Milwaukee Brewers President – Business Operations Rick Schlesinger grew up in a baseball family in Milwaukee before graduating from Harvard Law School, and 22 years ago his career path wound him back to his home city in what can only be described as a dream career for the lifelong Brewers fan. He recently talked to Insight about the upcoming season and the Brewers’ efforts to create lifelong, engaged fans throughout the Midwest — including in Northeast Wisconsin.
Insight: What have been the highlights of your two decades with the Brewers?
Schlesinger: My office looks out over the ballpark field, and you can’t have a bad day when your office is in a baseball stadium. It’s pretty much a dream come true to be working for the Brewers. One [on-field] highlight was beating the Cubs in game 163 in 2018 to win the Central Division. We beat them at Wrigley Field, and there were more Brewers fans than Cubs fans there. It was just a magical ride in the postseason that year. Getting the ballpark funding passed back in December of 2023 was sort of my professional highlight, because it solidified the Brewers remaining in Milwaukee and at American Family Field through 2050.
The world and sport are changing. What does marketing look like for your franchise in 2025?
The growth of analytics and data and content has really transformed the entire organization — both in baseball operations in terms of how you evaluate players as well as in our business. You know, we are much more reliant on analytics in setting ticket prices, setting concession prices, how we market, what promotions and fan experiences will generate positive reactions. I think we’re getting a lot more intelligent about how we reach our fans, and it’s a much more competitive environment. There’s more competition for dollars and eyeballs and attention, and it just seems like people have more opportunities to invest their time and dollars and we’re competing with things we didn’t compete with before. I like to say we’re competing with sleep. Obviously we play 81 home games, but there’s 81 road games and there’s always something going on on social media, always something new on the internet. So other than sleep, we want people to consume the Brewers as much as possible.
What have been your efforts to engage fans outside of greater Milwaukee?
More than half of our fans are outside southeastern Wisconsin. We really have become a regional team. We’re trying to use the power of the internet to promote fans, teachers and first responders in all 72 counties of Wisconsin. We also just started the first leg of the frozen racing sausages tour in Wausau and Green Bay; we’re going to get to every one of the counties with the frozen sausage races over the next several years.
Sounds like you’re really working to reach kids in particular.
We do a lot of outreach to communities and school groups to get them engaged. The earlier you engage the kids, the more likely they will become lifelong fans. You know baseball has a reputation of being a sport that appeals to a little bit older down the line. I’m 63, so I’m obviously in the age group that baseball appeals to, but we want to make sure we’re appealing to the younger group and that’s why, if you’ll notice, there’s been a lot of rule changes in baseball to make the game speed up, to make more action on the field, doing things that are more exciting for younger fans without undermining the essence of baseball. We’re doing a lot of things locally, and baseball’s doing a lot of things nationally, to appeal to kids.
How important has your partnership with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers been, and how will it enhance the organization going forward?
We’re looking at doing a series of co-marketing and co‑branding opportunities with that great organization. [President, CEO and Managing Partner] Rob [Zerjav] is one of the leading stars in professional baseball. He and Craig Dickman have really transformed that ballpark. Not only do they provide a great atmosphere and environment for our minor league players to develop, but the proximity of the stadium to Milwaukee makes it so easy for players to go and rehab and for us to evaluate our minor league players in a first-class environment. The fact is that they are creating a lot of baseball fans in the Fox Valley, and we love the creation of baseball fans because it obviously bodes well for both organizations. I remember when I came to the Brewers the Timber Rattlers were the affiliate of the Seattle Mariners, and I was very envious of that. One of my goals was to help facilitate change, and now we obviously have this long-term partnership with them. And from my experience, there are no better affiliate operators than Craig and Rob.
What will be new and exciting at American Family Field this season?
We’ve got a new food truck alley in left field; there’s no shortage of great, local food from truck purveyors who provide nontraditional ballpark fare. We have three food trucks and a new bar and we’ll sort of rotate the best of the Wisconsin food trucks, so it will be interesting food that you can’t get normally. We also have a new pilot program called MLB Go-Ahead Entry, which is a way for people to use facial recognition to get into the ballpark. This is a pilot program, but if it’s successful we’ll branch it out.
Do you have a rooting interest in the sausage races?
I have to be neutral, but I do have a soft spot for Chorizo because, aerodynamically speaking, Chorizo has the most challenged environment because he’s got the big sombrero. If you look at the standings from the course of the season you know Chorizo is usually not among the league leaders. I root for the underdog.
