Milwaukee Although most people associate Milwaukee's reputation with its breweries, today companies like Miller Brewing employ less than one percent of the city's workers. Milwaukee's reputation as a blue collar town is more accurate, however, with 22 percent of the workforce involved in manufacturing -- second only to San Jose, CA and far higher than the national average of 16.5%. Service and managerial jobs are the fastest growing segments of the Milwaukee economy, and healthcare makes up 27% of all service jobs in the city. Milwaukee is headquarters to six Fortune 1000 manufacturers and six Fortune 1000 service companies. Among these are Briggs & Stratton, Harley-Davidson, Johnson Controls, Manpower Inc., Marshall & Ilsley, Northwestern Mutual, Rockwell Automation, Roundy's and Wisconsin Energy. Milwaukee also has a large number of financial service firms, particularly those specializing in mutual funds and transaction processing systems, and a disproportionate number of publishing and printing companies. Milwaukee has advertised itself as the "City of Festivals," especially emphasizing an annual fair along the lakefront called Summerfest. Listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest music festival in the world, Summerfest attracts around 900,000 visitors a year to its twelve stages. Smaller festivals througout the year celebrate the city's German, Native American, African-American, Italian, Irish, Asian, French and Polish heritage. In the 2000 census, over a third (38 percent) of Milwaukeeans reported that they were of German descent. Other large population groups include Polish (12.7%), Irish (10%), English (5.1%), Italian (4.4%), French (3.9%), and Hispanic origin totaled 6.3%. Milwaukee is the largest city in the state of Wisconsin, United States and the county of Milwaukee. The city's population is 596,974 with an estimated total of 1,709,926 in the Milwaukee metropolitan area (2005). The city of Milwaukee is the 19th largest city in the United States. The city is located in the southeastern portion of the state on the western shore of Lake Michigan. The racial makeup of the city is 49.98% White, 37.34% African American, 0.87% Native American, 2.94% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 6.10% from other races, and 2.71% from two or more races. 12.00% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.
This is surpising to me. I have lived in Milwaukee for the past 4 years before last summer as a student at UWM. The reason this bid fell apart last time was because the Bradley Center owners fiercly opposed a downtown stadium..which would be located literally right next door. The investor scraped his plans then not willing to bid without a downtown stadium. The area sloted for development was deconstructed starting about 2 years ago now. Its a decent size area but a soccer stadium would take up the majority of the site along with the nessisary parking structures that were slated to be built anyway. As for the soccer part, Milwaukee has a rich soccer culture and a very very tight community...however i question whether it has a size to sustain a pro team. Milwauke has the Brewers and the Bucks and...yes i know its not the same city the Green Bay Packers and Badger football to deal with. Anyone from Wisconsin knows what i am talking about with the Badgers and Packers. Its a risk in my eyes, this is not Salt LAke guys. Still part of me thinks that if Wilt is on board this might work because the Brewers suck and always will and the Bucks fans only show up when they are winning. If they get the downtown stadium then it could really work..without it i am not sure.
My view about Milwaukee is that it's not exactly the most glamorous or surest market the MLS could pick. But ANY city with great management can average 15,000 without doubleheaders. Plus, it creates a derby with the Fire, and this city has shown great support for the Wave in pre-MISL indoor soccer.
Milwaukee sports lawyer Marty Greenberg is part of an investor group that wants to secure a Major League Soccer franchise and build the stadium as part of a large, mixed-use development featuring retail and housing. Greenberg has said that the privately financed development could cost from $300 million to $500 million. Greenberg & Hoeschen, LLC The Stadium Game, a book written by Greenberg.
Well shoot, I'm moving to Madison next month. I was going to make trips to the bank 'o bridgeview, but if this goes through I'll be a charter member cheesehead.
Re: ich bien... It's a shame the stadium won't be part of Pabst City. Then it could be called the Blue Ribbon. Sachin
Not that I'm saying anything will happen, or even that anything is probable but this makes me think of the "Law of Unintended Consequences"--ie, what if getting a stadium and an MLS franchise made MLB decide to stop ignoring our existence? After all, Milwaukee is not only symbolic of a number of smaller MLB markets that without revenue sharing would barely be making a go of it (and without new ballparks probably wouldn't be at all), and don't really need any more competition, even slight, but it's also Bud Selig's home town. Again, this is basically just an exercise in what the military calls "red teaming", but can't quite get the thought out of my head.
Methinks that if it was a definite expansion announcement, it would be more than a conference call. Probably a "letter of intent" thingy. Or in otherwords, more material for Garber to wipe with in a few months.
If this happens this will be great news, especially if they can get the stadium secured along with the rest of the development. Now all we need is to get Toronto's officials to stop f'ing around and we'll have a good solid expansion round for '07. Two brand new markets. Not just one new market and another existing one.
After reading that, I feel real good about this guy. He "wrote the book" on getting stadiums built, and making them successful, even for lower-profile cities and leagues. Buy it now for $395.
Kinda hopin STL got a team. Already the Cubs/Cards rivalry, that would overtake the Dallas rivalry. Milwaukee... idk if it's the best choice for MLS. maybe they should bring up a USL team with them in 07.
I've often thought Milwaukee would be a good choice for MLS. The WI-IL rivalry is certainly there, just look at what Brewers-Cubs has become after only a few years of playing in the same league. Both Madison and Green Bay also have good soccer communities, so the team would draw from those smaller areas as well.
Tomorrow afternoon should be very interesting. I'm not sure where the article gets that MLS has scheduled a conference call though, that doesn't appear to fit in with the rest of the article at this time.
Wow!!! Given the background of Greenberg as a "National Authority" on Sports Stadiums, you've got to appreciate that MLS is attracting extremely knowledgeable investors of the Checketts class. These are very respected individuals who could have gone into any number of sports investments but chose MLS.......
If this happens... it will be as exciting adding this ownership group as getting another team - the more owners, with more diversified skills and backgrounds, yet all successful the better. I hope it happens.
If Televisa doesn't buy either the Quakes or Wizards, I guess we know who Milwaukee's expansion mate in 2007 will be.