Sports and MKE

Fresh off an NBA championship, multiple MLB and NFL divisional titles and an ongoing strong collegiate landscape, Milwaukee’s sports fortunes are on the rise.

Traditionally, all that would be enough to fuel area pride. These are not traditional times.  

This success comes at a time when sports has become an even larger part of the region’s culture. It’s also a national phenomenon fed by the explosive intersection of numbers produced by new measurements and technology that were hardly a blip a couple of decades ago. Southeastern Wisconsin is riding a wave that has introduced an entirely new perspective in how sports are being viewed and who gets to play.

Local voices detail today’s measures of success.      

Bucks Beyond the Bucks

The Milwaukee Bucks’ playoff run from last May to late July generated an impressive economic boon to local business. VISIT Milwaukee reported an estimated $57.6 million in direct and indirect spending, a number that was crunched by partner Destinations International of Washington, D.C., and its affiliate. Spending included more than $8.4 million in lodging, more than $5.2 million in food and beverage, just under $6 million in other retail sales, and almost $6.5 million in recreation. 

Tracking that impact is but a portion of the goals of SPORTS Milwaukee, a new VISIT Milwaukee division that was created to emphasize the importance of area sports. Director Marissa Werner said tracking and communicating the economic impact helps everyone from city and regional leaders to fans and casual observers appreciate what sports means beyond the competition.

“This division was created because there was leadership that understood the benefit of sports as a way to sell what the city has to offer,” Werner says. “It helps drive business. I hope people understand what sport tourism as a whole means.”

Werner said SPORTS Milwaukee will provide another look at the economic impact of sports on local business after Fiserv Forum hosts first round games of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament on March 18 and 20. 

The former college athlete noted her organization’s mission includes promoting youth and amateur sports. “For me, playing taught a certain lifestyle with teamwork, health and wellness,” she says. “Sports is growing for everybody beyond football, baseball and basketball, whether its soccer, volleyball, table tennis, bowling, pickleball and more.”

Werner said she uses social media to communicate the stories and the numbers behind those stories. She’s not alone.

Metrics and Storytelling

“Moneyball” — that 2004 book by Michael Lewis and the 2011movie starring Brad Pitt — extended the traditional ways of measuring performance as they chronicled the journey of Oakland Athletic General Manager Billy Beane in his quest to apply new measurement standards to the types of players he wanted on his team. 

They also introduced the notion that casual fans and never athletes could partake in sports. All it took was an inquisitive mind and the skills to maneuver in the world of internet sites and platforms such as Twitter and Instagram. 

Two masters of those universes represent contrasting contributions to the understanding of sport through social media. 

Kyle Lesniewski is a building maintenance engineer is an assistant coach in data analysis for the Franklin-basic semi-pro baseball Milwaukee Milkmen. He’s also managing editor of Brew Crew Ball, part of SB Nation, a Milwaukee Brewers online blog and part of a major online sports network. He manages four writers while planning analysis and storylines for daily reports. 

JR Radcliffe, a sports reporter since 2004, is the trending sports reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He came to his newest position from a more traditional reporting perspective. 

Both cover everything from game results to behind-the-scenes maneuvering of players to quirky off-the-field moments. This is the newest, most dynamic sports reportage and it’s being consumed, commented on, and continually reposted.

“The fascination is that there’s more to understanding the game than seeing the game,” Lesniewski says. “These stats give a lot more insight into the front office decisions of why a player was traded or acquired. They understand the metrics behind the decisions. It really makes for a lively discussion among those who are following a site or on Twitter. Those who follow the numbers approach the sport like they are the general manager running the team.”

Radcliffe says consumers of sports information rarely go to traditional sources at first. “At the J-S, we try to link the social media opportunities to the paper,” he explains. “But a younger generation is looking for information that may be exclusively online. And many of them want to see something that is not being reported in traditionally mainstream media.”

Case in point: The day after the Bucks won the NBA championship, Giannis Antetokounmpo provided an Instagram video of himself at a Chick-fil-A drive through carrying team and MVP championship trophies as he ordered a 50-piece bucket of nuggets celebrating his 50 points scored in Game 6. As expected, the live Instagram vid went viral. A few of the restaurant’s locations for a limited time even named the drink he ordered in his honor (a large, no ice, half-Sprite, half-lemonade).      

“That’s why social media is so important,” Radcliffe says. “That isn’t a newspaper or broadcast story, though it got play on both after the fact.”

That moment also demonstrates a new layer of social media communication as athletes at any level now can communicate directly with fans.

College View

The local collegiate landscape — especially basketball — has its own renaissance. Athletic department directors of communications at UW-Milwaukee and Marquette University say their programs have taken a cue from the professional side’s success. 

UW-Milwaukee’s Adam Schemm says his department tries to emulate the kind of things the Bucks and Brewers do to stimulate ongoing interest and attendance at Panther Arena.

“What they do really makes us raise our game,” Schemm says. “It makes us think about how we can develop special events and opportunities for donors and other long-time supporters. We want whatever we do to be authentic to the Milwaukee Panthers.”

Marquette’s Scott Kuykendall said the rise in social media has sparked interest for the college game. “With the combination of successful team records and the emergence of social media in the form of Twitter and Instagram, I think the appetite is at an all-time high,” Kuykendall says. “It used to be we would count up the column inches in the newspaper to see how much coverage we got. Now it’s so much more.”

Like Schemm, Kuykendall said the interest in other programs including baseball and other Olympic sports (volleyball, soccer, golf, and tennis among them) rely on social media to engage and recruit players as well as fans. 

Social media is here and it’s not going away,” Kuykendall says. “That’s where the kids are, so that’s where we need to live.”

A Broader View

Thomas Malaby, professor and chair of the UW-Milwaukee Anthropology Department, has studied sports and games in a more general sense for more than 20 years. He notes Milwaukee’s enthusiasm for sports is as universal as it is unique.

“We are social beings from before we are born, so sports make us feel connected, whether we are watching a game together in person or for example at the Deer District on a screen,” he says. “Connecting online is part of that. When we’re engaged, we are not thinking about petty worries. We’re coming together to experience the same thing at the same time — that’s what is called collective effervescence.” MKE

New Era Sports Stats

Today’s sports statistics are filled with new metrics far beyond old-school batting and earned run averages, shooting percentages and assists, or yards per carry, tackles and passing yards. An endless number of categories exist to analyze and measure performance in baseball, basketball and football. Some of the measurement models are fan-friendly, whether for those who are into number crunching or for fantasy league participation. And officials at every pro team use other models to track and assess individual and performance to constantly inform decisions on improving the team. 

Multiple sites offer statistical information via a Google search by sport. For hardcore fans, they’re great tools to understand the game behind the game and offer different ways to evaluate players or to explain front-office moves. Here is a small sample glossary of new metrics for three pro leagues:

MLB

• Defensive Efficiency Rating (DER) is the percentage of balls in play (fair-batted that aren’t home runs) that a team converts into outs). A team defense measurement of the ability to make a routine play.

• Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) reflects just those outcomes that have nothing to do with fielding such as strikeouts, walks and home runs allowed. This is designed to be a better measure of raw pitching skill.

• Weighted On-Base Average (wOBA) assigns proper value to every offensive event that happens while a batter is at the plate. Valuations are weighted as singles, double, triples, homers, etc.

(Find more at www.mlb.com/glossary/advanced-stats)

NBA

• At www.nbastuffer.com has dozens of team and player metrics including Assist Ratio, Balanced Scoring, Defensive Rebounding Percentage, Transitional Defense, and Value of Ball Possession. 

• At www.fansided.com/NBA, a glossary includes:

Points Above Average, the number of points scored compared to league average given a specific number of shot attempts.

Net Points evaluates scoring production while accounting for shooting efficiency.

Rebound percentage, the number of rebounds divided by rebound chances.

NFL

• Categories including Completion Probability, Yards After Catch, Expected Rushing Yards, along with individual and team offensive and defensive metrics. More at www.nfl.com/news/next-gen-stats-new-advanced-metrics-you-need-to-know-for-the-2021-nfl-season. 

Training the New Sports Communicator

In a nod to the new way sports is reported in a world where consumers connect by score, advanced metrics and human interest, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has created a new “certificate in sports communication” degree.

Matt Hermann, who teaches the curriculum, said the minor was carved out of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. It focuses on courses for aspiring reporters and marketing pros as well as those getting degrees in other disciplines who want skills to wade into today’s online arena on a part-time basis. Students include those who are on track to get law, engineering and other degrees.

“We’re in a sports-crazy culture, and the need for this curriculum was evident,” Hermann says. “This program has attracted more than 200 students in the past couple of years.”

Hermann explains the curriculum blends traditional reporting with topics such as public relations, analytics and ethics. He says the program also emphasizes collegiate and other amateur sports.

“The program is growing fast,” Hermann says. “I expect us to be putting many sports journalists and sports communicators into the world for years to come.”