Bucks Awarded New Arena
Committing $250 million ($400 million after interest) in taxpayer money to pay for a new arena, Governor Scott Walker signed the bill ensuring the future of the Bucks franchise stays in Milwaukee. Although new Bucks owners Marc Lasry and Wes Edens promised to keep the franchise in Milwaukee when they purchased the company, it had become clear that relocating the team to Seattle or Las Vegas was a very real possibility of a new arena was not built in Milwaukee.
This still was not thought to be a problem, since upon selling the team previous owner Herb Kohl committed a sizeable portion of his earnings towards the new arena. The deal was thought to be contingent on the team remaining in Milwaukee, since Kohl stated that he refused to sell the team to anyone not willing to commit to remaining in this great city.
Taxpayer money was supposed to be left out of the equation, as Lasry and Edens were supposed to pay for the new arena. Yet here we are, footing the vast majority of the bill with $400 million committed, compared to the $250 million committed by the ownership group of the Bucks.
The Bucks have long been a dead team here in Milwaukee, always ending up near the bottom of the league in revenue and attendance. The team has not truly been competitive since Ray Allen was traded to the Seattle Supersonics for Gary “The Mitten” Payton, who bolted Milwaukee shortly after the trade was completed. There have definitely been exciting moments with the “Fear the Deer” movement and the Michael Redd era, but they have never even sniffed the conference finals.
While the Bucks have struggled, division rivals have fallen, rebuilt, and reloaded. The Cleveland Cavaliers have gone from perennial loser to NBA championship competitor twice. The Indiana Pacers have made their own run to the conference finals and have even been viewed as the favorites by some analysts to represent the East in previous seasons. The Chicago Bulls have drafted well and built themselves into a juggernaut that pushes to make the finals year in and year out, though they haven’t broken through the glass ceiling yet.
Why Walker has decided to commit so much taxpayer money to a team that hasn’t won anything in years, despite taking funding away from public schools is beyond me.
Walker claimed that this arena would promote tourism, but how many people do you know visit a city because they have a cool arena? I would visit Boston for Fenway Park, Chicago for Wrigley Field, but those are both storied, falling apart baseball stadiums that may not be around much longer. I would never visit Louisville just to sit in the KFC Yum! Center even though that is easily one of the nicest arenas I have ever been to. This new stadium is going to do nothing but take money out of taxpayers’ pockets.
Thanks Governor Walker, I can’t wait to see all the new tourists.
