Brewers home opener in the 414: 4:14 p.m. on 4/14

PHOENIX -- There were still many details to be determined as Brewers president of business operations Rick Schlesinger briefed reporters on Thursday afternoon and again Friday morning, after Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association reached an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement. And yet Schlesinger was breathing a sigh of relief.

“This is a very important milestone for us,” he said. “We have all been in a situation of limbo for many months and we have tested the patience of our fans. We have been stressed, nervous, concerned, hopeful, depressed; we’ve gone through the gamut of emotions. But to be here is a big milestone.”

• Everything you need to know about '22 season

Many of the finer details were still emerging. Here are some of the most pressing of them from the perspective of ticket buyers:

Finalizing the home opener. Schlesinger announced Friday morning that the first pitch of the Brewers’ first home game will be scheduled for 4:14 p.m. CT on Thursday, April 14 -- otherwise known as Milwaukee Day because it coincides with the local area code. That game, against the Cardinals, originally was scheduled as a night game (6:40 p.m. CT) but was changed to a more traditional afternoon start. The Brewers said they would begin selling 5,000 terrace level tickets for for that game at the special price of $4.14 beginning at noon CT on Friday.

"We know that the fans have suffered a lot in this offseason and we have shared that suffering with them," Schlesinger said. "We're looking forward to baseball and we're going to be launching a whole series of initiatives to sort of embrace and cherish the fans and thank them for their patience through this tough sledding. ... [The discounted home opener tickets] are just one small gesture of many that we are going to do to welcome them back ad embrace them."

Schlesinger said there was significant ticket availability for the new home opener as of Friday morning.

Rescheduling regular season games. The original schedule had the Brewers opening at home against the D-backs from March 31-April 2, then hosting the Giants from April 4-6 before going on the road to play four games at the Cubs from April 7-10 and three at Baltimore from April 11-13. On Wednesday, a day before the sides struck a deal, those four series were removed from the schedule. An equivalent number of games will now be added back.

"It's a little bit of a jigsaw puzzle," Schlesinger said. "I think we can add three games to the end of the schedule relatively easy. Finding three games to put at home during the rest of the package is a little more complicated. You're dealing with travel logistics, finding open dates and making sure that we can squeeze them in. We're having those conversations. I expect in the next day or two, we'll get clarity on all of that."

The Spring Training schedule. Exhibition games are tentatively scheduled to begin March 18, and Schlesinger said the expectation was that the Cactus League slate would be torn up and rewritten entirely. He acknowledged that many fans with travel plans are eager to know the schedule, and Schlesinger said Friday morning that he hoped to have it finalized and announced within 24-48 hours. As part of that process, Schlesinger said, the Brewers’ March 28-29 exhibitions against the Royals will probably not be rescheduled. Because of the tight timeframe before Opening Day, the Brewers instead are likely to play as many games as possible in Arizona and then head north for the team's April 7 Opening Day game against the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

Once a full schedule is restored, the club will go into ticket-sales mode.

“It is basically a great message for our fans that despite the trials and tribulations of collective bargaining agreements and negotiations and talk about finances as opposed to talk about batting averages and wins and losses, we are at a point where we can start to get excited about this team and showcase what we think is going to be an excellent baseball team on the field,” Schlesinger said. “We’ll get this ballpark going and drive this economic engine running, and hopefully sell a lot of tickets and win a lot of games.”

Without providing specific figures, Schlesinger said the Brewers had “very, very few” season-ticket holders ask for refunds during the lockout. He cited the team’s 95 wins in 2021, tied for the second-most regular-season victories in franchise history, as a primary reason that many customers -- including suite holders and corporate sponsors, Schlesinger said -- held on.

He also acknowledged receiving strongly worded letters, emails and phone calls during the lockout. In as many cases as possible, Schlesinger said, he called those individuals.

“We have to make sure that we hear them and understand, that we work to get them back,” Schlesinger said. “I am very confident that we are going to get them back and get them back in big numbers, because as you know we are a big attendance team. We rely on big crowds. Our players feed off it. I’m really confident we are going to see those numbers again.”

The Brewers had previously announced that fans who held tickets to the original Opening Day against the D-backs will either get tickets to the rescheduled home opener or a credit or refund. Fans who held tickets for the final two games of the D-backs series (April 1-2) or the Giants series (April 4-6) would automatically get refunds.

In general, Schlesinger said, the club plans to be very flexible with customers who need to reschedule.

“I think it’s again a reminder to everybody in the organization: We’ve got to cherish our fans,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure we’re making it as easy as possible to work with them and not putting up roadblocks or making it tough. Again, we’ll work logistics on tickets and schedules and whether there’s credits or refunds, we’ll be an extremely open book and work with people.”

He's ready to play ball.

“The last two years have told us to be nimble, be flexible,” Schlesinger said. “Life's going to throw a lot of weird stuff at you and we're all going to get hit. We're going to fall down, and we've got to pick ourselves up. But I was optimistic no matter what that we would come through this, and our fans would be supportive, even though there were, frankly, some very dark times this offseason where we just didn't know what was going to happen.”