Routine Field

All photos of Routine Field available on Flickr.

It took me until the 2nd to last week of the season to finally make it to a new ballpark practically in my own city - Routine Field in Franklin, Wisconsin, home of the new independent Milwaukee Milkmen.  Franklin is a suburb of about 35,000 people to the southwest of Milwaukee and the stadium is located within The Rock Sports Complex - more on that in a bit.  The Milkmen are hoping to copy the blueprint of the new Chicago Dogs and St. Paul Saints parks in the same league - build a small ballpark on the outskirts of a major metropolitan area that already has a major league team, and hope the baseball fandom is rabid enough to draw a couple thousand fans a night.  With the Brewers annually appearing in the top 10 for league attendance over the last decade plus, it was a safe bet by the Milkmen ownership.

What was not a safe bet was just about everything else on this project.  This site, this town, and this ballpark have had a long and tumultuous relationship that dates back to The Rock's inception as a year-round sports complex built over a former garbage landfill, starting with a complex of 6 baseball fields used by various community leagues.  Mike Zimmerman and his group certainly had good enough intentions, just as they did with their other ventures in Jamestown, New York and Kokomo, Indiana - build up a sports complex to serve as the financial and social anchor of a community.  His group "ROC Ventures" does stand for "Return on Community," after all.  However, it has not looked promising so far for any of these endeavors.  The Jamestown Jammers have switched leagues twice and ceased operations for the 2019 season, and the Jackrabbits are about 5 years in and the verdict is still out, but the town is not exactly bustling right now.  As for the Milkmen, it took years of negotiations with the city to set up various financing structures and TIF districts and involved ROC eventually buying the landfill as a sign of good faith.  Even after all of that, the ballpark still opened over a month late, and no signs of progress have been made on the rest of the supposed "mixed use development" on the site, other than ROC's own headquarters.  It's debatable what a ballpark that draws 100,000 fans a year will bring to a mixed-use complex essentially in the middle of nowhere with poor access, but hopefully with the nearby Oak Creek Towne Center serving as a model, it will be a boon for the town.

Putting the politics of the project aside, just logistically building a stadium over a landfill provided many physical challenges.  To account for what is essentially an organic site full of unknown materials, the stadium's structural system had to compensate for constant shifting and settling of the ground below.  The entire stadium is essentially a slab floating on grade beams to allow it to move as one piece, with a network of vent piping to allow the composting materials below to off-gas methane.  Because of the costs put into just preparing the site, the stadium itself is quite simple and also environmentally friendly.  The entire field is of the 100% turf variety to mediate water and reduce maintenance.  There is a "Leinenkugel's Hop Yard" party area in left field made entirely of shipping containers.  The physical structure of the stadium is also understated, consisting just of a couple of masonry concession buildings with a couple of suites and the press box above.  The choice of materials and colors take what would otherwise be a boring and simple ballpark and make it quite visually interesting.  Again much like the St. Paul and Chicago ballparks, the use of black painted steel contrasted with faux-wood siding and soffits, beautifully formed concrete walls, and a colorful array of seats make the design appear intentionally minimalist.  I think that knowing the history of the site and the ballpark, it made me appreciate what I was seeing, but for anybody just coming into the park blind, it might seem rather unimpressive.  As an architect I also tend to lean towards the minimalist side of design, so I appreciated how the stadium stands out over the typical brick structures we see in most parks.  There was certainly a ton of between-inning entertainment, but I wish there was just a little bit more to the ballpark.  It's really just a small seating bowl, two concessions stands, and a shipping container team store in the corner.  The money in this ballpark is certainly tied up in the infrastructure and land costs, the design details, and the branding, with no fluff and not one extra space or inch that does not serve a purpose.

Between the simplicity of the ballpark, the last-place team on the field, and trying to get my daughter to fall asleep, it was a difficult game to focus on.  The one guy I recognized on the Milkmen and the one player who was any decent was the cleanup hitter, Adam Brett Walker.  He is from Milwaukee and got as high as AAA for 4 different organizations during the 2016-17 seasons, but never broke through to the bigs.  He was hitting about .250 with 21 homers at the time of this game and knocked in the team's only run in the 7th.  The visiting RedHawks had a guy who had a cup of coffee with the Orioles last year, but other than that I didn't really recognize anyone else in the game.  If a guy isn't good enough to play for an O's farm club, that should clue you in to the quality of talent in this league.  The Milkmen starter Joey Wagner was serviceable, allowing 2 runs over 5.  Catcher Wilfredo Gimenez was the star of the game, going 2-3 out of the 9-spot for Fargo including a homerun in the 6th.

The UW-Milwaukee Panther baseball team will also playing in this ballpark starting next spring and I will certainly be returning for one of those games.  Just about anything is a recruiting improvement over playing in what is basically just a county park right now, so I am excited for my alma mater to make a name for themselves as a Midwest collegiate baseball powerhouse.

park rankings and statistics: 

aesthetics - 6 (modern but very simple)

views from park - 3 (The ROC mountain aka big trash pile)

view to field - 8 (not much netting but far from field)

surrounding area - 2

food variety - 3 (major points deducted for not serving milk!  how is that possible?!)

nachos - 5

beer - 8 (good variety but only 1 stand)

vendor price - 8

ticket price - 10 (ours were free)

atmosphere - 6

walk to park - 2

parking price/proximity - 3 (really hard to access)

concourses - 5

team shop - 4 (shipping container in outfield)

best food - cheesesteak

most unique stadium feature - cabana seating areas at the top of every section

best jumbotron feature - goofy photos of opposing players while batting

best between-inning feature - assortment of trashy moms dance on dugout for money

field dimensions - 336/400/330 

starters - Bret Helton (FM) v. Joey Wagner (MKE)

opponent - Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks

time of game - 3:01

attendance - 1550

score - 4-1 L

Brewers score that day - off

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 8/26/19:

Brewers 67-63, -4.5, -2.0 WC; 3 v. Cardinals, 3 @ Cubs, 2 v. Astros, 4 v. Cubs

Twins 79-51, +3.5; 3 @ White Sox, 4 @ Tigers, 3 @ Red Sox, 3 v. Indians

2019 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 8

Peter - 21