extension comes just 18 months after the Brewers threatened to leave Milwaukee if upgrades couldn’t be made to the ballpark.
Related: Brewers May be Forced to Leave Milwaukee in Absence of Stadium Improvements Deal
Governor Tony Evers has been a supporter of further funding for the Brewers from the beginning. In 2023, he signed Wisconsin Act 40 and 41, which “makes numerous changes to state law regarding local professional baseball park districts and authorizes long-term funding to assist those districts in the development, construction, improvement, repair, and maintenance of baseball park facilities.”
Following Wednesday’s vote, Evers said, “This is a home run, and it’s a great day to be a Wisconsinite and a Brewers fan. I am incredibly proud of the good, bipartisan work that has gone into getting to today to ensure future generations of Wisconsinites can grow up rooting for our home team. The Brewers have long been a critical part of our history and our heritage in Wisconsin with billions of dollars in annual economic impact and hundreds of local, family-supporting jobs. This is our crew!”
The Milwaukee Brewers’ original lease agreement was set to expire in 2030, and in 2023 they estimated repairs and improvements to the ballpark would cost $78 million. Those improvements include winterization, upgraded seating, new video scoreboards, new elevators and upgrades to the parking lots.
While some argued against the hundreds of millions of dollars in public funding that will go toward the upgrades at the ballpark, proponents of the deal pointed to the Brewers’ generation of $2.5 billion in total economic output for the state since opening Am Fam Field in 2001. The ballpark has also created 3,000 jobs, including 1,100 union jobs.
Major League Baseball and the State Department of Administration are next to approve the lease.
