American Family Field — Attraction in Milwaukee

Extremely frustrating interactions with staff member not enforcing the rules consistently.

I went to the Labor Day game. I sat in section 208. After grabbing concessions, I started walking back to my seat, only to be stopped at the top of the stairs by a staff member, an older gentleman, who asked me where my seat was. I told him it wasn’t far, and pointed to it a few rows down.

He said I would have to wait until the next at-bat so I didn’t obstruct the view for others. I found this a bit strange, considering that

1.) People leave their seats all the time during sporting events, and I’ve never seen it become an issue

2.) I could have easily gotten back to my seat between pitches

Beer vendors walk up and down the stairs during at-bats. If the concern was really obstruction, why not only do this in between innings?

Despite this, I was more than happy to be considerate, so I just said “ok” and waited until the next batter.

Back in my seat, however, I noticed that people were walking down the stairs during at-bats. This happened at least 6-7 times. I even managed to capture this happening twice on camera while I was taking a few pictures and short videos to send to my dad.

I fully understand that no policy can be enforced perfectly, so it’s reasonable to expect that some people would slip through the cracks. I initially thought that maybe the staff periodically rotates between seating sections or that the staff member had business to attend to elsewhere.

However, almost every time I turned around, there he was at the top of the stairs. This means that most/all of the people I saw would have gone right by him on their way to their seats. Unless they started walking down the stairs in a different section and cut through the seats behind me, they simply walked right by, either because he wasn’t paying attention or because he didn’t care to stop them.

Fast forward a bit, my mom and I are returning to our seats, and he again stops me. “Sir, I’m going to ask you to wait”. Interestingly, he addressed only me, and not my mom, despite the fact that she was standing right next to me.

I told him he had been letting people walk down the stairs during at-bats for most of the game and he immediately got defensive. “I’m just doing my job” he said, very shortly.

“Ok, well it doesn’t seem like you are”

“I’m just doing my job” he said again. At that point, the next batter was up, so my mom nudged me forward and said “let’s go”

Once again, people came down the stairs during at-bats. At one point, someone in our party did this, and I pointed the staff member out to her and asked if he gave her any trouble.

“No, I just came right down”.

I would like to reiterate that I am all for being considerate. I may think the rule is silly, but I understand the motivations behind it, and I’m happy to wait for the sake of others.

I also know it’s not reasonable to expect every rule to be enforced perfectly, especially with limited staff and a big crowd. I’m sure most staff members do the best they can.

However, it is VERY frustrating to be made to wait to sit in my seat, that I paid for, so I don’t obstruct the view of others, only to then have MY view obstructed by people who walked right past the same staff member who stopped me!

It is also very frustrating to be met with curt defensiveness after questioning why this rule is (ostensibly) being enforced inconsistently. Simply repeating “I’m just doing my job” is not a good defense of the policy (everyone who enforces some policy is doing their job, including people who enforce silly, indefensible policies).

Nor is his response an explanation for the inconsistency. I would have appreciated a “we try our best, but we can’t get everyone” or something that explains why I was stopped each time I went back to my seat, but others were free to walk by.

Maybe he was distracted, maybe he couldn’t be bothered to stop everyone. Whatever the case, it made for a very unpleasant experience during what was otherwise a...

Parking is always a complicated mess (even though I had preferred disability parking). After the game, the lots were pure chaos because all of the parking lot workers were gone.

Aside from parking, everything was fine. The entrance security points were quick. We had club-level seats (3rd floor), and we had some concerns when my friend and I went exploring (I wanted some Heavenly nuts, but they didn't have any on our level [finally located on the first floor]) because you have to scan your tickets every time you enter the club level. This makes sense, however, all of our tickets were on my brother's phone, and he stayed in his seat when we went exploring. So, we didn't have a way to scan our tickets to get back into the club level. We explained the situation to the door attendant, and he took down some notes so he (or his colleague) could let us back in the club level.

After I got my nuts, we actually found an escalator that went straight to the club level (very helpful because my friend and I both have asthma). There was another guy in front of the escalator to the club level to make sure we had club seats. We still couldn't show any tickets, but we explained the situation and he let us go up. This excellent customer service made things so simple and convenient. It also saved us about 20 minutes because we didn't have to go all the way back to my brother to get his phone with the tickets. A simpler solution would have been for him to just take a screenshot of our tickets and send them to us. Unfortunately, the app will not allow screenshots.

The club seats were nice. They were padded and seemed a little bit wider than normal seats. Club level also offers a selection of food and drink to order (using the app) which they will deliver to your seat. I would get these seats again, if possible.

The stadium was cleaner than you would expect. The roof was closed for the game we attended because storms were expected that evening (lightning started as we were heading to the car after the game). With the temperature in the mid to high 70s, the roof closed, and the body heat of 40,000 fans, I was uncomfortably hot and sweating the whole time, so if you "run warm" you might want to keep...

It will always be Miller Park, regardless of what they changed the name to or who sponsors it.

I started my career with The Milwaukee Brewers when I was working at Milwaukee County Stadium which was a separate stadium than Miller Park and in my opinion Milwaukee County Stadium was a better place than Miller Park.

I don't care how Old Milwaukee County Stadium was or what was falling apart, that is where the real Magic happened with baseball and this is back when Milwaukee Brewers players played for The Love Of The Game, not for the money.

I also worked at Miller Park for the first 6 Years that they were open. Miller Park is a place that we did not need.

It has been nothing but problems since it was being built, and this is even before it opened to the public.

My Cousin helped build Miller Park and he said that there have been nothing but problems with the roof leaking since day 1. I can back that up because I worked there.

Second of all, The Milwaukee Brewers organization claimed that they would start winning World Series' if they got a New ballpark. Meanwhile here we are 22 Years later after Miller Park opened, and The Milwaukee Brewers still have not won a World Series. In fact The Milwaukee Brewers have not won a World Series in 40 Years now.

Personally I never would have voted to pay the Millions of dollars to keep the Milwaukee Brewers. Honestly, they are nowhere near as Good as they used to be and Milwaukee should have let them go.

I also miss Friday's Front Row Sports Grill which was an affiliate to TGI Friday's. That was the best restaurant there over the Years.

I have seen all kinds of concerts there from their very first concert which was George Strait Country Music Concert to other concerts.

Recently I was there riding in Harley Davidson Motor Company's 120th Birthday Rally Parade which was awesome.

I wish that Milwaukee County Stadium...