Bucks team president Peter Feigin and Milwaukee leaders all said today that sides are close to a deal for the public’s share of funding for a new Bucks arena in the city, Scott Bauer of The Associated Press reports. Wisconsin governor Scott Walker expressed the same sentiments at the beginning of the month, though negotiations continue. Feigin and city leaders expressed optimism today that talks can result in a deal by the end of the week, and a key state legislator said the goal is to announce a deal Wednesday, Bauer tweets, though Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett added that there’s still work to be done, as Bauer writes in his story.
The Bucks face an NBA-imposed deadline to have an arena ready by opening night in 2017, and funding has to be secured by June in order for the project to remain on track, as Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com wrote recently. The league, should it determine at any point that the arena effort is not moving swiftly enough, intends to exercise its right to seize the team from owners Wesley Edens, Marc Lasry and Jamie Dinan and seek to move it elsewhere, according to Windhorst. Commissioner Adam Silver has nonetheless publicly maintained confidence that public funding will come.
Feigin backed off an assertion in late April that a deal for public funding had to be done within 10 days from that point. State, county and city leaders have been squabbling over how to finance their $250MM share of the proposed $500MM arena. The Bucks owners, as well as former owner principal owner Herb Kohl, have committed the other $250MM.