What's wrong with the Bradley Center?

The Pistons own The Palace free and clear, lock stock and barrel. It's been constantly renovated and updated and still ranks among the top 5 of NBA arenas. Why the flaming hell would the Pistons want to go pay rent to Mike Ilitch in an arena 20 miles from their fan base?


Bottom line, the Bucks' billionaire owners want to suck a few hundred million bucks off the taxpayers and get them to pay for the new arena. That's the whole deal.

 

Arenas and stadiums become obsolete as soon as an owner realizes he can scam someone into building a new one for him.

 

This is correct. Also, the building was built on too small of a footprint. Milwaukee hasn't put a dime into building a municipal arena since 1949, and when the Bucks badly needed to get out of the old Milwaukee Arena, the city got lucky when the Petitts put the money up for the Bradley Center in 1985. But to show you how fucked up Milwaukee is, they even blew that by cheaping out on the land. Instead of the chance to build a great arena with potential all around it, the picked a plot of land with a technical college to the west, a freeway to the north and the old arena and auditorium to the south. There was no potential for any real economic growth on three sides. The only area that has seen any growth at all is the one street to the east of the Bradley Center before you run into the Milwaukee River. That street has seen growth in bars, restaurants, condos and a hotel. Even still, bars come and go there.

The new arena has potential to both the south and the north. In fact, it's now going to be built where the old freeway was north of the Bradley Center. That was knocked down in the 1990s and basically sat as vacant land. To the south, once the Bradley Center is knocked down there's going to be a boom in retail and probably hotel building there. Also, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel building needs to go. It sits kitty-corner to the southeast of the Bradley Center. It's mostly vacant since they moved the press and circulation operations out to West Milwaukee around 2003. It takes up an entire square block and only uses small parts of two floors for the ever-shrinking newsroom and advertising departments. That will free up a ton of space for more development near the new arena.

As Smallpotatoes noted, The Palace of Auburn Hills opened in the same season as the Bradley Center, but it was built on a much larger footprint and includes levels of high-revenue boxes that the Bradley Center just doesn't have. It also is a basketball arena first and has been kept up-to-date much better. That's probably because it's a privately owned facility, while the Bradley Center is run by a government board.

 

You can bathe in ignorance all you want, but the new arena in Milwaukee will be a publicly owned facility, toward which the Bucks owners donated $250 million. The city will own and run the arena to its benefit. Yes, the Bucks will probably get some favorable lease conditions. I would hope so when you donate $250 million toward a badly needed community asset.

 

"Donation" takes on a whole new meaning with some. The Bucks get the majority of the benefits, even from non-Bucks events. Spin it all you want, but it's a handout to the Bucks' owners.

 

"Badly needed" by whom? Pro basketball franchise owners, that's who.

The arena will be run ENTIRELY for the benefit of the Milwaukee Bucks. They will effectively own it. They will get all revenues from all events held on the arena. After you dig all the way through all the diversions and distortion and obfuscation of the lease and tax credits and rebates etc etc the net result will almost certainly be the Bucks paying net rent of zero, in fact the bottom line will be the city paying the Bucks money for every game they play in the arena.

 

Or you can be like Stan Kroenke and be willing to pay for a new stadium in Los Angeles to move your team to, but be cockblocked by inept Missouri politicians who don't want the NFL to leave St. Louis on their watch, so they try to cram through public funds for it without so much as a public vote.

If the NFL keeps Kroenke from moving, the blame for this instance of corporate welfare belongs nowhere near him.

 

Publicly owned will all the benefits going to the Bucks organization.

What Philanthropists.

 

It's a curious thing. The surrounding area is the Tea Party capital of America, yet those no-government-spenders have decided to make an exception for their sports team. This even though pro sports as a bad investment is pretty much universally accepted outside the fanboi and Chamber of Commerce circuit.

At least they're consistent in Atlanta with opposition to these giveaways to billionaires.

 

Tom Gores has put $40 million into The Palace since buying the team and that arena is as nice as any you'll find despite its age. Pistons aren't going anywhere.

 

Sure they aren't.

Pistons playing in city is Tom Gores' dream

 

Sorry, I can't take credit for that.