Why is Brewers' attendance slipping and what will be in the Mar-a-Lago affidavit?

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
·3 min read

The Brewers' attendance drop is among the steepest in MLB. So what's up with that?

  • They've been 10th or higher in MLB attendance in each of their competitive seasons: 2017, 2018, 2019 and even 2021, when COVID-19 meddled with ballpark capacities for the first half of the year. But the Brewers entered Wednesday 14th in MLB, drawing 30,359 fans per game — a drop of 15.9% compared to 2019 (the last season of "normal" attendance regulations throughout the year) and 14% compared to 2018. The former number is the seventh-biggest drop in MLB and the latter is ninth, outpacing most teams that have maintained a similar plane of competitiveness in that window.

  • So why is Milwaukee worse off than most MLB teams? Has it become too expensive for families? Did the pandemic hit smaller markets harder? Have the Brewers become boring?

  • Brewers president Rick Schlesinger pointed out that the current projection between 2.5 million and 2.6 million fans for the year would still put the Brewers in the top half of baseball. And he also pointed to two factors fans might not have considered. Group sales - which the Brewers depend on more than other teams - are down by 200,000 tickets because so many businesses are still operating under COVID protocols. And the Cubs are bad so games against them are drawing about 6,000 fewer fans than in 2019.

It could be a newsy day. A judge has ordered the release today of the redacted Mar-a-Lago search affidavit

  • Affidavits typically remain under seal until charges are filed, according to legal experts. Federal prosecutors oppose unsealing the Trump search affidavit because the document could compromise the investigation and discourage witnesses from cooperating. Redactions would be so extensive as to render the document useless, prosecutors argued.

  • Media companies including The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Network, argued for the release of the affidavit to learn more about what provoked the unprecedented search of a former president’s home. "At a minimum, any portions of the Brief that recite those facts about the investigation, without revealing additional ones not yet publicly available – in addition to any other portions that pose no threat to the investigation – should be unsealed," the media companies argued. "Furthermore, any legal arguments in the government’s filings should be made public, even if some of the facts the government recounts remain under seal."

  • U.S. Magistrate Bruce Reinhart said the edited document would be made public by noon Friday. "I find that the Government has met its burden of showing a compelling reason/good cause to seal portions of the Affidavit because disclosure would reveal the identities of witnesses, law enforcement agents, and uncharged parties, the investigation’s strategy, direction, scope, sources, and methods, and grand jury information..." the judge wrote in a brief order, explaining why the entire document could not be released. But some of it will be. Today.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Why is Brewers' attendance slipping