Miller Park Economics, or Your Tax Dollars at Work

Tom Haudricourt and Don Walker:

In the three years after moving into Miller Park in 2001, the Milwaukee Brewers made a yearly economic impact of $327.3 million on the five-county area that was taxed to build the ballpark, according to a study by the Institute for Survey and Policy Research at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The director of the UWM Center for Economic Development offered a different view, saying the study was a “standard nonsensical sports study that inflates the impact of spending on baseball.”

The study, which local public relations firm Mueller Communications Inc. commissioned on behalf of Major League Baseball and the Brewers, was completed in January 2005. It is to be made public for the first time Monday, when baseball Commissioner Bud Selig addresses a meeting of the Greater Milwaukee Committee at Miller Park.

Much more on Miller Park and Bud Selig here. The mosting interesting link is a June, 2004 article in the Washington Post of all places where Bud Selig’s hardball tactics were discussed and we learned that former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson won’t set foot in the place. Clearly, the opportunity to place the park downtown was a major miss.