Small-market Brewers will pay to field a winner

MILWAUKEE It would have been unthinkable just five years ago, but the Milwaukee Brewers will open the 2012 season with a payroll in excess of 100 million. That's a fairly hefty number for a team that plays in Major League Baseball's smallest media market, but it's also a testament to the product general manager Doug Melvin has put on the field, the willingness of owner Mark Attanasio to build a winner and the dedication of a fan base enjoying two playoff appearances in the past four seasons. "When I first bought the team (in 2005), we had a 27 million payroll and people said, 'Is the payroll going to have a '4' in front of it? They meant 40 million, Attanasio said at Brewers On Deck, the teams annual winter fan festival. Now, we've gone way past that. We'll see. The community is incredibly supportive of the team. Attanasio expects that support to continue in 2012. The Brewers are coming off a highly successful 2011 in which the team won 96 games and the NL Central and advanced to the National League Championship Series. A franchise-record 3,071,373 fans attended games. Significant lineup changes, including the loss of three-time All-Star Prince Fielder and the possibility of NL MVP Ryan Braun being suspended for 50 games, loom large over the franchise, but Attanasio is convinced the team has made enough moves to put the Brewers in the hunt for another postseason appearance. That would keep the Miller Park turnstiles spinning and the revenue flowing steady enough to support the payroll. "The fans love Brewers baseball," Attanasio said. "They were a lot of fans here last year even when they thought we might have to trade Prince. The potential for Prince departing is long telegraphed. There's a lot of excitement around the team. The loss of Fielder, who made 15 million in 2011, not withstanding, the Brewers didn't have much money to throw around this winter. Braun was due a significant raise, and the same went for right fielder Corey Hart, second baseman Rickie Weeks and starting pitcher Yovani Gallardo three home-grown players who signed multi-year extensions in recent seasons. Pitchers Shaun Marcum and Zack Greinke, acquired in December 2010, were due big raises, and left-hander Randy Wolf was entering the final year of a three-year, 29.75 million contract he signed in 2010. Still, Melvin and Attanasio found a way to make improvements. They signed slugging third baseman Aramis Ramirez to a three-year deal worth 36 million and worked out an 8 million, one-year deal with setup man extraordinaire Francisco Rodriguez, who accepted the team's arbitration offer when he was unable to find a multi-year contract on the free-agent market. "We've stretched things more than we ever have this year," Attanasio said. Maintaining a nine-figure payroll is a challenge but not one Attanasio fears. In addition to strong attendance which requires putting a quality product on the field the Brewers' business department has been working hard to secure sponsorships and capitalize on other streams of revenue, such as the growing popularity of team apparel. "Honestly, it doesn't make me nervous. I like challenges like that," Attanasio said. "It's about putting a higher hurdle in front of our business executives that they've always jumped over, to surmount that hurdle." In 2001, the year Miller Park opened, the Brewers went into the season with a payroll of just 43 million, which, at the time, represented a record for the franchise. The number went up to 50.2 million in 2002, when the Brewers went 56-106 and set a franchise record for losses in one season. Following that disastrous year, the Brewers cleaned house and parted ways with interim manager Jerry Royster and general manager Dean Taylor. Melvin was hired to rebuild the franchise, and with a youth movement in full swing, the payroll dropped to 40.6 million in 2003 and bottomed out at 27.5 million in 2004. Things started to turn around in 2005. In January, Attanasio purchased the team from the Selig family, and the No. 1 question fans had for the investment millionaire was when the payroll would increase. It did in his first season, to nearly 40 million. By 2006, Attanasio opened the year with a 57 million payroll. In 2007, the payroll jumped to 70.9 million in large part due to the four-year, 42 million acquisition of free-agent pitcher Jeff Suppan (at the time, the largest deal in team history), All along, Attanasio has preached the importance of flexibility when setting payroll. Instead of chasing high-priced free agents or making big-salary trades in the offseason, the team often has left money on the table when the season opens in order to pursue help at the trade deadline. Milwaukee made such a move in June 2008, when Melvin pulled the trigger on a deal that brought CC Sabathia to the Brewers. The bulky left-hander was making 9 million in the final year of a two-year, 17.5 million extension signed with the Cleveland Indians, but the investment paid off as Sabathia went 11-2 with a 1.65 ERA and carried the Brewers to their first postseason appearance in 26 years. Milwaukee fell back to reality in 2009, finishing 80-82 with a 80 million payroll, and dropped further back in the standings in 2010 (77-85), when raises, arbitration, extensions and the free-agent signing of Wolf pushed the payroll to 90.4 million. Melvin often talks about the two-way trust that exists between the team and its fans. Management trusts that by investing in the product, fans will show up at Miller Park which theyve done in record-setting fashion the past few seasons. Fans trust that buying hats, jerseys, T-shirts and so on will show their support of a winner and help boost that payroll. Many teams can boost payroll by simply raising ticket prices. The Brewers, however, pride themselves on the affordability of fan experience, and are going to approach that issue with a Midwestern sensibility. "The thing is, you want to keep it affordable to go to a game in Miller Park, Attanasio said.There's a little bit of a balance there." Spoken like a man who respects the fans ability to get the most out of their money just as he has on the field since buying the team seven years ago. Follow Andrew Wagner on Twitter.