As for why the county was handed off so many responsibilities, such as the zoo, park system, freeways, and the stadium had less to do with the competance of the county, but that it functioned as a de-facto metropolitan government. This was the logical course at that point in history, but two generations later the same rationale would dictate moving responsibilites from the county to a defacto or dejure metropolitan entity.

Also, Frank Zeidler believed in an anti-urban policy to deconcentrate the metro in response to the nuclear threat of the 1950’s. Since the city destroying bombs of today were yet to be invented, the idea was to spread the city out, so any strike would merely decimate and not obliterate a city.

Now, I’m not necessarily judging him, but you have to understand the motivations and ideas that were in mind. Mayor Zeidler did some great things for this city, but we can’t look to him for urban policy.

That said, why would Norquist put up a proposal for a new ballpark Downtown, years before the Brewers are talking about moving? That’s political suicide if I ever heard it. The idea for a Downtown stadium was never fully considered for a lot of reasons and I would place my money on many people’s sheer resistance to change.

His statement that St. Louis would not be in the running to host an all-star game anytime soon unless a new stadium was built is one of many examples of his poor leadership. George Bush was next in line to become commissioner BIT Bud made up his own rules and ignored Bart G’s dying wishes. Therefore all teams will have new stadiums payed by hard working tax payers, ballgames ending in a tie, globalization of America’s pastime, steroids, and tainted records! Oh yea – and baseball minded presidents!

I have never heard anyone complaining about how the stadium should have been downtown as strangers and friends alike chug down beers and brats while playing catch in the parking lot getting amped up for the Brew Crew and from being south of the border in IL and bringing friends that stadium is raved about by cubs/whitesox fans alike who wish their stadiums were even close to Miller Park! What an atmosphere and the stadium turned out quite well i must say!

The roof serves an incredibly useful purpose given our climate – ask Cleveland. The roof also makes the stadium a year round venue.

Tailgating is also overlooked. It was a major consideration in determining the current location. The idea of tailgating in a structure is, frankly, foolish. The glaring exposure to liability, alone, is cost prohibitive.

Finally, the author ignores the fact that the Menomonee Valley is being redeveloped and that there are discussions currently going on to create attractions to compliment Miller Park. I have it from at least one reliable source that the Brewers are researching new methods to generate revenue once the stadium is paid off.

So next time a side by side comparison between cities is made, do not just cite the “City X Tour Guide.” Some balanced reporting would be appreciated.

One HUGE oversight in this article is that Ballpark Village in St. Louis does not exist. It is not real. I personally, without any architecture experience, could draw a few cool looking buildings that could be build around Miller Park for $600+ million.. but the fact is that these buildings, like Ballpark Village, are not standing, are not going to be funded in the near future, and under current circumstances may not be built for a long while. I don’t get how you justify even mentioning Ballpark Village in this article being a factor, as it exists only on paper. Right now, according to the Cardinals, the area is being used for a softball field and Parking.

Another thing that keeps bothering me is good old Detroit. I mean with Busch stadium, they (like most others.. and us) built the new stadium next to the old one. But the Tigers didn’t do that. In fact the Lions and Tigers (and, in the vicinity is rumored to be the the site of a new Redwing’s stadium) have completely bulldozed an entire swath of their downtown to accommodate their new stadium row. I know downtown Milwaukee is not a direct comparison to downtown Detroit, but I really want to know how much it helped relocating the Tiger’s stadium from Corktown to Downtown, and I would like to make some sort of comparison as to how exactly it would benefit Downtown by relocating the Brewers there from their current (old) location.

And that brings up Downtown Milwaukee’s impact. Which swath of Downtown buildings are you willing to crush in order to build a Miller Park-like stadium downtown. No piece of land that large is unoccupied along the Milwaukee River. And that cute old-school stadium looks nice and would be cool if it would have been build about 80 years ago, but nobody would build it today unless it was economically viable today.

Yes, I like Miller Park the way it is, and although some stadiums are built right in their downtown area’s, ours isn’t, and hasn’t been since perhaps Borchert Field sat where I-43 sits now. It’s hard to imagine downtown with a Miller Park-like ballpark. What it would gain from it and what it would lose for it to happen could be one long discussion. Thankfully, the “Thursday Architects” were wrong, and Miller Park didn’t open west of Milwaukee. They opened on 1 Brewers Way IN Milwaukee. I know countless fans who wouldn’t have it any other way. 25 games into this season, and we’ve got the 9th highest avg attendance of any major ball park, including a higher ballpark utilization percentage than St. Louis (88.2 vs. 86.3), and it really seems that it eventually comes down to how large the stadium is itself and how good the team that plays in it is more than where it is and how many transit stops are by it.