Milwaukee Talks: Milwaukee Mile chairman Craig Stoehr

When the Green Bay Packers were competing in the Super Bowl in 1996 and 1997, Oconomowoc native Craig Stoehr was watching the games in Europe, where he was working as a sports promoter.

A decade later, Stoehr (pronounced: stair), a former Wall St. corporate lawyer who has lived and worked in cities like New York, London, Paris, Milan and Istanbul, is the chairman of the Milwaukee Mile Holdings LLC, which he operates with assistance from Andrew Randall, the former president of U.S. Bank Wisconsin.

Stoehr’s group, which promotes races and will develop land around the storied one-mile oval track on the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds, includes about 30 investors – including the man who played nose tackle for those memorable Packers teams, Gilbert Brown.

With two major events slated to take place this weekend at the Mile -- the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race Friday night and the NASCAR Busch Series race the following evening, Stoehr – who now lives in downtown Milwaukee -- sat down in a conference room at Milwaukee Mile headquarters in West Allis and talked about his past experiences and his current job in an exclusive Milwaukee Talks interview:

Stoehr: There was more to it than that. You advise the chapters on leadership and scholarship programs. You meet with the vice president of student affairs who is in charge of the Greek system, alumni advisory board and this kind of stuff. There was actually some worthwhile stuff, but there also was a lot of partying. But, it was a good thing to take a year off. I got to travel the South, which was my region. I got to go to schools in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida and all these places where I probably wouldn’t have spent any time. It was interesting. I got to spend six weeks at UCLA, starting a new chapter. It was a good experience.

OMC: What came next?

Stoehr: I did my first year of law school at Marquette and lived at home while I did that. Then, I transferred my second year at Northwestern and graduated from there. I went to New York and worked for a law firm and while I was there I got to work on World Cup ’94 and some Major League Soccer stuff, which led me to go to Paris before the 1998 World Cup. I stayed there for 18 months working on a project with Pele, Ronaldo, Roberto Baggio and a bunch of big soccer stars.

Stoehr: My brother is here. He’s married. He’s got a couple of little kids, my nephews. My parents are here. I hadn’t spent a lot of time with them while I was gone, maybe one week a year. You start to miss your folks. My father had a few problems with the heart and was in the hospital a couple times. You start thinking, “Well, I could stay over here in Dubai or move back to somewhere else I really love, like New York or London, or, I could go back and see what’s going on in Wisconsin.”

OMC: Didn’t you first look into being involved with a possible MLS soccer team in Milwaukee? How did this racing opportunity arise? Stoehr: (Soccer) is actually how this conversation got started. Marty Greenberg (chairman of the State Fair Park Board) had talked to me about getting involved with the soccer project and we were kind of kicking stuff around and I said, “Hey, are you ever going to get a Cup race at the Mile?” He said, “Funny you should ask about the Mile. We’re looking for a new promoter.”

Stoehr: I was. I remember coming here to State Fair a couple times when I was little. I remember in the papers how the guys used to come here and race before the Indy 500 and come up during the testing phase and there seemed to be a real buzz about it. NASCAR wasn’t as big as it is now, when I was a kid. Those guys are super marketers and they’ve got a fantastic product.

Stoehr: Exactly. I don’t have the car for it. Maybe if I had the car for it, I’d do it. I’ve got a Toyota Land Cruiser, which is a great car but I don’t see spinning around the oval in that thing.

Stoehr: We’ve got Richard Petty here this weekend. If you’ve ever done a ride-along at 150 mph or taken a racing course, it’s pretty interesting. Maybe we’ll get to a point where we have a permanent race school here. Some tracks have a permanent Richard Petty or Skip Barber facility, which would be interesting.

Stoehr: There is a big fan base here. There are a lot of people who used to come as kids or adults and a little of the luster wore off. They didn’t come for a few years, or maybe they came and didn’t have a great experience. What we’re trying to do is get those people out to the track again and say “OK, we’ve got a new promoter going. Let’s check it out.” If we can get them out once and they have an enjoyable time, we can get them back. We also look at the casual fan who may not be a real passionate racing fan, but they like sports and they like going out to things like Summerfest and the Brewers and they may not like music or baseball, but they like to be out with their friends.

Stoehr: Right. People like to do stuff here. What we’re trying to do is create buzz. We’ve got a lot of interactive things happening. We’ve got the Mobile Mile exhibit, where people can view some history about the Mile and change a tire and play a PlayStation game that has the Mile on it. There are a lot of fun things going on. We just have to tell people about them and get them excited about them.

Stoehr: We see a limited-service hotel. It really has nothing to do with the track in terms of why we think the hotel is a good investment here. It’s because the expo center is in use 200 days a year and all the other activity. It’s not like we have a 40,000 percent event all the time. You’d get some rooms when people come in for testing, but I think West Allis as a community -- with the businesses coming in -- it’s a great location. You’re halfway between downtown and Brookfield and Mayfair. Since January, I’ve seen how convenient it is in terms of location, particularly with all the construction that is going on downtown.

Stoehr: We just interviewed three architectural firms that included each local group was teamed with a national group with a lot of sports and entertainment experience. We’ll probably make a decision Monday and create a proposed site plan and development plan so we can go to the City of West Allis and say, “Here is what we are thinking. Does that work? How does that impact the traffic patterns?” Once we get to a point where we have exactly what we want, then we’ll actually exercise the option (to purchase the land) and put the shovels in the ground.

Stoehr: Definitely some retail. We’ve been talking with some different restaurants, including Quaker Steak and Lube, which is a perfect fit for a motor sports theme. We’ve talked about other retail. It won’t necessarily be heavily themed, but we want to incorporate the development with the track. We want the kind of businesses that are partners with the track or automotive related. We’re looking at a Wisconsin Racing Museum, that’s one of the things we’re exploring. We’d like to do something unique, not just another mixed-use development. We want it to have some novelty and be something people will seek out.

OMC: Milwaukee is often described as an ultraconservative market and one that can be tough on businesses. As someone who has worked in other places around the world and returned, are you finding that to be true? Stoehr: I certainly don’t think it’s a tax-friendly environment. My family has a business (Oconomowoc Manufacturing Corp.) here. I don’t know if you were looking at places to establish business, I don’t know that you would select Wisconsin. The tax base is high. The property taxes are high. At the same time, the cost of living is lower than places like Chicago. Do you have to deal with traffic and other issues that you would in a place like Chicago? No. But, I think there are some things they could be doing to lure businesses here.

Stoehr: In the year that I’ve been back here, I’ve made more business contacts and more friends -- really good people -- than in any of the other places that I’ve been. I’ve always had friends and good business colleagues, but maybe it was a little bit easier here because I’ve got my brother here and people know my parents. It’s a little easier to cast your net a little wider.

OMC: It’s definitely a small town. Is that an advantage of a disadvantage?

Stoehr: I would say that is a pro and a con. It’s good, because you can get to meet a lot of people quickly and get to know who people are and make good business contacts and meet people you like to socialize with. But, it is bad because everybody does know everybody’s business.

Stoehr: I didn’t really notice it when I was here before, because I was younger, but there is a big driver here -- with everybody we’re doing business with and we’re doing our media campaign about -- you find that everything is very price-sensitive. 

Stoehr: People in Milwaukee have money, but they’re really into value. They don’t spend lavishly. That’s something that I’ve learned. I will say this, though: Milwaukee has become much more cosmopolitan since I was here for law school in 1990.

Stoehr: Gilbert has been great. He’s a super guy, and he came to us. When he heard about the Mile going to a local investor group, he approached us. He’s been great. He loves racing. He loves being around. He loves people. He’s bright. He’s witty. You can see why he’s so popular. Not only was he a great ballplayer, but he’s got a certain charisma about him that people flock to.

OMC: How was your first event?

Stoehr: Overall, we were very pleased. If you look at attendance, I’d say we were triple where we were last year. Last year, I think we had about 6,000 or 7,000. This time, I think we had about 20,000 people there. Everything ran very smoothly. The Champ Car folks were very pleased with the operations and the increased turnout. Granted, I did hear a few people who were disappointed about the race ending. I understand that. Fans have a right to have certain expectations. It certainly will be something we address with champ car next season. Fans can count on that. For the most part, everything was positive. We got lucky with the weather and hopefully, we’ll get lucky again this weekend.