With the Brewers in the "early stages of a rebuilding plan that is expected to lead to tough times," the team is touting the "hometown roots of manager Craig Counsell in a new television ad" for the '16 season, according to Tom Haudricourt of the MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL. In the ad, titled "Born a Brewer," Counsell is "seen walking around the village of Whitefish Bay, where he grew up." Counsell says in the ad he narrates, "Just like you, I was born a Brewer. This is my first love, my passion, my responsibility." Haudricourt wrote with the rebuilding plan, it "makes sense to focus instead on the man in charge on the field of that process" (JSONLINE.com, 2/8). Meanwhile, Brewers COO Rick Schlesinger said that he is "bullish on ticket sales" for the '16 season, but "acknowledges they will decrease a bit." He said of the rebuilding process, "We want to be honest with the fans. What we were doing in the past did not work. We spent as much (on payroll) as we could and it just didn’t work out." He added of attendance at Miller Park, "We’ll go into the start of 2016 a very, very few percentage points behind 2015. Last year everything went wrong ... and we still drew 2.5 (million). So to me that says that fans are very supportive" (MILWAUKEE BUSINESS JOURNAL, 2/5 issue).
