Tuesday, May 28, 2019

The Economic Effects of Milwaukee Sports

The Economic Effects of Milwaukee Sports
By: Elliot Mueller

Milwaukee sports fans have gone through decades of poor play from both the Brewers and the Bucks. But recently both franchises have completely turned the corner and are among the most elite teams in their respective sports. Both are considered one of the best teams in their league. This has Milwaukee sports fans excited. As each team saw their success increase, the city of Milwaukee has seen an increase in economic benefits.


The biggest reason both franchises have turned around, are the stellar performances that each team is receiving from their best player. After being traded from the Marlins to the Brewers, Christian Yelich won the 2018 National League MVP award in his first season in Milwaukee. In 2018 the Brewers team reached the NLCS but lost in game 7 to the LA Dodgers. Although falling short of the world series these are major strides for the franchise as the team went 96-67 in 2018 which was the best record in the National League. Brewers fans remember just three short years ago in 2015 the team had an embarrassing record of 68-94. An immense amount of credit can be given to Christian Yelich who came in and made Milwaukee a true contender. A similar story can be told about the Milwaukee Bucks, who in 2013 went 15-67. That was the worst record in the NBA that year. But fast forward a few years to 2018, the Bucks had the best record in the league sitting at 60-22. Majority of the credit can be given to MVP hopeful Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Bucks reached the Eastern Conference Finals and lost in game 6. Each team has completely flipped their franchise around and the results have been incredible for the city of Milwaukee.

The success of the Milwaukee teams has brought buzz to the city and has helped increase business for the local restaurants, hotels, and really any business in the city of Milwaukee. Brewers ticket sales have increased by a whopping 20% and this will continue to rise as the team remains elite. The same can be said as the Bucks who saw their season ticket holders reach an all time high of 10,000 holders. That number has never been reached in the history of the Milwaukee Bucks. The city has a different feeling to it as sports fans are excited to go out and watch their favorite team compete at a high level every night. As the Bucks and Brewers continue their success we can bet that Milwaukee will see it’s economic benefits continue to increase.

Works Cited
Bizjournals.com, www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/news/2018/03/01/with-expectations-high-brewers-ticket-sales.html.

NBA.com. “The Official Site of the NBA.” NBA.com, NBA.com, 3 Nov. 2016, www.nba.com/#/.
“The Official Site of Major League Baseball.” MLB.com, www.mlb.com/.

Rovell, Darren. “Bucks Sell Team-Record 10,000 Season Tickets.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 9 Oct. 2018, www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/24942314/bucks-sell-team-record-10000-season-tickets.

20 comments:

  1. It's interesting to hear about everyone's views on this. Those are definitely two names who we have been hearing a lot, either due to their performance, or girls obsessing over them on social media. I cant believe that ticket prices have gone up by 20%, that must be so good for the brewers! I am not surprised that money being spent relative to hotels, tickets, and local pubs and restaurants has gone up. I know that if I really liked a team and they were doing well I would want to travel to go watch them play, one because you get to watch them, and two because you get to go to a new place and see what its like in person vs on tv during the game. Even though this was another post about the bucks, it was still interesting to read since everyone has something a little different to say.

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  2. This is a cool to see as the Green Bay Packers have always been the team in Wisconsin to dominate, but these past couple of years seeing the stellar stars shine with both the Brewers and the Bucks has drawn more attention to the city of Milwaukee and the two franchises. Due to the success the teams have acquired the past couple years the amount of revenue in the city has increased as well. There is no arguing that when a team is doing well that more people are interested in the franchises. Therefore meaning more revenue is going to be generated because the entertainment is in higher demand. Thanks to the incredible seasons both the Brewers and the Bucks have had, it has generated more revenue.

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  3. Now since the Bucks are out of the NBA playoffs with their loss to Toronto, it is all on the Milwaukee Brewers to continue to bring economic benefits to the city. I still find it amazing how sports teams can generate so much revenue for one city over a period of several months. But I guess it makes total sense because the fans are needed; they need food, drinks, hotels, and entertainment. All of these expenses add up and benefit the city where the people are staying. This just leaves me wondering why all large cities in the US don't have professional sports teams to boost their economy? It's probably because they simply just don't have room for a large stadium or arena but the benefits might outweigh that cost.

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  4. With the bucks and brewers winning more games and becoming more popular this is very good for the Milwaukee area. This means people spend more money on tickets, buy more jerseys and purchase food at these games. All of this is a source of increasing profit which effects the Economy in a positive way. Since these teams are becoming more popular, people are willing to spend more money.

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  5. As A sports fan I think it has been great to see Milwaukee sports on the rise. It is really astonishing how much money sports teams can bring in and with both the Bucks and Brewers being in Milwaukee it makes sense that the city has had an economic increase due to the amount of food that is bought the hotel rooms being rented and the money that is being spent on transportation. It is really incredible and great to see milwuakee sport bring back to the city and state of Wisconsin.

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  6. Being from Milwaukee, I can see first hand the impact that having elite NBA and MLB has on the city. The hype surrounding both of the teams has people excited to go to games and buy merch--something that was not so prevalent in previous years due to poor performance. Now that the Brewers are doing so well, my mom has the TV on for every game and is buying tickets to many more games than in past seasons. Clearly, for as long as the Brewers and Bucks experience relative success, the economy of the city will thrive. However, if they suck, the economic benefits won't be so big. A clear example of this is baseball in Miami. The Marlins are uhh not doing so hot this year and a triple A Las Vegas team is drawing more fans than they are to games (9,617-9360 fans in attendance). Overall, due to the success of the Bucks and Brewers, tickets prices has gone up, hype around the teams has increased, and Milwaukee is reaping in the economic benefits.

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  7. Through these past couple of weeks I have gotten the chance to read about multiple people's point of view on the Milwaukee economy. Now that the Milwaukee Bucks didn’t move forward to the NBA finals it will be interesting to see how the Milwaukee economy holds up. With just the brewers playing I feel that this can put a lot of pressure on them to keep playing good so our economy doesn’t go down. Plus with our Milwaukee sports doing so good this year it will be interesting to see how next year plays out.

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  8. Since I live in Milwaukee, I myself can see all the changes to the economy right in front of my eyes. Everyone rushed downtown to catch a glimpse of the Bucks game, whether it be outside watching for free or actually in the stadium. People were and still are buying merchandise, getting food from the concession booths, and everyone was beyond hyped about how good they were doing. After they lost, this did affect the attitudes of the people, and this might show a slight decrease in economic growth in this field of revenue. People definitely won’t be attending games until the beginning of next season, so now the Fiserv will have to rely on other ways of generating revenue, like through concerts and such. However, deviating from the Bucks, the Brewers are still doing a great job of generating revenue toward the economy. There are still many games being played, and like you’ve mentioned with the addition of Christian Yelich, many old and new fans are coming to watch the Brewers.

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  9. The demand for products of Milwaukee sports seems to be very elastic. Although these revenue gains this year are great, if the teams are unable to sustain their performance, the revenue will fall again. It almost gives a false sense of confidence of the health of a franchise when they have a really good year. Packers ticket prices fell largely when Aaron Rodgers got injured. If the teams can keep gaining from successful years, long term growth will likely occur.

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  10. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  11. I think the playoffs will not just have a short run, but will help the economy in the long run. With having successful teams now, more kids who are watching them in the playoffs and will follow the teams for the rest of their life. We also see a lot of people watching the games in bars and restaurants, especially for the playoffs, which helps our local economy.

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  12. The playoffs will not just have a short run, but will help the economy in the long run. Now that Milwaukee has two very successful teams now more and more kids are starting to watch them. With the teams doing well more people are going to watch them in restaurants and helping the local economy.

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  13. Sadly, now that the Milwaukee Bucks have finished their season some of the large flux of tourism in Milwaukee has died down. While there is still a large group of people who come for the Milwaukee Brewer games, it will not really bring the same amount of attraction that the Bucks did until post season comes around. Although, this rush that was created in Milwaukee from the Bucks produced lots of new opportunities for businesses, as companies relocated to this newly thriving area and opened up new storefronts and restaurants for all of the tourists. Overall, this has greatly increased the revenue in Milwaukee, but now there will be a bit of a dry period until the Brewers start to gain some momentum.

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  14. I agree, fans will be more likely to spend money to support a winning team. The feeling of excitement of winning a game can definitely inspire a fan to become a consumer of merch for their team and just be more willing to spend money overall. Although something can be said for supporting the underdogs, there’s a fine line between underdogs and just kind of sad. And when those Milwaukee teams have games that bring in more people, more people go to restaurants, hotels, shops and any businesses around the area.

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  15. The economic effect of the professional sports teams never came to my mind when thinking about specific players perhaps new to the teams and the effects they have on the city of Milwaukee itself. I agree that the two most stand-out athletes in Wisconsin, Christian Yelich and Giannis Antetokounmpo, have had a superfluous amount of success in creating “buzz” for the city of Milwaukee, in more ways than one. Not only did ticket sales increase drastically for both the Brewers and the Bucks, but the city of Milwaukee itself is making more money overall by and increase in hotel guests, customers in restaurants, and tourists downtown. Thus, creating a new and exciting atmosphere for the residents of Milwaukee.

    Emily Kading

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  16. I agree that the economic benefits have increased by a lot in the past few years, I like how you include hwy that happened and what are the statistics of the some of the players, I believe that because there are so many statistics you could add it is hard to have a balance of how this blog should tell us about those benefits. I like how you added many different sources and I can tell you researched a lot. I wish I could know more about how those statistics relate to the economic benefits. You did add some but it would be nice to know how those are helping the community and what else it is benefiting by the team having better plays. I like how you had visuals and different things that help us to understand what these teams are doing.

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  17. It’s interesting how the teams’ season records and performance in championships have such a positive impact on the economy of Milwaukee. It seems like sports shouldn’t really impact an economy, but when you take into consideration the ticket sales and spectators purchasing food and fan gear, you can tell how they would. The building of Fiserv Forum was also a significant boost for Milwaukee. Fiserv Forum is not only the home of the Bucks, it also hosts events like concerts, comedy shows, and performing arts. The multi-use arena brings a lot of money in from around the country from people that want to watch games and shows. This obviously helps to boost Milwaukee’s economy. As mentioned in the piece, Brewers ticket sales had increased by 20%. Although the Bucks seem to have created more of a buzz than the Brewers, both teams have a significant impact on Milwaukee’s economy.

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  18. It’s surprising when you put the amount of success that sporting teams in a community have on its economy. Not many people think about how a team's success will really impact the economy in an area. More people going to games means more money being spent around the city, more season tickets being sold, and more consistent attention in the downtown area. A team showing success in the regular season is one thing but something that wasn’t included was the teams success in the postseason. The playoffs for both teams are very beneficial to the economy in Milwaukee because of the amount of fans not only from the Milwaukee area but also fans from all around the states whose team is coming to play in Milwaukee. Sports teams are definitely an overlooked way of growing the economy in cities but are definitely a very beneficial to bring money into the economy.

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  19. The success of the sports teams in Milwaukee is helping Milwaukee's economy immensely. With the success of Milwaukee teams more citizens of Milwaukee will be attending these games. Which means more money is being spent on tickets, apparel and food at the games. This will also help other business in Milwaukee that broadcasts the games. More people will either go to a Milwaukee game or go to a restaurant to watch the game and get something to eat. Overall with a better performing team more money will be brought in and more common commerce will happen in the area, which can only benefit the city of Milwaukee by the city taxing every business involved.

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  20. The economy in Milwaukee has greatly benefited from the improvement of the Milwaukee Bucks and the Brewers. When sports teams don’t have a good season, fewer people want to go to their games. Fortunately for Milwaukee the opposite is also true. As mentioned, both teams brought more and more traffic to the city. When they come they buy tickets, food, and merchandise. In addition to locals, the games also bring people from other areas. For example, fans from the opposing team may come to the games in Milwaukee and spend their money there.

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