Is Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio stealing sand from the beach in Malibu?

While the concept of a private beach has always been a contentious topic, one can’t exactly use the sands of the coastline for personal needs. Perhaps that simple notion was lost on the owner of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Is Brewers owner Mark Attanasio the real ‘sandman’?

There was some rather curious news out of Los Angeles this week after a report alleged that Mark Attanasio, the owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, was involved in what can only be considered a bizarre turn of events. According to the Los Angeles Times, Attansio, who is apparently in the process of refurbishing a luxury home on Malibu’s famous beachfront has been accused of using Malibu’s Broad Beach as “his own personal sandbox” to facilitate the work being done on the aforementioned home.

It is understood that the Brewers owner is being sued by his neighbor who claims Attanasio’s construction company is “operating enormous excavators in tidal zones, leaking oils and exposing local marine life to potentially hazardous byproducts.” Further to that, the suit also alleges that the construction has resulted in public access to the “entirety of the beach” being restricted. Where details are concerned, reports indicate that Attansio is having repairs done to his home’s seawall and has stated that he has all of the requisite permits to do so. On the other hand, the suit has alleged that the operation has resulted in the “dragging sand from the beach onto his private property,” as well as gasoline residue left in the water and sand.

Regarding what’s gone before, Attanasio bought the house for $23 million in 2007 and then proceeded to buy the empty lot next door for $6.6 million. Needless to say, given where the residence is located one can probably guess that he’s not the only famous resident and what’s more is that many of them have actually committed resources to the maintenance of the beach itself. Indeed, neighbors such as Dustin Hoffman, Ray Romano, and Pierce Brosnan have all pledged funds to a restoration project to “bolster the beach’s sand.”

At this point, it remains unclear as to what comes next in this developing story but if we assume that reports thus far have been accurate, the Brewers owner may have to review his choices. If nothing else, he can at least take some comfort in the fact that the Brewers currently have a 7.5-game lead in the NL Central and quite frankly, one of the best records in MLB, while operating on the ninth-lowest payroll in the league. When looking at it like that, there appears to be the making of a joke about the return on investment or lack thereof from his team, in comparison with what he’s spent on his Malibu home and the trouble he now faces, but we won’t get into that.