July 7, 2015 / 0 comments

Bucks: A New Arena or A New Team in ‘Las Vegas’

By Alex Strouf

MILWAUKEE—

It’s been a pretty controversial couple of weeks for the Milwaukee Bucks franchise, as it’s gone from the NBA Draft to rumors of head coach Jason Kidd becoming the general manager to now needing a new arena approved by the Wisconsin government.

Following logo and uniform changes for the squad, they and their fans are working hard at a new arena, which needs to be approved by Wisconsin legislature. Current Bucks owners Wes Edens, Marc Lasry and Jimie Dinan have persuaded former owner Herb Kohl to pledging a combined $250 million between the four. The cost of a new arena would need another $250 million, which they are looking to public financing, thus needing approval from Wisconsin government.

With this being said, as of 5:30pm on Tuesday, only five senators in the state are against the new arena, which comes with statewide taxes. The good note: 12 senators are for the arena, while 16 remain undecided, according to RealGM Forums.

Here’s the thing, friends: we’re talking a whole lot of money is going to need to go into this thing if it passes. I reside in Brown County, Green Bay specifically, and I’ve lived with a 5.5% tax rate for most of my life. For those of you that don’t reside in Brown County and don’t know what the .5% is about, it’s for Lambeau Field’s maintenance, construction, and all that good stuff, but is scheduled to go away in October of this year.

Now they want to do that to the state with this new arena, which is why a lot of senators are against this.

Senators Dave Hansen and Rob Cowles of Green Bay are two of the five senators currently against the new arena in Milwaukee, likely due to the tax situation, because they’ve dealt with the .5% in Brown County for so long.

As this drama occurs, websites like SaveOurBucks.com and team personalities are trying to persuade undecided senators. Bucks president Peter Feigin told the state’s Joint Finance Committee at an informational hearing:

Feigin said the Bucks owners’ purchase agreement for the team includes a provision that construction of a new arena start in 2015. If that does not occur, he said the NBA will buy back the team for a $25 million profit and move them to “Las Vegas or Seattle.”

So it seems pretty likely that Milwaukee may be down to one professional sports team if this doesn’t appeal the a few more senators. SaveOurBucks.com is urging fans to call senators that are currently undecided, as a final decision could come as early as tomorrow.

Follow me on Twitter @LetsGoAlex to keep updated on this situation.

~Alex Strouf (@LetsGoAlex)

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