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MKE Sports, UW-Milwaukee team up in effort to build outdoor baseball stadium

Published  December 29, 2014 1:22pm CST
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
FOX 6 Now Milwaukee

OAK CREEK (WITI) -- MKE Sports & Entertainment, the business group that owns and operates the Milwaukee Wave and The Rock Sports Complex, announced on Monday, December 29th that it is partnering with the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in an effort to build a multi-functional 4,000-seat outdoor baseball stadium in Oak Creek by 2016.

Officials with MKE Sports say the new stadium would host the Milwaukee baseball team, a new independent minor league baseball team, along with outdoor entertainment and community events. The stadium will also be designed to accommodate professional outdoor soccer. It would seat four to five thousand, including Club / VIP seating, suites, grass seating, beer gardens, a kids zone and full synthetic playing surface.

The Milwaukee Panthers baseball program will continue to utilize Henry Aaron Field in Glendale as a practice facility and get a synthetic surface upgrade, per the terms of the deal with MKE Sports & Entertainment. All games will be played at the new stadium.

MKE Sports & Entertainment Owner Mike Zimmerman said in a news release, “We are also looking forward to leveraging our partners made up of influential Milwaukee area businesses like Wheaton Franciscan Health Care’s, Midwest Orthopedic Specialty Hospital, Northwestern Mutual, Gruber Law Offices, Wisco Hotel Group and others for their continued support of our sports and entertainment vision."

UW-Milwaukee Director of Athletics Amanda Braun said, “It’s difficult for a Midwest NCAA Division 1 program to compete in the recruiting game without a stadium. We are the only Division 1 baseball program in the state and have one of the country's best coaches in Scott Doffek and his staff. It’s amazing what he has been able to do with so little and I look forward to the day he is able to have all of the recruiting tools other Division 1 programs have. We look forward to working with the City of Oak Creek and MKE Sports & Entertainment to bring this vision for a new stadium to life.”