OT: How Bout Them Brewers and Ben Sheets

[SqueallyDRyan]

Growing up in Waukesha has made me never really ponder the downtown issue too much.  County Stadium wasn't downtown, and I never really saw much benefit of having Miller Park downtown. Even though it is closer to where I live right now, traveling the extra few minutes certainly would not have deterred me from attending countless Brewer games (never made me miss a Marquette game). With that said I think that there are pros and cons to both arguments. I think that if it were reasonable to put the park downtown with plenty of parking for the awesome tailgating that goes on, then yes downtown would have been preferable. Especially now that I am older and hitting up the bars afterwards is a possibility. However, I am really not aware of all of the intangibles.  Either way I love Miller Park and the short distance between it and downtown should not discourage anyone from going to as many games as possible

[ppp098]

Agree that there are pros and cons to both sides.

Too bad the Pack doesn't play games in Milwaukee anymore. Why wasn't that included in the stadium deal? Milwaukee also got screwed on the tax issue.

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

. I think that if it were reasonable to put the park downtown with plenty of parking for the awesome tailgating that goes on, then yes downtown would have been preferable.

I agree with this completely... but the problem is I think its impossible. Even if a ballpark started with a good amount of blacktop in a downtown environment (highly unlikely), eventually the land would be worth so much that they would have sell it off to start using it to build businesses on.

I guess the perfect ballpark would be downtown, near bars, lots of parking and tailgating, mass transit options, hotels nearby, easy access from the freeway, a great view of the lake, etc.

I don't think such a stadium is possible on earth.

[77fan88warrior]

I am a Chicagoan who was a fan of the 82 Brewers and I was curious how many times they have made playoffs since then? The Wallbangers were a lot of fun to watch.

[spiral97]

They have no idea what to do with big crowds at that place.

well.. of course not.. bad teams rarely draw much of a crowd

[IAmMarquette]

I have to say that while I really like Miller Park (once inside), the parking situation is a joke the way it is today.  Getting into the game on Friday night was an absolute nightmare....I'd guess that 30-40% of the people who parked in General Parking missed the first pitch.  They only had three or four people collecting money and you didn't know how much it cost until you rolled your window down and they told you...terrible.

I think a lot of the parking backup was due to the weather. Had it been a nicer evening, more people would have shown up earlier to tailgate, rather than everyone trying to get to the stadium during the 20minutes before the game.

As others have said, the parking lot atmosphere at Miller Park is like no other big league stadium. On a warm, sunny summer day, I'll take $8 parking, a hot grill, a cooler of Miller Lite and a 5 minute walk to the stadium every time.

[spartan3186]

I was driving home during that game and there was a nasty accident on 94 (multiple fire trucks, ambulances and sherrifs) that backed up traffic on 94 E all the way back to US-43. I guarantee you that played a major role in the back up of traffic in the parking lot prior to the game