Brewers to extend protective netting at Miller Park

MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee Brewers are planning to extend the protective netting on the Field Level at Miller Park for the 2020 season.

This is the second change to the netting in two years.

Some fans say extending the netting more than 100 feet on each side will disrupt the game, but foul balls injure nearly 1,800 Major League fans a season.

A lot of fans say they want the park to be safer.

"I think they should have extended the nets a long time ago," said Brewers fan Don Petre. "I'm glad they actually did it now, and I think they should do it all over the Major Leagues."

Others say it will block the action in the lower seats. 

"If you're paying that much money for that good of a seat - front row, right down the third base line, that's half the fun is getting a foul ball, and you're going to take that away," Brewers fan Greg Mattson said.

The extended netting will be the same height as the current netting, and the Brewers will extend the third base side farther. It currently goes to the end of the dugout, and will be extended 145 feet to just past the tarp, near sections 128 and 129.

A fan was killed by a foul ball at a Dodgers game last year, and a foul ball fractured a two-year-old girl's head in Houston this year. Some Brewers fans say with that kind of danger, there should be no debate.

"There are more than enough resources, money, technology to be put in place to be able to keep the game experience exactly how it needs to be, but to be able to protect people who are not able to protect themselves from the situation," said fan Dana Hernan.

The Brewers say the project will be completed in time for the exhibition games against the Kansas City Royals on Monday, March 23 and Tuesday, March 24, 2020.