Miller Park to become American Family Field in 2021

[cajunaggie08]

Miller Brewing Company's sponsorship contract with the Milwaukee Brewers' ballpark comes to an end this year. American Family Insurance has bought the naming rights in a 15 year deal which will result in the stadium changing names from Miller Park to American Family Field. The logo for the renamed stadium was released today. I know Miller was technically a corporate sponsorship name, but it just felt so very right and natural like it could have been the permanent name of the facility. American Family Field joins the list of insurance companies i had no clue existed that are now sponsoring baseball stadiums. As far as the new logo, I actually like it for having shoved the American Family logo in there. My biggest gripe is the difference in font between the corporate name and the word field.

 

 

[BC985]

While I prefer Miller Park, they could have done much worse. 

[kimball]

1 hour ago, BC985 said:

While I prefer Miller Park, they could have done much worse. 

 

Exactly. Like, American Family Insurance Field.

[Sec19Row53]

2 hours ago, cajunaggie08 said:

Miller Brewing Company's sponsorship contract with the Milwaukee Brewers' ballpark comes to an end this year. American Family Insurance has bought the naming rights in a 15 year deal which will result in the stadium changing names from Miller Park to American Family Field. The logo for the renamed stadium was released today. I know Miller was technically a corporate sponsorship name, but it just felt so very right and natural like it could have been the permanent name of the facility. American Family Field joins the list of insurance companies i had no clue existed that are now sponsoring baseball stadiums. As far as the new logo, I actually like it for having shoved the American Family logo in there. My biggest gripe is the difference in font between the corporate name and the word field.

 

 

I think it is a neat tip of the hat to the American Family font and the Brewers font - they each get used.

[MilSox]

This kills any chance I will ever use any of AmFam's services. 

 

At least Miller Park could just as easily have stood for Frederick Miller, as many other Milwaukee institutions have over the years. 

[The_Admiral]

Yeah, this is another case where naming rights are no good if you don't get in on the ground floor. Unlike a lot of more recent naming-rights deals where it's not finalized till relatively late in the game (case in point: Milwaukee's own Findom Forum downtown), it's been Miller Park since well before they even broke ground on it. And as far as corporate names go, it was a highly agreeable one: it stood for a local company, and the name of the company was a person. (They even got extra credit for being the Brewers and playing in a park named for a brewery.) It was of a kind with Busch Stadium and Coors Field, and to an extent the Great American Ballpark. This has the graceless feel of lower-echelon NBA/NHL arenas, like whatever we've been calling SLC's old Delta Center lately, or the infamous jobing.com Arena.

 

I think this could be ameliorated somewhat if they called it "AmFam Stadium," because a building that hulking is not really a park, and it's definitely not a field. And the real idea there is that it would be sort of an update on County Stadium. But it's a cumbersome name whether it's AmFam or American Family. Not every company is suited for naming rights.

[Ridleylash]

I'm still confused they didn't re-up on Miller Park or at least go with some other brewery for the new name; the Brewers playing in a stadium named for a brewery company was just perfectly logical, and now they're playing in a stadium named for...an insurance company, just like 30 million other sports venues.

 

At least Miller Park wasn't blatant "look at us, we're on your favourite sports team's home venue!" fodder.

[Sec19Row53]

1 hour ago, Ridleylash said:

I'm still confused they didn't re-up on Miller Park or at least go with some other brewery for the new name; the Brewers playing in a stadium named for a brewery company was just perfectly logical, and now they're playing in a stadium named for...an insurance company, just like 30 million other sports venues.

 

At least Miller Park wasn't blatant "look at us, we're on your favourite sports team's home venue!" fodder.

I get the impression that AmFam approached the Brewers with an offer that wasn't going to be matched. Miller wasn't given an opportunity to negotiate. 

 

The Brewers kept naming rights in state and were commended for doing so.

[MilSox]

How many people even know AmFam is a Wisconsin company, though?  

On 9/3/2020 at 1:55 PM, the admiral said:

Yeah, this is another case where naming rights are no good if you don't get in on the ground floor. Unlike a lot of more recent naming-rights deals where it's not finalized till relatively late in the game (case in point: Milwaukee's own Findom Forum downtown), it's been Miller Park since well before they even broke ground on it. And as far as corporate names go, it was a highly agreeable one: it stood for a local company, and the name of the company was a person. (They even got extra credit for being the Brewers and playing in a park named for a brewery.) It was of a kind with Busch Stadium and Coors Field, and to an extent the Great American Ballpark. This has the graceless feel of lower-echelon NBA/NHL arenas, like whatever we've been calling SLC's old Delta Center lately, or the infamous jobing.com Arena.

 

I think this could be ameliorated somewhat if they called it "AmFam Stadium," because a building that hulking is not really a park, and it's definitely not a field. And the real idea there is that it would be sort of an update on County Stadium. But it's a cumbersome name whether it's AmFam or American Family. Not every company is suited for naming rights.

I would actually cite Wrigley Field as "patient zero" for this phenomenon.  Although Busch Stadium has more direct parallels.  Even on top of that, Miller is synonymous with Bob Uecker, who is synonymous with Milwaukee baseball.  You heard the name Miller Park and knew there was no way something like that would exist anywhere but Milwaukee.

I think another issue with AmFam is the sheer number of things they've attached themselves to in Milwaukee over the past few years.  To where locals still use the old names (i.e. Marcus Amphitheater instead of AmFam Amphitheater) for the sake of less confusion.  On that note, I can promise Milwaukeeans are gonna embrace the new name about as much as Chicagoans have embraced Willis Tower.  In fact, I can say I've heard more casual conversations where "Bucks Arena" or "The Forum" is referred to more than the actual name of the venue.  I expect a lot of "Brewers Stadium" or "The Stadium" if not continued references to Miller Park.

[Sec19Row53]

39 minutes ago, NicDB said:

How many people even know AmFam is a Wisconsin company, though?  

I would actually cite Wrigley Field as "patient zero" for this phenomenon.  Although Busch Stadium has more direct parallels.  Even on top of that, Miller is synonymous with Bob Uecker, who is synonymous with Milwaukee baseball.  You heard the name Miller Park and knew there was no way something like that would exist anywhere but Milwaukee.

I think another issue with AmFam is the sheer number of things they've attached themselves to in Milwaukee over the past few years.  To where locals still use the old names (i.e. Marcus Amphitheater instead of AmFam Amphitheater) for the sake of less confusion.  On that note, I can promise Milwaukeeans are gonna embrace the new name about as much as Chicagoans have embraced Willis Tower.  In fact, I can say I've heard more casual conversations where "Bucks Arena" or "The Forum" is referred to more than the actual name of the venue.  I expect a lot of "Brewers Stadium" or "The Stadium" if not continued references to Miller Park.

You can call it County Stadium for all it's worth. The Brewers didn't give anyone a chance to match the offer, which leads me to believe that they knew it wasn't matchable.

 

Naming rights don't make money because Joe from Oshkosh uses the name. They make money because Joe from FOX uses the name.

[goalieboy82]

the Brewers should have gotten a beer company instead so they could keep the beer theme of the team, maybe Pabst Brewing Company (they own this now)

 

[MilSox]

25 minutes ago, Sec19Row53 said:

You can call it County Stadium for all it's worth. The Brewers didn't give anyone a chance to match the offer, which leads me to believe that they knew it wasn't matchable.

 

Naming rights don't make money because Joe from Oshkosh uses the name. They make money because Joe from FOX uses the name.

I know that's the conventional wisdom behind naming rights, but not once have I ever heard the name of a venue sponsor and felt compelled to use their product or service.  I think it's just one of those things that's accepted in the corporate world that just doesn't work the way they think it does in the real world.

[The_Admiral]

2 hours ago, NicDB said:

How many people even know AmFam is a Wisconsin company, though?

 

I get AmFam and State Farm confused because State Farm uses Aaron Rodgers, but they're down in Bloomington. I know that between education, government, and insurance, Madison is damn near impervious to recessions, or, well, was.

[MadmanLA]

On 9/6/2020 at 3:03 PM, Sec19Row53 said:

You can call it County Stadium for all it's worth. The Brewers didn't give anyone a chance to match the offer, which leads me to believe that they knew it wasn't matchable.

 

Naming rights don't make money because Joe from Oshkosh uses the name. They make money because Joe from FOX uses the name.

 

Call it "Five-County Stadium", in honor of the taxpayers from the five Metro Milwaukee counties that put in money on the ballpark's construction.

[Gothamite]

Sad to see the old name go, but this won't last long.  Miller Park is closer to the wrecking ball than its Opening Night.

 

I really don't expect AmFam Field to last a decade.

[The_Admiral]

As someone who remembers all the sturm und drang of getting that thing built, I hope it ends up lasting more than 30 years, however flawed it may be. 

[SFGiants58]

2 hours ago, the admiral said:

As someone who remembers all the sturm und drang of getting that thing built, I hope it ends up lasting more than 30 years, however flawed it may be. 

 

A renovation to tear the roof off would be a nice idea.

[The_Admiral]

My roof-renovation dream is to rip the roof off the SkyDome and install ETFE. 

[Gothamite]