American Family Field’s winterization construction start moves closer

Listen to this article

By TOM DAYKIN

USA Today Network via Reuters Connect

American Family Field‘s winterization, allowing the ballpark to host off-season concerts and other events, is moving closer to a construction start.

The ballpark’s public owner, the Wisconsin Professional Baseball Park District, has hired J.P. Cullen & Sons Inc. as the project’s construction manager.

That Janesville-based firm is working with district officials on the project’s design and cost estimate, said Brian Dworak, district facility manager. That work will include installing a large amount of new piping and other heating equipment, he said.

“It’s a complex project,” Dworak said at the district board’s March 16 meeting.

Dworak said it will likely be another month or so before the district has the project budget breakdown.

Winterization was estimated at $25 million in 2022, but construction costs have since increased significantly, Dworak said at a September board meeting.

He didn’t provide an updated budget estimate at the March 16 meeting. The district hopes to finish that project at the end of the 2027 baseball season.

Also, work is to start soon on a public plaza behind the outfield near the pedestrian bridge over Wisconsin Highway 175/Brewers Boulevard.

That project, featuring a beer garden, stage, and six-hole mini golf, will be overseen by construction manager C.G. Schmidt Inc., Dworak said.

That work is to be completed in early summer, he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The costs of winterization and the plaza are being covered by the $500 million public fund for AmFam Field’s long-term renovations and improvements created in 2023.

That includes $365.8 million from the state and $67.5 million each from the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County to pay for that work over nearly 30 years.

Separately, $11.4 million is coming from surcharges on tickets sold for AmFam Field concerts and other non-Brewers events, with $8.1 million from Brewers logo license plate sales, and $35.2 million set aside from the former five-county stadium sales tax.

The ball club’s lease of the ballpark runs through 2050.