Two home openers, one city, one Friday, and the NBA moved for the baseball team.
The Bucks were set to tip off their season at Fiserv Forum at 7 p.m. CT against Chicago. Then the Brewers swept the Dodgers and earned the right to host Game 1 of the World Series the same night, three miles west. The Bucks went to the league office and asked to move up.
"The Brewers' return to the World Series for the first time in 44 years is a special moment for Milwaukee," the team said, adding that the Bucks were "proud to move our home opener... in recognition of this historic occasion."
Basketball ends, baseball starts, and nobody in Wisconsin has to pick.
The day
4 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. CT — Bucks vs. Bulls, Fiserv Forum
Milwaukee’s home opener, on local Wisconsin broadcast and NBA League Pass out of market. The Bucks have no injuries listed. Chicago is without Nic Claxton (hamstring), Jordan Hawkins and Dailyn Swain (illness).
8 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. CT — World Series Game 1, American Family Field
FOX nationally, streaming on FOX One, FOX Deportes in Spanish, ESPN Radio for national radio.
Game 2 is Saturday in Milwaukee. Games 3, 4 and 5 are in Tampa Bay. Games 6 and 7 come back here.
They’ve been in each other’s buildings all year
Bucks players threw out ceremonial first pitches at American Family Field all season — Ryan Rollins in April against Toronto, and Taurean Prince a few weeks earlier, standing on the field talking with Brewers manager Pat Murphy before a game against Arizona.
In late June, days after Milwaukee traded Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis to Miami, both of the first-round picks that came out of that deal took the mound before a Cubs game. Neither Nate Ament nor Brayden Burries had played an NBA game yet, and one of them had been a Buck for about three days.
Their head coach did it too: Taylor Jenkins threw out a first pitch in June against Philadelphia. And at Friday’s home opener, the Bucks ran Brew Crew trivia with the Fiserv Forum crowd.
Tyler Herro has been out there as well, and for him it was a homecoming. He grew up in Greenfield and went to Whitnall High, which retired his jersey, and in August 2023 he threw out a first pitch at American Family Field wearing a Brewers jersey with BOY WONDER and his Heat number on the back. Three years later the trade that sent Giannis to Miami brought him home for good.
Giannis Antetokounmpo won Milwaukee its last championship in 2021, and he was on this field himself — playing catch with his brother Thanasis before a Mets game in September 2024.
It went the other direction as well: Murphy was introduced to the Fiserv Forum crowd during a Bucks game last November.
The ballpark has never hosted one
American Family Field opened in 2001 as Miller Park, and it has hosted plenty of playoff baseball, but Friday is its first World Series game.
The last time Milwaukee hosted one, in 1982, the Brewers played at County Stadium — in the American League — and lost to St. Louis in seven. This is the franchise’s first National League pennant.
The Brewers finished 103-59, the best record in baseball, which is why Game 1 is here. They’re 7-1 this postseason.
Where to watch when the Series leaves town
The Brewers are opening American Family Field for watch parties during Games 3 and 4 in Tampa Bay — Monday, Oct. 26 and Tuesday, Oct. 27 — with the broadcast on the main scoreboard.
Lots open at 4:30 p.m., gates at 5, broadcast at 7 p.m. CT. Tickets are $15 through the Brewers’ postseason ticket hub. Parking is $10 general, $15 preferred. Concessions, team stores, mascots and fan activities are all open.
They sold fast enough that watch-party tickets are already listed above $100 on resale sites, and the Journal Sentinel reported fans left empty-handed in the scramble. Deer District and the Bavarian Bierhaus are hosting free alternatives, and Urban Milwaukee has a rundown of cheaper options around the city.
Tropicana Field is doing the same for Rays fans in St. Petersburg.
One more conflict is already on the calendar
The Bucks host Cleveland on the night of Oct. 31 — the date of World Series Game 7, in Milwaukee, if it goes that far.