Bucks President Peter Feigin yesterday said that a new arena deal "needed to be finalized in 10 days," but later released a statement that "attempted to backtrack" his comments, according to a front-page piece by Walker & Stein of the MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL. Feigin, addressing a conference of commercial realtors and shopping-center execs a day before key figures meet in Madison to try to reach agreement on an arena-financing plan, said, "The clock is ticking. This has to be wrapped up in the next 10 days." But in the later statement, he said, "There is no immediate deadline for a financing plan and we're not creating one. We're simply hopeful that progress continues with our partners and throughout the legislative and political process." Bucks Senior VP/Communications Jake Suski said that Feigin "misspoke" and that Feigin "didn't want to leave the impression that the Bucks were imposing their own deadline." Suski: "That wasn't his intent." Still, in his first comments, Feigin seemingly "had been quite clear, saying if an arena financing deal doesn't get completed, 'the Bucks will be gone from the state of Wisconsin.'" He "expressed cautious optimism a deal would get done, though he noted that the politics so far have been challenging." Today's gathering is "the second meeting of the various partners trying to come up with a financing plan." Since the last meeting, subgroups of legislative aides, Bucks officials, and city and county reps "have met in person and talked on the phone about various financing alternatives." Feigin said today's meeting is a chance to "sit down and solve the publicly financed money" portion of the proposal (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 4/22).
HELLO, GOVERNOR: After yesterday's lunchtime comments, Feigin said that Bucks owners "continue to support" Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s original state-funding proposal that called for issuing $220M in bonds toward arena construction. However, several legislative leaders have said that Walker’s plan "lacks the votes necessary for its passage." In Milwaukee, Rich Kirchen noted the arena-funding debate thus "is at a crucial stage and Feigin urged the real estate industry to advocate for public funding with their elected representatives" (BIZJOURNALS.com, 4/21).
