The Brewers had previously been using Delaware North to run their team merchandise stores at Miller ParkBREWERS
The Brewers this season for the first time are operating their team store and kiosks at Miller Park "in-house instead of paying a concessionaire to run them," and prices "have come down" because of the move, according to a front-page piece by Paul Gores of the MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL. Brewers President of Business Operations Rick Schlesinger said, "Eliminating that middle person allows us to have more flexibility, more fan-friendly pricing. So the fans will notice the prices have been reduced." The Brewers stock more than 150 designs of caps at Miller Park, and Brewers VP/Retail Jill Aronoff said that last year the "least expensive cap would have been about $25," but this year the "cheapest cap is priced at about $15." Aronoff: "Most everything has a lower price on it than last year. Our jerseys are lower. Our T-shirts are lower. Our caps lower." The Brewers had been using Delaware North to "run its team merchandise stores at Miller Park," but now the concessionaire only "runs the food and beverage operation for the Brewers." The Brewers have "eight full-time employees in the team’s retail unit," and were expected to "have about 100 part-time workers staffing the stores and kiosks" by Opening Day (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 3/28).
TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME: Schlesinger said the team had about 18 games with attendance over 40,000 or more last year, and he believes they "have a good chance to beat that this year." Schlesinger: "Our goal -- and I think it’s certainly realizable -- is to exceed last year’s 2.85 million regular season paid attendance." He added, "While sellouts are important, it’s the total tickets sold. The best way to get to a significantly higher number for us this year is not going from 41,000 to 43,000. It’s raising the midweek games in April or May from 24,000 to 28,000. That’s where we’ll see the biggest upside for us. We’re certainly focusing on our midweek games because the summers we know are going to be high demand sellout games" (BIZJOURNALS.com, 3/27).
ALLOWANCE INCREASE: In Milwaukee, Tom Haudricourt noted the Brewers' Opening Day payroll is about $122.5M, which is "by far the largest in franchise history." The team's previous high payroll to open a season was $104M in '15. The Brewers’ payroll ranks 14th in the majors, another "high-water mark for the franchise, but is below the MLB average" of $132M entering the season (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 3/28).
