The Milwaukee Bucks signed a 30-year lease Wednesday on the new basketball arena being built in in the city’s downtown. The Wisconsin Center District, managed by a public board, will own the new building while the Bucks operate it.
The arena plan has faced some criticism over the amount of taxpayer money going to pay for it, but at a press conference Wednesday evening, one of the team’s co-owners, Wes Edens, rejected suggestions that the deal is too favorable to the Bucks.
In exchange for the $250 million in public funds that will go toward building the arena, Edens said local and state governments will gain more than $1 billion in income tax revenue from Bucks employees.
Stay informed on the latest news
Sign up for WPR’s email newsletter.
Milwaukee Bucks owners Marc Lasry, left, Wes Edens and Jamie Dinan speak to the news media Wednesday evening. Chuck Quirmbach/WPR
“If a company showed up here in Wisconsin tomorrow, and said, ‘I’d like to get $250 million in tax relief, and I’ll pay you $1.3 billion in taxes over the next 20 or 30 years,’ you’d throw a ticker-tape parade for them,” he said.
The lease deal itself has the Bucks paying $45 million in rent over the 30-year term along with an eventual $60 million more into a capital improvements fund for the arena.
State Department of Administration head Scott Neitzel chairs the Wisconsin Center District board. He said the long-term lease protects taxpayers by forcing the Bucks to pay a financial penalty if the team leaves Milwaukee.
That penalty, he said, “will start at $553 million and decay over time, but never go less than $200 million.”
Neitzel said the agreement also keeps in place the $250-million limit on public money to build the arena. Already, the Bucks say the building’s estimated price tag has gone up by $24 million, now totalling $524 million.
“Different variables: everything from the environmental to the building to how we want to design the building to what are the logistics and the timing and the labor behind it,” said Bucks President
Peter Feigin about increase. “We’re kind of working all those out.”
But the team says it hopes to reduce some of those costs. The Bucks owners and former Wisconsin U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl are matching the $250 million in taxpayer money and the team will cover any cost overruns.
Groundbreaking has been set for June 18, and the team says the building will be finished in two years.
Wisconsin Public Radio, © Copyright 2024, Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and Wisconsin Educational Communications Board.
