Bucks Owner Kohl Dips Into NBA’s $1B Credit Facility

Bucks Owner & U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI) two years ago borrowed a minimum of $55M from the NBA’s $1B credit facility “but placed at least $50[M] of that in two of his own financial trusts,” according to public financial disclosure forms cited by Don Walker of the MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL. Bucks officials said the transaction was a “one-time opportunity” given to NBA team owners and placing the funds in the trusts “was allowed under rules set by the credit facility.” Walker notes the credit facility, arranged by JPMorgan, “enables teams to borrow at highly favorable rates.” Normally, such a transaction “would remain private among bankers and the borrower,” but Kohl was required by Senate rules to report the loans. Bucks VP Ron Walter and CFO Mike Burr said that because Kohl “had to pay interest on the loans, it made sense to put the money in an investment program.” The two declined to say how much Kohl still owes on the loans (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 7/27).

GREEN THUMB: In Green Bay, Mike Vandermause reports the Bucks for the second-straight year will play a preseason game at the Resch Center near Green Bay. The team will play the Pistons on October 19 at the 9,877-seat venue, where they drew just 4,214 for a preseason game last year against the Grizzlies. Following “complaints that ticket prices last year were too high for an NBA preseason game,” PMI President Ken Wachter, whose company manages the building, said that he “suggested to the Bucks that they lower the cost of tickets” (GREEN BAY PRESS-GAZETTE, 7/27).