After the Wisconsin Assembly this week passed a $250M public-financing bill for a new Bucks arena, the team has "important steps" remaining, including "working out a land sale with Milwaukee County and getting approval from the Milwaukee Common Council," according to Charles Gardner of the MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL. Bucks co-Owner Wes Edens yesterday said that discussions with the county "could happen next week while the city action could take place the first week of September." A third item "is getting lease arrangements settled." Edens: "Keeping the Bucks in Milwaukee makes me tremendously proud, and I'm happy to be a part of it. ... Who gets an arena financed and planned in eight months? I'm not sure if it's a record, but I would not be surprised if it is." Edens said that the interior design details of the arena "now will be discussed in earnest." He added, "It's a very time-consuming and exhausting practice. But when you're building now a 600,000-square foot space, you want the design to really work." Edens said that the seating capacity "has not been established but should be in the 17,000 range, making it smaller" than BMO Harris Bradley Center (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 7/30).
PUBLIC ACCESS: USA TODAY's Jeff Zillgitt writes the Bucks relocating to another city "was a realistic alternative (and still might be if those other issues aren't resolved), and ultimately Wisconsin lawmakers believed it was better to keep the Bucks even if that meant a significant cost to the state." It "is not the optimal solution but it is common, and 100% privately financed arenas are rare." But a confluence of events "benefited the Bucks," whose new ownership group, led by Edens, Marc Lasry and Jamie Dinan, "injected energy into a franchise that had been steeped in fan apathy." Bucks owners "also played the bipartisan political game expertly." Former team Owner Herb Kohl "is a former Democratic senator, and Edens and Lasry have deep Democratic ties." Minority Owner Jon Hammes "is a well-known Republican and earlier this month," Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker named Hammes his national finance co-chair for his presidential campaign. Zillgitt: "Undoubtedly that helped secure some of the Republican vote for a new arena" (USA TODAY, 7/30).
