Payroll cuts give Brewers a murky future.
The Milwaukee Brewers are cutting their payroll by roughly 25%. Obviously, this raises a number of questions. For one, those who supported the building of Miller Park have reason to be a bit put off by this announcement. If the team was to be more competitive, they needed a new stadium. That was the pitch Milwaukee was given. Now, we're seeing a team that just completed its 11th straight losing season.
Defenders of the low payroll will likely claim that the future lies in the franchise's minor league system. After all, if the talent at the major league level isn't sufficient, why throw money at it? I don't necessarily disagree that money should be set aside for these future prospects. For those unaware, the Brewers minor league system is currently one of the top rated in the country.
That having been said, the message sent by slashing payroll is that this team is deep in debt, and the only way they're going to climb out of it is if they allocate the minimum amount of money necessary to field a major league team. Now if they were drawing more fans, certainly they'd have the ability to pay more to their players. However, by cutting payroll, they're only making matters worse. Who in their right mind would predict that attendance will be higher next year than this year based on this chain of events?
I supported the building of Miller Park, not based on some convoluted economic cost/benefit analysis, but because I believed that the quality of life in Milwaukee was better if we retained our professional baseball franchise. The fact that supporters like myself are now questioning their loyalty to this cause does not bode well for the future of Brewers baseball in Milwaukee.
