Tag: miller park

Miller Park gets a touchup in the off-season

Some teams gain a good rapport with their fans by doing all the right things and then sit back, enjoying (not to mention pointing to) their successes.  Others look to fans to find more ways to improve their baseball experience even more. 

The Milwaukee Brewers and Miller Park are good examples of the latter.  The Brewers team has already gained acclaim by getting ranked 7th out of all 122 major league sports franchises for “Fan Satisfaction”.  They’ve also were ranked #3 in “Affordability” and “Stadium Experience”. 

Yeah, surveys whatever… what matters to me is that every friend of mine who’s been to Miller Park, (no matter what team they root for) tell me that ballpark is one of the best. 

Well, they’re not stopping there, it seems.  After soliciting feedback from the fans, the Brewers are making more improvements to Miller Park.

Work has already started on the Terrace Level where the team is renovating the existing merchandise store to create a new “Brewers Team Store on Terrace Level.”  The store, which is modeled (on a smaller scale) after the award-winning Team Store by Majestic on the Field Level, will be upgraded to improve customer flow and overall visibility.  The renovations will consist of an expansion of the current footprint as well as new lighting, signage, cash-wraps, store fixtures and floor design. The Brewers will also feature a variety of new merchandise in the store, which is scheduled to be accessible during home games when the Miller Park gates are open.

They are also making improvements to the clubhouse interior and parking lots will be renamed after “the city’s baseball legends” (I take that to mean they will include some of the Milwaukee Braves too). 

Kudos to the Brewers for catering to the baseball fan.  The rest of MLB can take a lesson from the Brewers and Miller Park here. 

Cubs get Ballpark envy?

After enjoying two days as the host team in another ballpark, some Cubs players are fanaticizing about a new park in Chicago especially one with state-of-the-art locker facilities.  Zambrano was the most blunt about his comparison between the two parks:

"(Miller Park) is a beautiful ballpark. Gosh, I wish we could have a new ballpark."

Though Jason Marquis also enjoyed his Miller Park stay, he had more appreciation for the fan’s love of Wrigley and had a creative idea:

"You never want to see a landmark taken down, a place with so much history," Marquis said. "The fans love it. That being said, the game is changing, stadiums are getting updated. There are better facilities, not only for the players, but for the fans—better food concessions, comfortable seats, better views. …

"If I had a personal choice, I think they should knock Wrigley down and build a replica in the exact same spot to give it that same feel. The same colored seats, same ivy, same wall, and throw up a Jumbotron, but have it look like a replica of the scoreboard that’s up there now, try to give it the same feel, in the same spot. I wouldn’t be opposed to that."

I suggest to the Cubs that before they get too concerned about grandiose ideas like new parks and locker facilities that they realize that they have a division to clinch and playoffs to be more concerned about.  They’ve come this far with the Friendly Confines as their home base.  Their two-day stay in Milwaukee was awesome and in some ways, historic.  But let’s not lose sight of why it was important to win those games. 

Hint:  it wasn’t for "The Locker Rooms that Zambrano Built.