Gov. Scott Walker revealed details of a deal made with the Milwaukee Bucks and local officials to fund a new arena for the team in a Thursday press conference with team executives and Milwaukee area leaders.
“For every dollar that goes in, we get three dollars in return,” Walker said. “That’s a great deal that we can’t walk away from.”
The arena, estimated to cost about $500 million, would receive funding from a mix of private and public funds from the state, Milwaukee County and the city of Milwaukee.
“If we don’t do this deal, we will lose $419 million, so it’s cheaper to keep them,” Walker explained.
Walker said the cost will be split 50-50 between the public and private sector, with the public sector contributing $250 million. Seventy-eight percent of the public’s investment will come from Milwaukee County and the city of Milwaukee, while the state will finance 22 percent of the taxpayer cost.
Current Bucks owners Marc Lasry and Wesley Edens, who bought the team in April 2014, have pledged $150 million toward the project, which includes redevelopment in the area to surround the arena with parking facilities, restaurants and office space.
Former Bucks owner and former U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl committed to paying an additional $100 million toward the arena, which closes out the $250 million the private sector will put forward.
The new plan caps the state investment at $80 million over 20 years, with projected growth from the investment to top $45 million a year by 2048.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele praised the deal as important to bringing in revenue for the downtown area.
“I have always wanted the Bucks to stay in Milwaukee,” Barrett said.
“This is the opportunity of a generation,” Abele explained. “Even if you don’t care about the Bucks or the NBA, not doing this deal will affect you tremendously.”
The NBA has warned it would buyout and relocate the team in 2017 if there was no new arena to replace the aging BMO Harris Bradley Center in downtown Milwaukee, which has housed the Bucks since 1988.
If the NBA does end up buying the team, “the money from the sale will first go back to the public funding that went into the deal,” Walker said, ensuring the investment will not go to waste.
The Bucks deal is different than the 2001 development of Miller Park and expansion of Lambeau Field because “there are no new taxes,” Walker noted. “Only revenues go up.”
Speculation of the deal has generated controversy in the state Legislature, and state Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said he does not know if he has the votes to get it approved in the upcoming budget.
“I don’t have a handle on the support. It’ll take awhile,” Fitzgerald said. “Now that we have the facts straightened out, it will be much easier to see how we get this deal through.”
State legislators will decide whether or not to approve the new deal later this month when they finalize the state budget.
