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Miller Park - Buy Milwaukee Brewers tickets for Miller Park at TickCo.com!
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Miller Park /
Milwaukee Brewers
(click on the image
for a larger photo)
| Year Opened | 2001 |
| Capacity | 42,200 |
| Architect | NBBJ, HKS and Eppstein Uhen |
| Dimensions | 344L, 358 LC, 370LC, 379 LC, 400C, 386RC, 374RC, 345R |
| Playing Surface | Grass |
| Last Visit | 2007 |
| Web Site | http:/brewers.mlb.com |
| Online Broadcasts | Yes |
| Online Ticket Sales | Yes |
| Phone | 414/902-4000; 800/933-7890 |
| Ticket Prices (2007) | The Brewers have a two-level pricing system, charging more for Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals and Opening Day games. Field Diamond Box, $125/$85; Field Infield Box, $50/$42; Club Infield Box, $50/$36; Loge Diamond Box, $45/$36; Field Outfield Box, $42/$33; Loge Infield Box, $40/$32; Loge Outfield Box, $32/$24; Terrace Box, $23/$18; Terrace Reserved, $18/$13; Field Bleachers, $20/$16; Loge Bleachers, $20/$16; Bernie's Terrace, $12/$5; Uecker Seats, $1. |
| League | National League |
| Parking | Expensive and expansive. There are two levels of parking at Miller Park. The preferred parking closest to the stadium is $15, and even so you're not especially close to the park. For $8, you can park even farther away from the ballpark. There is no free parking at the ballpark, and because of its location it's impossible to park for free any place near the ballpark. |
| Address/Directions | One Brewers Way, Milwaukee. Miller Park is south of I-94 west of downtown Milwaukee. If you're on I-94, there are a multitude of signs that point out the exits to Miller Park. |
| Written by: | Kevin Reichard |
| Rating |  |
Wisconsin's biggest kegger just keeps rolling along, as the owners of the Milwaukee Brewers continue to hone their operational strategies. One of the more interesting things to do in the offseason is see how the Brewers are changing Miller Park; so far most of the changes have resonated with the public, with the team competitive on the field and more fans willing to part ways with more dollars.
Of course, Miller Park gives them plenty of reasons to hand over the bucks. And there's no doubt Miller Park is the state's biggest kegger: the ballpark is named for a local brewery, the team defiantly said they wouldn't pull the plug on post-game brews after many teams did in the wake of Josh Hancock's tragic car accident near the beginning of the 2007 season, and fans are never, ever too far away from a beer stand. The best of Wisconsin's brews are showcased at Miller Park: besides the offerings of Miller (including Miller High Life and Miller Lite), you can find beers from a slough of state microbreweries, including New Glarus and Pioneer. (Sadly, no City Brewery or Point Brewery beers. Next season, maybe?) Miller Park offers the best selection of beers in the majors; only AT&T Park and Safeco Field come close. Throw in a trademark Wisconsin brat, and you're living the quintessential Milwaukee life.
(click on the image
for a larger photo)
Not that there's anything wrong with any of this: With beer, brats and good marketing, Miller Park has evolved into a hip gathering place. When it was first built, the ballpark did carry some negative karma: a controversial funding plan had been rammed down the throats of voters by Gov. Tommy Thompson and then-owner Bud Selig, and the deaths of some construction workers dampened spirits even further.
The current owners have moved past the bad karma and honed the formula. Today, Miller Park is a machine when it comes to dollars -- both in a good way and in a bad way. Local fans who tire of paying high ticket prices and concession fees say that Miller Park is nothing more than a machine designed to separate you from your cash. It is. In fact, it's damned good at separating you from your cash.
But Miller Park is also a machine in terms of the ballpark's layout and architecture, which is unique among MLB ballparks these days. Miller Park is indeed retro, but not retro in the exposed-truss/brick-wall retro that marks Oriole Park or Safeco Field (though there are a lot of exposed girders and brick walls at Miller Park). Instead, the retro features of Miller Park hearken back to Milwaukee's glory days at the turn of the century when the city was an industrial giant. Think machine and you think of the great industrial firms that made Milwaukee great -- Briggs and Stratton, Harley-Davidson, Allen-Bradley, and more.
(click on the image
for a larger photo)
And Miller Brewing. Yes, the modern brewery is indeed a marvel of the Machine Age: take a brewery tour, watch those bottles whiz down the production line and end up seconds later filled, capped and pasteurized, and you'll see a perfect example of the Machine Age. You can see the Miller Brewing brewery from the ballpark's parking lot, while downtown you can still see the buildings where Pabst and Blatz were brewed. While we're not normally a fan of naming rights, we heartily approve of Miller Park: any ballpark where Miller High Life is on tap throughout is already a winner -- and why you should consider a trip to see Miller Park in action.
The first thing that will strike visitors to Miller Park is its massive scale, keeping in line with the machine theme. This is not an organic ballpark that feels like it's been there forever -- like AT&T Park -- but rather a huge, highly engineered stadium. New MLB ballparks tend have huge footprints, but the footprint at Miller Park doesn't seem that big: instead of being spread out, the ballpark is built straight up. It is the only ballpark I've been to where the top row of the stands seems to extend just to the halfway point of the exterior walls, leaving a huge area above the playing field. (How huge? At its highest point County Stadium was almost 100 feet tall. Miller Park is 330 feet tall at the peak of the arches.) The immensity of the stands and the roof is tempered by the sheet of glass that sits between them. During daylight hours the glass lets in badly needed sunlight -- without it, you'd forever be viewing baseball under the lights and essentially be paying for an indoor stadium. The glass is also a useful design counterpoint to the acres of bricks comprising the exterior of the ballpark.
The tall walls are
topped by what appears to be a sea of girders
extended from behind home plate and going down
each line. Basically, that sea of girders is the
retractable roof folded up. This roof uses a
unique clamshell design where three panels of the
roof retract over a fixed panel down the
third-base line. The roof is an engineering
marvel, weighing 12,139 tons and covers 10.5
acres. The roof has been a point of controversy
for the stadium's history: for the last two years
they didn't seal properly, so during some heavy
rainstorms water leaked onto the playing field,
and it also made a huge noise when closed --
imagine the sound of 10,000 fingernails being
dragged across a giant chalkboard, and you have an
idea of how bad it sounded. These issues were
addressed in recent offseasons when the bearings and
seals in the roof were replaced. The roof is
closed immediately after a game, and the Brewers
invite fans to stick around and watch the roof
closing.
One way where Miller Park shines: despite the
immense scale of the park, it's broken up in many
different elements so you never feel overwhelmed.
There are basically four levels at the ballpark: a
field level that includes grandstand and outfield
seats, a loge level that goes from foul pole to
foul pole, a club level that includes the suites,
and a terrace level (the upper deck). Within those
levels are other areas with their own advantages.
Because Miller Park was built only for baseball,
the outfield bleachers are oriented directly
toward home plate, while the seating areas down
each line curve in toward the infield. And the
bleacher sections are quite small, holding only
5,220 fans. For such a spacious stadium, Miller
Park doesn't actually seat that many: the capacity
of 42,400 is on a par with many newer stadiums,
but it feels less intimate than its predecessor,
County Stadium, which held 53,000 in an open-air
layout. It shouldn't feel less intimate; the
Brewers boast that the seats closest to the
catcher in back of home plate are actually closer
to him than the pitcher is: the seats are 56 seat
behind home plate, and the rubber on the pitching
mound is 60 feet 6 inches from home plate. (The
Brewers say that these aree the closest seats are
allowed to the playing field, per MLB rules.)
More on Miller Park | Page 2 --->
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