Braves New World | Program |

it's a scenario sports fans have become all too familiar with franchise relocation Board of Directors of the Milwaukee Braves incorporated voted today to request permission of the National League to transfer their franchise to Atlanta Georgia for 1965 with billions of dollars at stake being the home for a professional sports team has evolved into a cutthroat urban arms race between civic municipalities the owners start realizing to have this monopoly power where they could play cities off of each other lured by tax subsidized stadiums and burgeoning television markets franchise owners continue to venture into financially unproven regions in search of lucrative contracts teams had an opportunity to really capitalize by signing big deals they were not dependent upon the ticket at the gate as the country's marquee sport America's pastime has set the standard for how other professional sports conduct themselves in the 1950s in the four major sports team sports there were only 18 cities in the United States represented today roughly 43 yet professional sports manifest destiny didn't start until the spring of 1953 when visionary owner Lou Perini chose to challenge a 50-year moratorium to escape his franchises financial restraints by moving his Boston Braves to Milwaukee the first move in the history of modern baseball it took a tremendous amount of courage his pioneering efforts made professional sports of braves new world it's been said that baseball's modern era can be traced back to a covert meeting that took place only weeks after the 1952 season ended Luke Rainey met that winter with members of his staff and he said I'm going to move the Braves we can't tell anybody even his family didn't know Boston Braves owner Lou Perini outlined to the potentially bleak future for his ballclub I think he felt at the time that almost anything would have been better than Boston and they lost I know six or seven hundred thousand dollars in the last year they were in Boston the Braves had slumped following their 1948 World Series appearance with fourth place finishes the following three seasons and a disastrous seventh place fall in 1952 in 1952 the Braves threw two hundred eighty-one thousand people the entire season they only had two crowds of more than 10,000 spectators bellowing primarily on gate receipts before the days of lucrative radio or television contracts Farini estimated the Braves would continue to lose 1 million dollars a year if the team stayed in Boston I think he saw that they couldn't compete with the Red Sox in Boston financially or on the field you've got Ted Williams and Dom DiMaggio and company down the street you're fighting for attendance and the Red Sox went out but leaving Boston would take an audacious act since no major league team had been able to relocate in a half a century I think he had thought long and hard about it and it was a calculated risk but it was a risk worth taking given the financial beating that the company was taking Perini concluded there was only one solution to his dilemma the whole move of the Braves to Milwaukee was one of the best orchestrated best kept two secrets and he didn't even tell my mother Milwaukee Wisconsin had become a prosperous city in the wake of World War two with numerous factories contributing to its blue-collar reputation take the Menomonee Valley you begin with harness vigor and move along you got the Milwaukee Road shops you've got the fall gear plan you've got chain belt International Harvester cutler hammer Kiekhaefer no it was just lying with factories and probably no tens of thousands of jobs no down there not to mention places like harley-davidson yet the community was searching for a national identity with aspirations of hosting a major league baseball franchise I think the idea of Milwaukee becoming a major league city had a lure across the spectrum economically ethnically socially baseball and for that matter any professional sports franchise that comes to a city instantly gives a city a big-league identity without a prospective tenant lined up Milwaukee civic leaders began building a stadium in 1950 on speculation that the city was capable of attracting a major league franchise it was really unprecedented almost to build that kind of thing strictly with tax dollars it cost five million dollars a considerable sum at the time there were no guarantees Milwaukee would land a major league franchise after constructing their state-of-the-art stadium but without it the city would never be able to obtain one milwaukee county took one heck of a chance this is the only city that built a major league stadium without any promise from anybody that the team would move here the city was prepared to move the minor league Milwaukee Brewers from antiquated Borchert field into County Stadium for the 1953 season but a mere two weeks after the first phase of construction was completed in March forces were in motion that would change the destiny of Milwaukee County Stadium forever Bill Veeck wantable of the st. Louis Browns into the stadium didn't make any money and they were there they didn't win much in this kind stuff and he read a real concentrate effort to get st. Louis the Browns to move here the st. Louis Browns were in the same situation in st. Louis that Braves have been in Boston they were the number two team had always been the number two team and would always be the number two team so they had really no future there as a former owner of the minor-league Brewers during the early 1940s Veck was aware of Milwaukee's potential as a big league city he knew the people of Milwaukee he had been tremendously popular in Milwaukee and he knew that especially if they could get a new ballpark they could be successful but as owner of the minor league Milwaukee Brewers franchise the Boston Braves Lou Perini had exclusive territorial rights to the city under baseball's monopolistic operating agreement there was a lot of pressure coming out of Milwaukee to transform that city from a minor league city to a major league city and if the vetting hadn't entered the scene he might have waited a little longer to see how things worked but I think that added some urgency to it with his hand forced Perini blocked VEX attempted move and instead requested that his Braves be allowed to relocate from Boston to Milwaukee effective immediately Perini made this case and the National League voted yes and let him go just like that looper he was definitely very respected by the other major league owners he had very good relationships that he'd built up with people I think it was the Cubs and the Wrigley family which was probably the key swing vote due to their location and and Wisconsin with baseball's owners voting unanimously to support the Braves relocation on March 18 1953 the major league landscape had been altered for the first time in 50 years Major League Baseball finally understood that it was time to move the move of the Boston Braves to Milwaukee was the precedent breaker was the first move in the history of modern baseball it took a tremendous amount of courage for 50 years the same sixteen teams have played in the same 11 cities in the major leagues through two wars through a depression that really started a series of moves to other cities particularly the Western moves which really changed the face of baseball from a kind of a Midwest and eastern enterprise to a national enterprise as the Braves blazed their trail west opening day was less than a month away and they now faced the daunting task of selling tickets in Milwaukee without any offseason marketing or advertising Milwaukee was about to become home to the oldest continuously operating pro sports franchise in America the roots of the game the roots of Major League Baseball are deeply sunk in Boston soil and the Braves first known as the Red Stockings we're the team that started it all the brave started in 1871 in the National Association and then we're a charter member of the National League in 1876 and I think what they've proven from that time on is that anything is possible if you hang around longer the miracle Braves of 1914 enjoyed one of the biggest sports upsets in the first half of the 20th century sweeping the Philadelphia Athletics to win the World Series following the 1914 miracle however the Braves one loss record topped 500 only seven times through 1945 if you look at the history of the club during the 20s and 30s they weren't very good they almost went out of business in the 1930s during the Depression the team had been basically economically deprived for for a number of years living on a shoestring but in 1944 a group of local businessmen looked to reinvigorate the franchise three steam shovels were local contractors Luke greeny we do-- aruthor and Ralph meaning they came in with an objective of turning that around and building up a championship team they made a number of purchases spending quite a bit of money during that era their efforts resulted in the formidable pitching duo of Spawn Sain and pray for rain falling just short of beating the Cleveland Indians in the 1948 World Series shortly after their 48th championship they made a lot of blunders traded players away made bad moves and really squandered the capital if they had gained with that 48 pennant Parini soon bought out his partners and began rebuilding the Braves with the same approach that made his construction business immensely profitable during World War two I think he saw the Braves as sort of a sleeping giant in a way with tremendous potential that just wasn't being realized for Perini owning a major league baseball team offered several intangible benefits it was almost like a marketing tool for the Perini construction company my dad would use the Braves to bring people from Canada owners people he was trying to get jobs from to baseball games and allowed him to give something back to Boston it was Luke Rainey who had been the driving force behind the formation of the Jimmy Fund the legacy of the Braves in Boston is the Jimmy Fund the Jimmy Fund is this marvelous charity which is really nationally recognized when the Braves moved in 1953 we're on the last things that loop arena did was meet with Tom Yawkey and said we're moving away can you please take over stewardship of the Jimmy Fund for us and make it your charity like it was our charity Tom Yawkey said ok and from that point on the Jimmy Fund in the Red Sox have had a connection that lasts over 55 years with the Crosstown Red Sox continually drawing more than 1 million fans to Fenway Park few Bostonians seemed to notice the Braves equipment truck heading west after years of apathetic support in Boston Lou Perini hoped to draw 1 million in attendance but was uncertain of how his Braves would be received in the unproven Major League Baseball frontier of Wisconsin if one word could be used that has grabbed the Braves first season Wisconsin that word would be success when the people of Milwaukee rolled out the red carpet to welcome the Braves it was with a small picture the prosperity both the team in town were to enjoy it was the greatest thing really uh no we didn't expect it they arrived in town they had to be bewildered by the greeting they received ten twelve thousand people greeting them at the train station another 60,000 greeting them in a parade they were a full-blown cultural event when we saw those people leaders my goodness what is what's going on here people treated them as you know almost these gods who walked around you know from a different universe there really was a strong sense of identification between the fans and the players they made you feel like not only were you just going out there and playing a kids game that you're really contributing something to the city and and to the state fans and local businesses clamored to become a part of the big league atmosphere they couldn't spend a dime in this town they couldn't buy a meal somebody would pay for the restaurants would pay for things sponsors would come in say I want to do this and I'll get mala grocery I want to do this we give them milk all under this and we'll give them the dry cleaning they tripped over each other trying to give their product to the ball club as the Braves popularity spread fans from over a dozen states ventured to County Stadium to experience the miracle of Milwaukee firsthand with the parking lots at the county stadium you see license plates from all over the Middle West you know attracting fans into this brand-new stadium with a team that really took off because of the excitement that the fans created it was clear that the notion of a regional market was a viable notion I saw I think that Milwaukee Milwaukee's experience reinforced that the fans season-long loyalty and enthusiasm helped the Braves finish second to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1953 but made Milwaukee second to none when it came to fulfilling attendance expectations the Braves drew 1.8 million fans in their first year in Milwaukee County Stadium it was a national league record at the time that is roughly double the population of the Milwaukee area the Braves enjoyed nearly 1.5 million dollars in profits as their move proved successful beyond all expectations there are so many intangible benefits that you can't measure in dollars worth that goal with having a big league team city officials estimated that the team's arrival generated nearly five million dollars in new business for Milwaukee certainly that spurred a lot of talk among the city leaders that well what else can we do to make this a destination point numerous Civic improvements were implemented some necessary and some window-dressing simply because the city had become big league they had talked about a freeway system for some time had not done anything with the construction of it they started that after the Braves were here they built a new museum over on well Street and the library became just the library there were street improvements along Wisconsin Avenue that took place in the early 50s so the shopping district was exciting the downtown was booming it was the place to be I think the Braves coming to Milwaukee and the impact of the first year let the world know that Milwaukee was a baseball city since attending a game at County Stadium required the hottest ticket in town owner Lou Perini refused to permit any television broadcasts of Braves games home or road into Milwaukee territory in those days attendance Fannie's in the seat if you will were the number one financial resource for teams lupa Rainey didn't want to I guess overexpose the Milwaukee Braves if you want to become part of the party so to speak if you wanted to be in on the biggest thing that it hit Wisconsin in so many years and especially southeastern Wisconsin yeah to come to the games fans continued to pack County Stadium and at the end of the 1954 season a new national league record of over 2.1 million fans witnessed the miracle of Milwaukee proving the Braves encore performance at the ticket turnstiles wasn't a one-year honeymoon so it was great the atmosphere you know with the fan with grade the ball players also it became such a thing that that when you looked in the stands they were looking at you it wasn't just something to do or to be seen it was really to come there because they loved the baseball team and they loved the players I think one sports writer described Milwaukee County Stadium as a lunatic asylum with bassist one of the things that happens is you're in the stadium there are thirty five or forty thousand other people from Milwaukee or Greater Milwaukee sitting there with you and appraised at the homerun and everybody was skating stands up and starts screaming together though all experiencing and we're walking this at that moment and they're feeling some togetherness of some cohesion I challenge you to tell me or show me another example in our society today where there's there's that same sense of excitement and community belonging that gets created when when you're at a ball game like that by the summer of 1955 the Braves were the envy of all of baseball as they continued to contend for the National League pennant shatter attendance records and reap unprecedented profits the sleepy sport had a dousing of cold water thrown on its head and any any owner with an IQ over 80 noticed and said Wow here are some opportunities on July 12th 1955 Milwaukee seized the opportunity to showcase its new big league image on a national stage as it hosted baseball's all-star game it was a measure of civic pride the Braves always made you feel like Milwaukee had that extra something special besides having a great Lake and all the other things that make living in Milwaukee as good as it is but the Milwaukee Braves are kind of like an explanation the atmosphere made an impression on the baseball elite in attendance including Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley and New York Giants owner Horace Stoneham he attended the all-star game in 55 and no doubt saw the enthusiastic crowd and a tremendous amount of gains they were made in just three years they were there certainly O'Malley and and Stoneham were awakened to the opportunities that lay ahead because of the experience that the Braves had under Perini because of the Braves immediate success in Milwaukee cities began competing in a cutthroat game of luring baseball franchises with hopes of enjoying the same results as the miracle in Milwaukee what Milwaukee proved was that it was time to start prospecting cities were no longer just cities you were now prospecting markets when Milwaukee County Stadium hosted nearly 6 million paid admissions in its first three seasons in a city with less than 750 thousand residents baseball struggling franchises began re-examining their financial options if you're a second team in a 2 team market if you're the st. Louis Browns or the Philadelphia Athletics you start to look at cities no longer is cities cities become markets the immediate success of the Braves in Milwaukee became the catalyst for other franchises to relocate I think other owners at the time saw the move that the Braves did and you know if they couldn't get whatever support they needed for their ballpark locally there were places that were given that support and they sought it out and found it receiving civically funded stadiums with ample parking the browns relocated to Baltimore's Memorial Stadium in 1954 reinventing themselves as the Orioles and the Athletics successfully shifted from Philadelphia to Kansas City's remodeled Municipal Stadium in 1955 all sudden broke everything wide open you know but Milwaukee was the start of it the brave success in Milwaukee also prompted Walter O'Malley to approach Brooklyn officials for a new stadium to keep his Dodgers competitive in baseball's new world order his problem was Evitts field was obsolete was in a not the best neighborhood you only had about 800 parking spots for cars at Ebbets Field but it was impossible to be competitive trapped as he was in the middle of Brooklyn when the world was changing and people were moving to the suburbs with the Dodgers fanbase moving out of the city and into the suburbs Walter O'Malley approached New York's Parks Commissioner Robert Moses with the hopes of condemning some downtown Brooklyn land for a new stadium it was really not that much of a gamble for Walter O'Malley to leverage that saying look at this Milwaukee example they've got not only a parking lot that can expand but they've also got a stadium that can expand that was built for baseball that is a modern stadium but when negotiations between the Dodgers and Brooklyn soured O'Malley looked towards baseball's newest frontier if your O'Malley what what Lou Perini showed you was if you can tap into a market you can find a place and you can exploit it as a market you can do something remarkable they saw moving West and the hunger for major league baseball you know not just in this one area clearly just just as the country was changing with the suburbanization on mobilization of the late 40s and 1950s and the introduction of television on a mass basis throughout the society there was a westward movement I think that O'Malley and a lot of other people we're at just licking their chops at the idea of going to Los Angeles with Giants owner Horace Stoneham agreeing to simultaneously move the Giants to San Francisco Walter O'Malley received permission from baseball owners to relocate the Dodgers to Los Angeles prior to the start of the 1958 season malee went out to Los Angeles he brought his team they gave him Chavez Ravine they gave him all that land built a stadium that was the Western expansion of baseball Lou Marini in the Milwaukee Braves absolutely should be credited with the western expansion of like baseball's manifest destiny back in Milwaukee County Stadium reached another astounding attendance record in 1957 as over 2.2 million fans witnessed the Braves endure a season filled with dramatic injuries strategic trades and heart-stopping heroics faced Hank Aaron steps in against the third Cardinal pitcher of the game Billy Moffett here it comes and there it goes hammering Hank hits a home run and this one is special the Braves did it clinched the pennant they came close before but this is it the end of years of frustration there's a mob scene on the field and why not victory didn't come easy and it came late so it's extra welcome Milwaukee continued to enjoy the financial benefits of the Braves success as approximately 8 million dollars of fresh money was generated in 1957 and over 34 million dollars since their relocation from Boston it'll never ever be duplicated I don't care where they go what happens how many World Series you win or whatever that situation in Milwaukee will never ever be duplicated but the Braves were still considered underdogs against their World Series foes the New York Yankees who were expected to win their eighth Fall Classic in 11 years they acted as though he weren't supposed to get them out they were supposed to do whatever I think up to that point I know if the inferiority complex would be what the term I would use but certainly there was this idea that we're out here in the middle of a country and a lot of folks don't know about us when Milwaukee was sarcastically nicknamed bush Ville by the Yankees it only fueled the city's resolve as the Braves went on to win a dramatic seven-game World Series he steps on paired and it's all over but the tumult and the shouting the new worlds champions of baseball the miracle men from Milwaukee Suzette naseous grabbed a grounder and touch surge for the final out every door downtown business in Milwaukee open up and here people coming out yeah yellow away that's screaming and that's what they all got middle of Main Street you couldn't get a car through it was just so spontaneous it was great and then when we took the plane coming back home and we saw what was happening from the airport to downtown with that many people I never thought I could see 400,000 strangers spilled into the streets as horns blare Dan factory whistles blue bush Ville wins that was the headline in the Milwaukee Sentinel and the party and the parade up and down Wisconsin Avenue really served noticed that Milwaukee was a big league town as the home of baseball's world champions Milwaukee was proclaimed the baseball capital of the world by Mayor Frank Zeidler truly making it a big league city in every sense of the term this desire to be considered big-league is the reason why so many municipalities end up spending very important public dollars to keep baseball teams and sports clubs in town following the 1958 Fall Classic America's pastime was in the throes of an economic revolution prompted by the Dodgers and Giants Exodus West the United States Congress held hearings that year to discuss the sports sudden carpetbagger approach Congress took no formal action following the hearing so disgruntled franchises continued exploring prospective markets but had stages of the game anything was fair if he could get it and headin and get the vote they'd moved any place good Lord will get all the moves have been taking place in Major League Baseball since that time good grief it's shocking frightening for the first time since their relocation to Milwaukee the Braves recorded a slight but unmistakable decrease in attendance despite repeating as National League champions it seemed like the interest were fading I think we're like 58 after we won in 57 and then we lost in 58 but we were right in that after nearly six years of attendance bliss the charm of Major League Baseball was beginning to dissipate in Milwaukee since the Braves were no longer breaking attendance records getting a seat at County Stadium right before game time became a fairly common practice the crowds weren't as extensive instead of going in and seeing you know 35 40 thousand people you'd see 7 12 15 thousand and sometimes I included the grounds group several contributing factors slowly led to the Braves attendance demise fan favorites were traded away promotions were discontinued and a war of epic proportions divided the ballclub from its fans somebody had the bright idea one day why don't we get it get these fans that buy more stuff at that ballpark Milwaukee was a lunch-pail town they were used to bringing their lunch and at the ballpark their lunch was their cans of beer the early days you could bring anything you want in the stadium but they wanted you to buy their concessions one of the things that the Milwaukee County Board did that irritated the Braves fans was to ban the carrying of six-packs of beer a lot of people resented the move Milwaukee was always known as the city of breweries and here they were banning the hometown product what's more important in Milwaukee than beer a bad mistake by the Braves franchise - do not let fans bring beer into the ballpark and they pay the price for it thinking it so very next year they said hey we're lifting that ban come on back and enough people have stayed away that they said heck with you we're not coming in no longer contending for the National League pennant on an annual basis the Braves continued to suffer from spiraling attendance figures with no bottom in sight as they drew only 1.1 million fans in 1961 less than half their watermark high from 1957 it's like anything else if the product deteriorates the fans whom winning was that was the reason they're going to go they started finding other things to do but not even the most disgruntled fan could have foreseen the Braves bleak future in Milwaukee by 1962 Lou Perini's vision of baseball's new world order less than a decade earlier had revolutionized baseball's entire economic structure suddenly cities are no longer the center of of the baseball economy that to me is the beginning of modern baseball the speed in which baseball changed was almost overnight within six years it was obvious that everything you thought you knew about the sport was going to change although critics feared the almost sacred bonds between cities and their baseball teams had been destroyed the franchise relocations instead proved America yearned for more of its pastime so what Torrini started was a landslide in effect I guess what once you start moving it was nothing to stop it yet Major League Baseball refused to expand beyond its 16 team to league structure that had existed for over half a century you have the beginnings of a resentment towards major league baseball that how could they do this how can they do this to this great baseball town looking to exploit baseball's growing popularity in America's untapped markets New York Attorney William Shea and former Brooklyn Dodgers executive branch rickey organized the rival continental league looking to place teams in areas without major-league baseball there were other cities that started saying look we have just as much to offer why don't you expand build some more ballparks and we can all be successful you're looking at cities like Houston or Dallas or El Paso for that matter cities like Phoenix cities like Denver cities that were legitimate baseball markets legitimate Major League Baseball markets the continentally league put so much pressure on major league baseball Major League Baseball responded and responded big time by expanding by two teams and 61 and two and 62 therefore was killed the continent the American League expanded from eight to ten teams in 1961 with the addition of the Los Angeles Angels and Washington Senators and the National League followed in 1962 with the New York Metropolitan's and Houston Colt 45s because of the new franchises the traditional 154 games schedule was expanded to 162 games to provide baseball owners eight additional dates to add to their ever-expanding bottom line sure it's a business no one's kidding that every major league sport football basketball they're all businesses everyone's looking for a better deal in the early 1960s nearly a thousand miles outside of Milwaukee an enthusiastic group of businessmen and boosters were building a spirited campaign to become a big-league City you had a very dynamic leadership emerging out of Atlanta led by Ivan Allen who has been the mayor you had Mills Lane who was a banker a maverick banker at CNS Bank and then you had the owner/operator of the coca-cola bottling company and it was Arthur Montgomery and those three basically formed a leadership group and in Atlanta's defense they were just as hungry for a ballclub as Milwaukee had been back in 53 no the new rising star of the south so they were really going all out to attract a major league team and didn't really care about where it came from what made Atlanta so appealing was the unlimited potential of its broad geographical base at that time more and more television was becoming the focal point of revenue streams and you can see that great wide space of the south to be an unbelievable television market a whole untapped television market they had no competition they had the whole south to themselves since baseball didn't and still doesn't share local television and radio broadcast revenue equally among the teams owners were free to maximize their local profits without sharing among fellow franchises teams now had an opportunity to really capitalize by signing big deals for their television rights to broadcast their games and later on cable deals and said suddenly they were not dependent upon the ticket at the gate that was the big change I think that's where baseball went from you know America's game so to speak to this you know big business although selling the broadcast rights to games had yet to materialize in the billion dollar revenue stream it's become today it was still quickly becoming an innovative and lucrative source of income by today's standards the money that owners were making beyond attendance was was relatively small but certainly they got in on the ground level when teams were doing well in the field radio stations television stations wanted a piece of the action granting geographical territories to each team clubs established regional dominance through elaborate broadcast networks that carried games beyond their home cities it's an amazing model when you think about it to give your product for free to the fans at home but what does that do that builds interest and it's more advertising than anything and if you can make money off of advertising your product and draw more fans to your games why wouldn't it own or do that by 1962 even Lou Perini had buckled to the almighty dollar and allowed 15 Braves Road games to be televised what was once again it was out of fear and you start getting to 59 60 61 with the Braves attendance is dropping and suddenly he cares about television again after years of refusing to televise games fearing it would cut in to ticket sales Perini realized the hundreds of thousands of dollars the Braves received in sponsorship and advertising dollars offset the team's declining turnstile appeal the economy was changing and the Braves odd chance to to get their money without having to worry how many butts there were in the seats with a total attendance of 766 thousand nine hundred and twenty one fans in 1962 the Braves ranked 8 out of 10 National League clubs after reaping 7.5 million dollars in profits during its first nine years in Milwaukee Lou Perini posted his first losses in 1962 from a standpoint of looper any what he could probably see what was happening renowned for his sound business approach the only owner in Milwaukee's major league history decided to get out of the baseball business the pre corporation which owned the Braves went public in 1961 I believe my father was not happy and the shareholders were not happy with him because the first couple of years after the company went public the company had some difficult construction projects and the earnings weren't that good so maybe the sale of the Braves was an opportunity to improve earnings on November 16 1962 Perini sold the Milwaukee Braves to the Chicago based LaSalle corporation led by 34 year-old insurance broker William bartholomae we are over in other businesses but we had a love of baseball and we had pockets some of our pockets weren't as quite as deep as others but we managed to be able to finance the purchase of the Braves which was six point two million dollars was the price at the time the Braves new owners had a two million dollar balloon payment due in 1968 and looked to generate new revenue streams barthélémy and his associates offered to sell a hundred and fifteen thousand shares of team stock at a price of $11.50 per share two Wisconsin residents prior to the start of the 1963 season it was our unanimous opinion that we should offer at the same price proportionately that we paid for the team against the 6.2 million some local ownership they hoped that the invitation to purchase stock would become the stroke of genius to not only reinvigorate fan interest but also pull the team back above the financial break-even point we were able to do that in a way we had I think over a thousand shareholders bought some shares they couldn't buy too many shares but they bought some shares and that put a nice flavour on it the invitation to Milwaukee buyers was widely advertised and largely ignored and was deemed a bust after only 13,000 shares were sold the sale of the shares were there was a mixed bag that we thought we would sell maybe was the equivalent of 30 40 percent of the team and we did and it was about it was much less than that after an off season ticket sales push exposed the community's apathy towards the Braves the rookie owners since they had bought into a grave situation the best days had gone the salad days the high cotton days they were gone attendance had been declining in Milwaukee the Braves became a mediocre team and they became a team that really didn't capture the imagination of the locals anymore remember all of our Kuechly the sports out of the Milwaukee Journal on the carpetbaggers for Chicago and Milwaukee fans and Wisconsin fans I really just did not trust these new owners it looked like they had their minds on something else rather than making our ballclub as good as it could possibly be seeking a quick fix instead of trying to revive Milwaukee's sagging attendance the Braves new ownership group began shopping for a new hospitable venue the rumor started yeah soon after the the Chicago group bought the franchise from the preemies they were not exactly enchanted with Milwaukee in 1963 Mayor Ivan Allen and a group of Atlanta officials pitched Atlanta's wonders to a group of Milwaukee's owners during the all-star game in Cleveland the Braves were approached by a group of leaders in Atlanta by the end of that fateful midsummer meeting negotiations began between Atlanta and the Braves major league baseball one way or another was going to have a team in Atlanta by September an agreement was in place to move the Braves to Atlanta for the 1965 season they saw a lucrative market in the south and they took the money and they ran and this is after they had been quoted as saying we're here today we're here tomorrow we'll be here as long as you want us they were packing the bags at that time but Milwaukee was not willing to part with their big-league status without a fight while the Braves move was still perceived as a rumor in the court of public opinion team ownership was becoming increasingly unhappy in Milwaukee there wasn't enough money in Milwaukee if you were going to compare the financial possibilities in Atlanta and Milwaukee Atlanta would win every single time a failed go to bat for the Braves campaign couldn't boost season ticket sales in Milwaukee or secure a $500,000 deal for radio and television rights in 1964 Schlitz which was a major sponsor of the Braves could only offer a tiny percentage of what coca-cola could offer Slits didn't make enough money to compete with a giant like coca-cola by the time baseball's elite gathered for the 1964 all-star game an article in the Sporting News attributed to an unimpeachable source claimed that the Braves plan to move to Atlanta in 1965 I think maybe the fans were more confused the people in Milwaukee in Atlanta it was trying to put that whole deal together for you to have somebody who worked in the clubhouse or you know somebody that would you know you knew in the front office that said hey there you are they going to sell this ballclub from this group in Chicago and they're going to move to Atlanta I think coca-cola is involved and stuff and then you hear the contradiction to that publicly Braves officials issued a series of public denials hoping to quell the rumors because they talked more than at it the more people might show up the ball park in Milwaukee they wanted it they wanted the people come back oh we're not gonna leave you come on and they knew they were going to but they wanted to get some increased gate figures and never came to pass because everybody knew they were lying privately bill bartholomae lobbied the benefits of the Braves relocation to Atlanta amongst fellow owners I worked with all the owners on the other team and convinced them that this was not only the best thing for the Braves with the best thing for the National League the reality I think was that the the market possibilities in the new south when there were too great for the the owners to pass up Atlanta had the potential of a California in terms of the last market that hadn't been tapped when Milwaukee County officials offered to renegotiate the Braves stadium lease suggesting an annual rent of $1 up to the first million admissions Barthelemy and the Braves ownership declined claiming to be fully satisfied with their existing lease if you look at Milwaukee what they they did know was they mined it until it was dry and the interesting thing about that was there was no reason for the Braves to leave Milwaukee it was simply that when you started to take your map of the United States out and start looking these owners were prospectors just 10 days after telling the press that it would be a personal disappointment to leave Milwaukee barthélémy scheduled a press conference the Board of Directors of the Milwaukee Braves incorporated voted today to request permission of the National League to transfer their franchise to Atlanta Georgia for 1965 I wasn't too fond of they they gave me this memo and said Ernie you read this and so I read up the Braves today announced that they're moving their franchise to Atlanta and I don't know if I would wanted to go home or not well we got a couple of threatening calls and some notes and you traitor get out of town and I wanted to say hey it's not my team you know but I was a part of it no one who liked it but it was going to happen the same Braves franchise that in 1953 became the first club in 50 years to relocate was perched to become the first club to switch cities twice this team ownership is constantly fighting to generate revenue and they're going to leave they're going to look for as we say greener pastures the financial facts just don't dictate that we can operate our kind of organization in Milwaukee and that's the reason we made this change we didn't buy the club to move it but we also didn't buy it to go broke claiming that the club had lost 3.5 million dollars in Milwaukee due in large part to the flagging attendance the Braves owners blamed the anti baseball climate for driving them away actually the animosity got very ugly in a war awards for a couple of years before it got down to actual political moves and legal moves the hostility grew so heated that the Milwaukee County Board called for a resolution to investigate management's possible contract violations in ticket sales and accused the Braves of purposely losing games the fallout of the sale of the team was that the County Board turned against the Braves Eugene Grubb Schmidt was the supervisor who pretty much epitomized the hostility that was created between the politicians and the team the County Board simply started to look at it in terms of money but no public bickering could compete with Atlanta's untapped revenue streams compared to Milwaukee's limited advertising market of 2.5 million television households yet Minnesota on one side you had Cubs and white socks to the south you had the lakes into the East them you had the Great North Woods through the North the Milwaukee was declining his population and was Rust Belt losing manufacturing jobs Atlanta was a growing metropolitan area Braves ownership cashed in on Major League Baseball's neglect of the south receiving two and a half million dollars for their first broadcast contract in Atlanta it covered a seven state Empire of six million baseball deprived households between the Atlantic Ocean and Mississippi River we thought there would be some opportunities to build a strong radio network and radio was very important at that time and the degree that we had telecasts available it was a that did not exist in Milwaukee because of the proximity of Chicago and Twin Cities aware that the Braves lease with Milwaukee County Stadium didn't expire until after the 1965 season the National League gave the franchise permission to move to Atlanta in 1966 a year later than originally requested at the opening of the meeting today which I had called to consider the Milwaukee Atlanta situation the Milwaukee officials advised us that they were that they learned last night or early this morning that they learned this morning that they were under a restraining order not to make a request for the shift to franchise for a transfer from Milwaukee to to Atlanta and out of respect for the court order the league took no action Milwaukee was fighting back gloves his name group Schmidt mr. grouchy Smith was raising all manners of hell both sides had their dukes up and the fight was about to begin that left Milwaukee with one last summer to either save their Braves franchise or prepare to become the first city to be completely abandoned by big-league sports following the 1964 season fans began realizing Milwaukee would not be able to match Atlanta's financial incentives and diverted their passion for the Braves into an exercise of spite the interesting thing was John going who was one of the county supervisors in Milwaukee had decried Atlanta's piracy of the Braves and if you go back and look it was the very similar type of piracy it was just that pairing the losers dugout this time instead of back in 53 as a result of their lame duck status the Braves lost nearly 1 million dollars playing out a 1965 season that no one wanted and that was a very sad year based based on the fact that you know they knew we were leaving going to Atlanta in 1966 county stadium's attendance plummeted to an all-time low of five hundred fifty five thousand five hundred and eighty four fans in 1965 when you pass county stadium in the summertime it was like a cemetery out there avoid elephant as the Braves anti-climactic season came to a painful close the majority of Milwaukee's baseball headlines came from the courtroom the first thing to do was to look legally at what kinds of remedies were available to the state of Wisconsin and the state of Wisconsin ended up suing the Milwaukee Braves on August 6 1965 Wisconsin Attorney General Bronson LaFollette filed antitrust lawsuits against the Braves and the National League basically what the state of Wisconsin was saying is by taking this team away you in effect have monopolized baseball and have restrained certain trades that could go on in relationship to basement never before had the nation's only federally protected legal monopoly faced an antitrust challenge on a state level there has been a body of law starting with a 1922 case called federal baseball which talked about whether or not the sport of baseball was subject to the Sherman Antitrust law and in that very earliest case Supreme Court said that baseball is a sport it is not an interstate commerce it is not in trade it is purely a state affair and therefore is not subject to the antitrust laws rather than sue in federal court where baseball's well established antitrust exemption would prevail LaFollette filed the action in state court under Wisconsin's antitrust law he was with the hope that they get in your hometown decision they thought that they would have a better chance in the state courts under state law to get a favorable decision because of some of the motion that was involved in the removal of the Braves to Atlanta in open court state attorneys offered to drop the suit in exchange for a new franchisee but the owners protested claiming that Wisconsin was holding the national league hostage until they promised an expansion team to Milwaukee it was a sort of a bush-league scuffle between two cities if victorious the state of Wisconsin could seek injunctions in other states forbidding the Braves to play home games anywhere but within Milwaukee the Milwaukee people they thought they had Atlanta nailed and the latter people thought they had Milwaukee's nailed the ensuing trial in Judge Elmer Rollers Milwaukee courtroom had lifted the veil of innocence from the national pastime exposing the sports ugly vissa job Monopoly roller was an excellent trial judge and but nevertheless it came the love of Wisconsin and the love of baseball ultimately there was a decision that was rendered by judge roller in April of 1966 and judge roller said that the Milwaukee Braves had violated the Wisconsin antitrust laws following a series of Appeals injunctions rulings and reversals that continued throughout the 1966 season and into the winter the state of Wisconsin asked that the US Supreme Court hear the case the ultimate decision was simple and that is you have a Supremacy Clause in the Constitution that has priority over any state laws there for the state laws are not going to trump the federal laws baseball's exemption from antitrust laws had been upheld thus ending the legal brawl Atlanta finally had its Braves when the Braves moved from Boston to Milwaukee it was cause for celebration in the streets no one at that time thought that it would only last thirteen years do you see a piece of Americana that never existed before is never going to exist again no city is ever going to have a love affair with a team the way that Milwaukee did with the Braves II the city embraced their ballclub and I you know I sense that sometimes when you when you realize baseball's big business now I think you lose some of that back in 1953 Milwaukee could have never predicted the financial and emotional consequences of moving a professional sports franchise the owners start realizing to have this monopoly power where they can play cities off of each other and the owner says to city oh you want my team I'll bring it there but by the way you've got to build me a fancy new stadium we still see it to this day with teams that are threatening their cities in all sports to get a better stadium or a bigger stadium or more revenue from their stadium it's all about the stadium Wars as much as an arms race as anything the Braves proved that your business could be extremely lucrative and that you didn't just have to be a sportsman anymore you could become a billionaire by owning a sports team and that hadn't always been the case that's the legacy of the Milwaukee Braves it's because without the Milwaukee Braves with the Dodgers still be in Brooklyn would they have ever moved to Los Angeles Atlanta baited the Braves with the same booster gameplan Milwaukee had successfully formulated what Luke Rainey was able to do was find a community that was willing to accept his team that had already built a stadium hoping to lure Major League Baseball to its city no way did anybody expect that that blueprint would ever be used against him I don't think we're in a competitive environment okay cities seek these valuable rights politicians maintain their jobs and elevate their jobs as a result that sports in the 1950s in the four major sports team sports there were only 18 cities in the United States represented and almost all of them were in that northeast quadrant today up to 43 and everybody's you know fighting for those franchises it's amazing to me to this day to see cities underwrite some of the franchise's to see the people come out and spend the money they spend that changed the dynamic completely now instead of this asset being part of your community you were always at risk as municipalities fall victim to the high stakes of franchise relocation team owners continue to enjoy their largest profits ever from corporate sponsorships television revenue and merchandising sales on a proportional basis it's kind of interesting you know about ten years ago gross revenue for the entire league was about two and a half billion dollars and this year it will probably be between five point five and six billion it's never been more profitable the teams are making money the players are making money the ancillary people like television make money off of baseball it's all about money it's professional sports professional means money while today's fans are continually reminded that America's pastime is a business after all the game continues to endure thanks to its timeless attraction a lot of things have changed in this game but the way you play and the way you perform and and the reasons you win all remain the same but Skyrim smashes backhanded by Matthew he's dipped some purred and it's all over but the tumult and the shouting a new world's champions of baseball a miracle men from Milwaukee

Channel: Milwaukee PBS

Views: 45,367

Rating: 4.9139786 out of 5

Keywords: Boston Braves, major league, relocation, Milwaukee, WMVT, MPTV, World Series, WMVS, Braves New World, Television, baseball, Public, milwaukee braves, atlanta braves, major league baseball, baseball history, baseball team relocation

Id: XrY-gLw2eYA

Length: 56min 46sec (3406 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 04 2010