By Tiffany Crouse
The Bucks have announced their plan for the new one billion dollar arena.
Peter Feigin, the Bucks president, talked with the public about the new arena on April 13th.
“Not only do we want to create a championship caliber team on the court and a championship caliber team off the court; we want to invest in the future of the state and specifically the city,” said Feigin. According to Feigin, the new stadium will cost around 500 million with a 500 million dollar “urban community” sounding it The “urban community” will house different shopping centers and bars that will add to the downtown scene.
The new stadium will be ready for a surplus of people. It will have 17 thousand seats ready and available to the public compared to the Bradley Center, which holds only 11 thousand people.
Not only will there be a new stadium, but a practice space for the Bucks and connections from this space to across the bridge and into Water St. The design team has plans to make this a multipurpose space, much like the Bradly Center.
They will fully equip the space for other sporting events as well as concerts. The current design team comes is composed of local contractors, HNTB and Eppstein Uhen Architects. Populous Architecture, a national developer, will lead the design process. The plans would utilize land just north of the current Bradley Center for development.
“We envision this dynamic entertainment experience as one that could seamlessly connect to the greater Milwaukee community.
The goal is to design a lasting symbol for all of Wisconsin, pairing the crafted scale of Milwaukee’s architecture and innovative spirit with the natural beauty of the state,” said Brad Clark, the lead architect on the project and senior designer for Populous.
Bucks owners are looking for another private partner to help fund this project even with the help they have now.
The stadium and Bucks’ supporters have convinced the Wisconsin government to partner with them in this venture.
Back in January Governor Scott Walker announced the proposed “Pay Their Way” plan to pay for the stadium.
In this plan the Milwaukee Bucks can pay their own way for the new billion dollar arena through income tax increases for Milwaukee residents.
The government would loan out a proposed $220 million for the stadium and then the Bucks would pay that back.
This plan came out of some very strong critiques from both Milwaukee residences and other government officials of the state.
Others say that this plan is not enough.
“When you look at the impressive development plans unveiled today, it’s clear that the city and county need to step up their game and make more of an investment in the project than what they have initially put forward,” Speaker of the Assembly Robin Vos said in an emailed statement to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The Bucks are likely to leave Wisconsin in 2017 if the new stadium is not built.