Drive system on Miller Park roof to be replaced as part of planned ballpark maintenance, board members decide – Daily Reporter

Joe TaschlerMilwaukee Journal Sentinel

Members of the board that oversees Miller Park approved a plan Tuesday to spend $1.8 million to upgrade the system that controls the ballparks retractable roof.

The Southeast Wisconsin Professional Baseball Park District boards finance and operations committees voted unanimously to spend the money to improve the system as part of the 2021 maintenance and improvement plan for the ballpark.

The roof panels are moved by a complex system of motors and drives that haul it along a track.

Much of the controls for the system as well as various parts of the drive system have become obsolete and have reached their usable life after 20 years, said Kristi Kreklow, associate director of the district.

In 2018, workers removed and inspected one of the 10 bogies that haul the roof panels into place. The bogie was making unusual noises but was deemed not to be faulty in the $900,000 project.

The spending for the latest project is coming from whats known as the districts segregated reserve fund to which the district and the Milwaukee Brewers each make contributions.

Improving the roofs drive and control system has been planned and is not a surprise. Original plans for the stadium called for the systems to be replaced once they turned 20 years old.

The expectation is that the upgrade, once complete, will last another 20 years, said Mike Duckett, executive director of the district.

Board members also voted Tuesday to spend $1.3 million to replace the ballparks fire detection system.

The roof-control system and the fire-detection system are the most expensive that the board members considered on Tuesday.

The fire-detection system also is 20 years old, Duckett said, and replacing it was also part of the long-term plan for the upkeep of the ballpark.

The ballpark has about 1.2 million square feet of finished space that the fire detection system covers, Kreklow said.

The fire detection system was put to use in July 2014 after a middle-of-the-night fire broke out in a restaurant area in the left field area of the ballpark. The system triggered the ballparks sprinkler system and alerted Milwaukee firefighters, who responded and extinguished the blaze.

The funds for the upgrades will come, in part, from proceeds of a 0.1% sales tax levied in Milwaukee, Waukesha, Washington, Ozaukee and Racine counties. That sales tax, collected since 1996, was stopped in March. The funds were placed into an escrow account and are being used to maintain the stadium.

The state law that created the tax allows the proceeds to be used only for costs related to the ballpark.

Among other spending items, members of the board also voted to spend $130,000 on a female locker room after the first female coach in Major League Baseball, Alyssa Nakken, began coaching this year for the San Francisco Giants.

The San Francisco Giants first base coach Alyssa Nakken jogs to first base during the second inning of an exhibition baseball game against the Oakland Athletics in San Francisco, Tuesday, July 21, 2020.

LEDs will light field

Meanwhile, the process of converting the lights that illuminate the playing field to LEDs has begun. The new LED lighting system has been delivered to the ballpark and installation will take place this off-season.

The new lights are expected to be ready for Opening Day 2021. The project has qualified for a $90,000 Focus on Energy rebate due to the energy savings that the new LEDs will provide, according to the stadium district. That money will be used to help offset the project cost.

Name change in full swing

The Milwaukee Brewers ballpark will be renamed American Family Field, beginning on Jan. 1, 2021, when American Family Insurance takes over the naming rights.

Thousands of signs must be changed at the ballpark, which has been known as Miller Park since it opened.

State law prevents the stadium district from incurring any expenses related to the name change, Kreklow said.

Rent deferral?

The Brewers pay a $1.2 million annual rental fee to the stadium district, and board members are expecting the ball club to ask for some form of rent forgiveness as a result of the pandemic-shortened MLB season in which fans were not allowed to attend games.

During the teleconference meeting on Tuesday, board members asked whether rent forgiveness or deferral was allowed under the lease agreement with the team.

While there is no specific clause in the lease that mentions a pandemic, there are other portions of the lease that likely address such a situation and would allow some sort of rent forgiveness or deferral, Duckett said.

Board members said they would take up the issue when and if the Brewers formally request it.

Call Joe Taschler at (414) 224-2554 or jtaschler@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JoeTaschler or Facebook at facebook.com/joe.taschler.1.

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Drive system on Miller Park roof to be replaced as part of planned ballpark maintenance, board members decide - Daily Reporter