Miller Park - Milwaukee, WI
Posted by: 
DaveGoliath
N 43° 01.681 W 087° 58.261
16T E 420890 N 4764383
Miller Park - Home of the Major League Baseball's Milwaukee Brewers
Waymark Code: WM66FJ
Location: Wisconsin, United States
Date Posted: 04/12/2009
Views: 17
Miller Park is a ballpark located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is home to the Milwaukee Brewers and was built as a replacement for Milwaukee County Stadium. The park is located just southwest of the intersection of I-94, US-41, and Miller Park Way.
The stadium has played host to a multitude of events such as a Pro-Bowler's Association even, Bon Jovi concerts, Professional Wrestling, George Strait... and others.
Tours to the stadium are AWESOME... but need to be prearranged with stadium folk. They take you through the entire stadium including locker rooms, media box, outfield walks and everything. Highly reccommended... but make plans in advance and take a good group with you.
The title sponsor is MillerCoors. Miller's contract with the stadium was for $40 million, and runs until 2020.
Completed in 2001, the park features North America's only fan-shaped convertible roof, which can open and close in less than 10 minutes. Large panes of glass allow natural grass to grow.
Miller Park is one of the largest construction projects in Wisconsin history. It was built with $310 million of public funds from a .1% sales tax on purchases over $10 applied in Milwaukee County and the surrounding four suburban counties. The tax was controversial, in part because of the notion of using public funds for a privately owned sports team. The state senator who cast the deciding vote in the funding bill, George Petak of Racine, lost a recall election based on his vote for the stadium.
Construction was subject to numerous delays. Groundbreaking took place on November 9, 1996, in a parking lot behind County Stadium. Construction had already been slowed, and the originally planned opening date of Opening Day 1999 had been pushed back, and was delayed even further after three construction workers were killed in an accident. The massive Lampson Transi-lift crane 3 (nicknamed "Big Blue"), brought in to build the roof, collapsed while lifting a 400 ton roof section on July 14, 1999. The stadium did not open until Opening Day 2001.
The stadium has a retractable roof, built in a unique convertible style, with the roof panels opening and closing simultaneously in a sweeping manner from the first base and third base sides towards center field. The huge roof explained a large part of the $400 million cost of the stadium. The stadium heats 30 degrees above the current outside temperature if the roof is closed on a cold weather day.
The design team was appointed after a design competition in the mid 1990s. The architectural concept for the stadium was developed by the Los Angeles based sports and entertainment team NBBJ, who worked closely with a Los Angeles-based team from engineers Arup, who were responsible for all stages of the structural and building services engineering design for the stadium, with the exception of the mechanical mechanisms that move the roof structure. The original versions of these mechanisms were designed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America as part of a design and build contract, but they have now been replaced by new designs after their failure. The executive architect responsible for the delivery of the final stadium design was a Dallas-based team of HKS, Inc. In addition to these major players there were a significant contributions from local teams including FLAD engineers and Eppstein Uhen architects.
The stadium design followed the trend of retro-designed ballparks with current amenities that began in 1992 with Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, Maryland.
The original grass playing surface was installed on March 10, 2001. It consisted mostly of sod transplanted from the old County Stadium.
It's the home of which team(s)?: Milwaukee Brewers
Which professional sports are played here?: Major League Baseball
Capacity (number of seats): 41,900
Opening Date: 04/06/2001
Guided Tours: yes
Venue's Website or Team's Website: [Web Link]
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Visit Instructions:
1) Tell how was your visit. Were you at a game, which one? Have you just visited it by the outside, on a guided tour maybe? Are you a fan?
2) Pictures:
- They should be taken by YOU.
- No internet pictures are allowed.
- Upload one photo, at least. It would be great if you'd upload one of the venue and one with you on the photo.
- No need of photos with the GPSr.
- Extra credits for photos inside, with the teams playing.