Brewers principle owner Mark Attanasio met with the media (including Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) this afternoon prior to tonight’s game against the Padres. He discussed a pair of the major off-the-field storylines surrounding the club headed into the stretch run this year: the future of manager Craig Counsell, who entered the final year of his contract without an extension earlier this year, and rumors from earlier this month that the club could begin exploring relocation as soon as this fall.
Regarding Counsell, Attanasio provided a noteworthy update, telling reporters that he met with Counsell yesterday and the pair decided to put conversations about a potential extension off until after the 2023 campaign concludes. When further pressed on the matter, Attanasio said (per Rosiak) that “It’s up to Craig. We’d love to have him here, obviously, for a jillion reasons.”
That the Brewers would love to keep Counsell hardly registers as a surprise. The longest-tenured manager in the NL, Counsell is currently in his ninth season with Milwaukee. The 52 year old sports a 686-612 record as manager of the club, including a 552-447 record since the start of the 2018 season that saw the club come within a game of the World Series. While Counsell has never won a Manager of the Year award, he’s still widely considered to be among the very best managers in the game, with three second-place finishes to his name. As the club’s winningest manager in history, Counsell piloted the club to four consecutive playoff appearances from 2018-2021, and after a near miss in 2022 appears poised to bring the Brewers back to the postseason in 2023, as the club leads the NL Central with a 71-57 record.
As the conversation shifted toward the relocation rumors, spurred by a funding dispute regarding improvements to the club’s ballpark, Attanasio downplayed the likelihood of the Brewers leaving Milwaukee. “Look, me, Debbie, our family, we very much want to stay. That’s all I’ve considered at this point.” Attanasio told reporters. He also noted that his goal is to “keep the team [in Milwaukee] for another generation” while citing state politicians who have discussed extending the club’s lease, which currently runs through 2030, through 2050.
Even as Attanasio expressed his desire to stay in Milwaukee, however, he emphasized the club’s desire for additional funds for ballpark renovations. When asked about the A’s planned move out of Oakland to Las Vegas, he noted that while American Family Field isn’t “anything close to Oakland’s” in terms of need for improvements, “you have to look forward and plan so it doesn’t deteriorate over time… the lease runs out in 2030 and it takes years to plan. So, I think just the timetable is such that we have to have these types of discussions.”
Attanasio’s optimism that a deal will be worked out is understandable, given the end of the club’s lease in Milwaukee is still seven years away. For comparison, the A’s began pursuing relocation in earnest back in 2021, three years before their lease at the Coliseum expires at the end of the 2024 season. That gives the sides plenty of time to work out a deal before more relocation becomes a more serious threat.
Brewers do more with less. Can’t blame them for exploring stadium options. if you rent an apartment and the landlord ain’t fixing it, people do the same. Wonder what payroll is going to be next year.
You also usually have to provide the landlord with financial information.
If I was the landlord I sure as hell wouldn’t lease my property out to someone who constantly claims his company is in the red and is unwilling to show me different.
I definitely wouldn’t be letting them stay there for Pennies on the dollar and keep pumping money into building improvements if they continually failed to turn a profit.
I would let them walk and then rent my property out to someone new who could run a successful business, or I’d ask them to show me the books b4 I even considered dropping 100’s of millions of dollars into their “failing” business.
It’s a brand new ball park? What renovations does it need and for how much?
Miller park opened back in 2001? What kinda of renovations does a 22 year old ball park need that’s such a big deal they gonna skip town to Montreal? Didn’t they build a brand new park to lure a team?
As much as I hate helping billionaires pay their bills, y’all need to get a clue.
States pay these billionaires bills because the team brings millions of dollars of revenue to the community. If we wanna be hard ass’s and say no, there are plenty of citys that would be happy to build them what they want.
It’s that simple. Failing business? What failing business? Tell that to the thousands of local businesses of different types that benefit from the Brewers.
A/C
Air conditioning
Just ask the city of Montreal how that turned out for them, team is gone and tax payers are still paying for their stadium
Olympic Stadium in Montreal was built for the 1967 Olympic Games. Expos played in it until the team was moved to DC.
Most legit economic analyses clearly demonstrate that teams do not bring billions in net economic development.
IF the Brewers left Milwaukee, there wouldn’t be another MLB team to, as you describe it, “rent” to. If you lost the Braves & the Brewers, baseball is gone for good.
Get a clue bud. As much as I hate paying billionaires bills, the team being in Milwaukee as brought billions of dollars to the local economy and local businesses. If we wanna be hardass’s and say no, there are plenty of other cities that would be happy to build them what they need. Failing business? What are you even talking about? It’s about the economic Impact the team brings to the community. Do the brewers operate at a loss, maybe. What does that have to do with anyone other than Mark Attanasio? You clearly don’t understand how this works.
The problem is while there is an unlimited number of retail stores, sandwich shops and pharmacies, there are only 30 MLB franchises.
So while you can replace an outgoing Subways with a Potbelly branch, if the Brewers leave town, there is no other potential tenant.
Brewers are moving to Nashville
No they are not. Ask the Atlanta ownership.
Just saw this on TMZ: Debbie spotted shopping at an exclusive furniture store in downtown Nashville.
There will be a team in Nashville by 2030. At the current trends it will be twice the size of Milwaukee. Only a question of whether MLB puts an expansion team there first.
Expansion is a foolish dream for MLB at this point without some major changes in the CBA.
I’d love to see the Cubs dump Ross and get this guy to manage the team. I wonder why he wants to put off signing – maybe he’s like Maddon when he left rhe Rays for the Cubs & wants to go to a team with a bigger spending capacity and more visibility. He will probably stay in Milwaukee and I realize that Hoyer loves Ross. But a guy can dream…
According to rumors, the Mets will be trying to hire David Stearns who in turn may want to hire Counsell as manager. Again, rumors.
Did anyone on the press call ask about David Stearns? Seems like he is headed to the Mets as soon as his contractual hold in Milwaukee is over. Speculation in NY press circles is that Craig Counsell could follow him there, for Stearns appreciates Counsell’s managerial skills and may have a nice sized contract available to write to persuade Craig to leave.
Rumors can be rumors, but sometimes when there’s smoke, there’s fire.
Stearns will be in Queens. CC will not.
Speculation in NY press circles? Those are the guys who spend their days throwing things against the wall and seeing what sticks.
Continually pressuring cities for taxpyaer money with the threat of relocation, sounds like a company well deserving of anti-trust exemptions.
I think this story is missing something important. Unless I misunderstood when it was brought up before, it’s not just whether the state (taxpayers) will foot the bill for improvements/upkeep for the stadium. MLB basically gave them an ultimatum: get it up to OUR standards, or WE will determine where you play, and how soon the relocation happens.
It’s just another knife poking John Q Taxpayer (by way of C Rooked Polly Ticians) to cough up the dough, and quick.
AlBundys: If only MLB would be as forceful when it comes to policing their own who view their teams as talking points at cocktail parties rather than putting money into those teams to make them competitive. Talking to you, Jerry and Jim.
Depending on how the Brewers finish will determine if Counsell wants to come back.
I’m not a Brewers fan, but they need to stay in Milwaukee
Personally don’t think the Brewers will move. Think they will figure it would help if we had a different commissioner. Now as far as CC it’s time for a change don’t get me wrong he is good but I think these young guys need a manager like DeRosa or Washington.
Milwaukee’s market is really small. As someone posted Nashville is double the size of Milwaukee and has the tech jobs to support a franchise. Austin, Texas is another place that is more than big enough for a MLB franchise and has the kind of jobs available that allows fans to support a team. Milwaukee a great destination in 1950, not so much now. The economy there sucks, it is suffering the same fate as Detroit, it’s a dying city. The team is giving the state of Wisconsin and the Milwaukee city council time to meet their needs which is respectful.
Nashville is Double the size of Milwaukee? Where u getting your Info from? It’s around 100,000 more ppl
I believe the original commenter who brought this up was talking about projected population for 2030 when the Brewers’s stadium lease is up. Nashville is one of the fastest growing cities in the US.
That’s what they said about Tucson, AZ way back. Every year, new city that is most fastest growing. A trend is little more than subjective. Milwaukee is a baseball town just like Green Bay is a football town. If they relocate, we will get a team again somehow, someway. Optimism? Maybe. Realistic? Also, maybe.
Projecting a city’s future growth is how the NFL ended up with a team in Jacksonville that has to play half it’s season in London.
Nashville is home to some of the worst drivers in the country. I say this as someone that came from Chicago, which has got to be up there with NY
So much talk. So much speculation. In the end, money talks. Milwaukee’s owner could make a lot more money in another city, especially a city like Nashville which is now a destination for tourists in addition to being a city that is growing instead of one in decline.
The solution for the team staying put? Like it or not, local and state governments are gonna have to pony up the cheese.
As for CC, teams like the Mets and Yankees can easily afford to pay him two or three times what he’s making with the Brewers. If he gets a huge offer,, CC would be foolish not to take the money.
Last I heard the Governor had the money allocated in his budget. But of course members of the opposite political party didn’t like his version (shocking I know) and wrote their own proposal.
They’re in the usual bickering stage (some might call it negotiations) right now. It’s kinda silly to say the “government” will have to pony up the dough, since it’s the taxpayers who will be paying for it.
The money is there in the form of ticket sales taxes so yes the taxpayers would be paying for. I don’t think it’s like pulling revenue from different sources or cubs owner who wanted the amusement tax to spend on his personal Disney land.
It’s coming from the state budget. Every story I’ve heard or read on the subject says it is taxpayer dollars that will be paying for it.
A couple took it a step further and said basically ‘this time around it will be ALL Wisconsin residents paying the tab, not just the 5 southeastern counties that paid for it to be built.’
Surprising that neither the article nor other commenters mentioned that Counsell is a Milwaukee-area native who now lives in the same suburb (Whitefish Bay) in which he grew up. While that doesn’t preclude him wanting to make more money or have a higher profile job or even reteam with David Stearns in his next job, I think for a guy like Counsell location will at least a be a factor in where he decides to manage going forward.
I have thought about that, but then I thought about Jim Leonard (former UW player, assistant coach, D-coord, interim HC) who said repeatedly he didn’t even want consider jobs outside Wisconsin because of family, etc. He’s now a consultant or analyst on Bert Bulgaria’s staff at Illinois.
Long story short, stuff changes, and it doesn’t always START with the individual changing their mind or all the sudden get money hungry.
Attanasio should use his own money for ballpark renovations. Big league baseball has been living off the Wisconsin taxpayer since the Braves arrived in ‘53. The general public has given enough to prop up wealthy club owners – in all pro sports.
Attanasio should use his own money for ballpark renovations. Big league baseball has been living off the Wisconsin taxpayer since the Braves arrived for in ‘53. The general public has given enough to prop up wealthy club owners – in all pro sports.