Post#76 » by Toodles1980 » Fri May 4, 2012 8:58 pm
So I rarely post on any message board, ever, but this issue pulled me out. First, the Bradley Center would absolutely need to go. A city the size of Milwaukee cannot support two arenas of that size, and in the end they would cannibalize each other when it comes to other events that would come to town (concerts, monster truck rallies, what have you). U.S. Cellular is in a different class of arenas, and doesn't really compete with Bradley Center or New Arena for most of these things. It is also a nice spillover arena for the city to have if New Arena is in use for something else, and for second tier tenants like the Wave. That being said, if UWM gets their new arena the dynamic would shift again and the future of the Cell would have to be reconsidered.
I think the biggest hurdle here will be convincing people that "public money" is not synonymous with "tax increase." It may mean tax increase, but it doesn't have to. I think with some creative thinking this can be done with no tax money coming from private citizens. The easiest way to do this is to make sure the New Arena is part of the Wisconsin Center District, you then use a ticket surcharge on any event in one of the District buildings to help pay for New Arena which at $4/ticket with only Bucks and Marquette games figured in that is between $4-$5million/year, add in Admirals, concerts and other events and you're probably looking at $6-7million at New Arena alone. Add a $2 fee on shows and events at the Theater and U.S. Cellular arena you're probably at $7-8 million a year. You then take the state income tax that will come from players salaries (tax money that the state would lose if the Bucks weren't here anyway) as well as the income tax from top personnel of the team and you have a good chunk of needed "public money" without ever raising taxes on individuals. A few more creative solutions could be had, but those are two I heard of before and thought of when thinking this through. I think $150 million in public money can get this done which is about half of what Miller Park cost, so I think it's doable, but still a long shot.