Brewers open to replacing Stadium Freeway with a conventional road connecting to ballpark parking lots and other properties

Replacing the Stadium Freeway with a road which connects to surrounding properties — including American Family Field's parking lots — is a good idea worth studying, a Milwaukee Brewers executive says.

"We absolutely need to look at Highway 175 (the Stadium Freeway)," said Rick Schlesinger, Brewers president of business operations.

Schlesinger made his comments during an appearance at a Newsmaker Luncheon, sponsored by the Milwaukee Press Club. He answered questions from a panel of three journalists.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation in May announced it would study a possible replacement of the Stadium Freeway north of I-94, between Wisconsin and Lisbon avenues, with an at-grade boulevard.

Advocates say it would better connect neighborhoods on either side of the truncated freeway, while also providing additional sites for future development.

Two separate resolutions are now pending before the Milwaukee County Board on that issue.

One calls for removing as much of the Stadium Freeway as possible "to return that land to the community."

The other resolution calls for Milwaukee and West Milwaukee officials to work on a study with the Southeast Wisconsin Professional Baseball Park District to explore better uses of a portion of the American Family Field parking lots. The stadium district owns the ballpark and leases it to the Brewers.

That resolution also asks the Wisconsin DOT to study dismantling the Stadium Freeway south of I-94. The resolution envisions a possible entertainment district south of I-94 and east of the Stadium Freeway.

Schlesinger has said a possible mixed-use commercial development could help finance the stadium's long-term renovations — which are the financial responsibility of the public stadium district.

At Tuesday's event, Schlesinger said he supports a study of a possible replacement of the Stadium Freeway south of I-94 even if a commercial development doesn't eventually materialize there.

Schlesinger said converting the Stadium Freeway into "more of an appropriate road" would make it safer by slowing down traffic.

Currently, the speed limit drops abruptly on the freeway from the ballpark south to West National Avenue.

Also, replacing the limited-access freeway with a conventional road would create more places for Brewers fans to enter and exit the ballpark's parking lots, Schlesinger said.

That would help reduce traffic jams at the games, he said.

Schlesinger said the Brewers expect to complete this summer an extensive assessment of expected ballpark renovations during the remaining years on the team's lease. It runs through 2030, with the ball club having options to renew the lease through 2040.

The study is expected to include items that will likely total estimated expenses of hundreds of millions of dollars. That's well above $87 million set aside in a stadium district reserve fund to pay for such improvements.

Schlesinger again said the team isn't seeking a return of the five-county stadium sales tax that ended in 2020. That tax raised $605 million.

Once that study is completed there will likely be a "robust" discussion of how the stadium district will fund those long-term renovations, Schlesinger said.

Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and followed on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.