The Brewers made a "stunning request to restructure the
financing" of the club's new $250M stadium last week with
groundbreaking set for March 18. The team claims that if the
Southeast WI Stadium Authority takes out a $50M loan instead of
the Brewers, it would be tax-exempt, and proposes that the debt-
service on such a loan could be paid back through $3.85M in
annual payments. However, a government source told the MILWAUKEE
JOURNAL SENTINEL that money would raise only $35M. Brewers VP
Wendy Selig-Prieb declined to discuss the funding gap: "Those are
the kind of specifics it is not appropriate to discuss. Just
because they said it doesn't mean it's true" (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL
SENTINEL, 2/20). The Brewers' proposal would increase the
Authority's borrowing for a new stadium to $210M. The team would
then repay the $3.85M annual payments through concessions,
advertising and naming rights (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 2/19).
NOT SO FAST: Many legislators warned yesterday that any
attempt to change the deal for a new stadium "would violate the
spirit of an agreement" passed last fall. Officials from all
parties involved meet today (Rinard & Walters, MILWAUKEE JOURNAL
SENTINEL, 2/20). Calling the new plan "totally unacceptable,"
state Rep. Shirley Krug has threatened to "suspend" the 0.1%
sales tax increase which went into effect January 1 to partially
fund the new retractable-dome (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 2/19).
