BREWERS' DEBT "COMPLICATING" STADIUM TALKS

     "One of the factors that has shaped and complicated efforts
to cut a stadium deal between government leasers and the
[Brewers] has been the team's undisclosed but sizable debt,"
according to Craig Gilbert of the MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL.
Sources close to negotiations say there are a number of ways the
team's financial condition is bearing on the talks.  Among them:
It has restricted what the team says it can pay toward the cost
of a new stadium; 2) It has created a second issue beyond the
stadium itself:  how to help the club weather its ongoing cash
flow problems;  3) It has fed the urgency of the talks.  The
Brewers claim that every "delay" in the completion date of a new
stadium puts it deeper in the red.  Debt estimates for the team
range from $30M to $55M (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 7/30).