Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist offered a new proposal to help
finance Miller Park for the Brewers in an attempt to keep the
team in Milwaukee, according to Nichols & Rinard of the MILWAUKEE
JOURNAL SENTINEL. In a meeting with the editorial board of the
JOURNAL SENTINEL, Norquist also "brusquely criticized some
people" involved in the stadium project, including the Brewers.
His plan calls for the city to sell the MacArthur Square parking
garage, "possibly to Milwaukee County, and devote up" to $25M in
proceeds to the new stadium. Later in the day, Stephen Agostini,
Norquist's representative on the stadium board, said he and two
other board members are putting together a new plan to build a
$250M domed stadium in the Menomonee Valley, "and the parking
garage sale was a component of it." Norquist's proposal
generated some interest, but "was almost immediately shot down by
others." Brewers VP Laurel Prieb said the sale of the garage
"sounds like an encouraging development." If the city could
raise $25M from the sale of the parking garage, the project would
still be short $25M. Norquist suggested the shortfall could be
covered by loan guarantees for the Brewers from either the
Milwaukee business community or the American League. He meanwhile
targeted the Brewers by saying "they have to agree to things and
stick to them." Of the business community, he added "Every time
we have gotten to the point where we have been on the verge of a
serious resolution, somehow they get recruited to be involved in
a way that disrupts the process" (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL,
6/21). The Milwaukee County Board voted down a plan to support a
new county sales tax to help fund the new park by a vote of 20-5.
The bill would have requested Gov. Tommy Thompson and the
Legislature to grant the county the option of levying a local
stadium sales tax (Gretchen Schuldt, MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL,
6/21).
