My staff thinks it's funny when I come back to the office grumbling about those stupid new "Luke" digital parking meters in downtown Milwaukee.
Aside from the facts that the digital meters can't be read when the sun is shining, they often reject perfectly good coins, they require twice as much time as the regular meters, they waste paper and they do not account for the extra time the guy ahead of you already paid for, they're perfectly fine.
But I digress. Again.
The City of Milwaukee is seeking your input on more important measures as it prepares to update its Downtown Master Plan, which was first devised in 1999. You can tell the city all about your downtown priorities and your dreams by taking the 2008 Downtown Plan Community Survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=gGvCdWeR_2fS0V2J3ryekk2Q_3d_3d.
The 57-question survey asks you about your usage of downtown amenities, your transportation preferences, your shopping habits and the like. It asks if you think there's enough parking downtown. It asks you to rank your priorities for future improvements. It asks whether or not you approve of using public subsidies for various things.
But there's one very important thing that is missing from the city's survey. The words "Bradley Center" do not appear anywhere in the survey.
Furthermore, and maybe even more disturbing, the Bradley Center also has no mention in the Milwaukee Department of City Development's Downtown Plan Update Report (http://www.mkedcd.org/planning/plans/downtown/Update08/DT_Update%20Report_FINAL.pdf) that was presented to the Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee of the Milwaukee Common Council in January.
Go ahead and search that document for the word "Bradley." You won't find it. Zilch. Bupkus. No mention whatsoever.
The Bradley Center is a glaring omission on the city's radar.
Milwaukee, we've got a problem. As I'm sure you've heard by now, only three NBA facilities are older than the Bradley Center. Within the next 10 years - at the most - the Bradley Center will need to be replaced with a new arena, or the Milwaukee Bucks will leave town.
The time to talk about this issue is now.
Of course, at a time when our federal, our state, our county and our city governments are broke, who wants to discuss the notion of asking taxpayers to fork over $400 million or so to build a new arena for the Bucks?
So, psychologically, we allow ourselves to put a Band Aid on the problem with the news that Bradley Center Board will try to find some company somewhere that is willing to pay $40 million or so to put its name on an arena that is outdated and will soon be inadequate. Good luck, fellas.
Seattle has been facing a similar situation. Oklahoma City businessman Clay Bennett bought the Seattle Supersonics and threatened to move the team to Oklahoma if Seattle didn't build him a new arena.
Earlier this month, at the 11th hour, a group of investors, including real estate developer Matt Griffin, Microsoft Corp. chief executive Steve Ballmer, Costco Wholesale Corp. president and CEO Jim Sinegal and wireless entrepreneur John Stanton, came forward with an offer to pay for $150 million of the $300 million needed to upgrade the KeyArena in Seattle and another $75 million to buy the team.
Look around. It's doubtful you'll find that kind of firepower around here. And even if we do, would building a new basketball arena be the best use of that money for Milwaukee?
After all, our school system is a mess, we have terrible unemployment, poverty and crime in the inner city and we have no regional transportation system.
There's one other problem in the Milwaukee equation. The Bradley Center Board exists in its own silo, with its own budget, its own mission and its own administration. The Wisconsin Center District Board, which oversees the Midwest Airlines Center, the U.S. Cellular Arena and the Milwaukee Theatre, exists in its own silo, with its own budget, its own mission and its own administration.
And ne'er the two shall meet. You even mention the word "merger" to people on the Bradley Board and the Wisconsin Center District Board, and you will get scolded by the parties. Trust me, I have done it.
I recently had lunch with one business executive who does business with both the Bradley Center and the Wisconsin Center District. He expressed frustrations about the lack of cooperation and the redundancies between the two legal entities.
"If this was Chicago, (Mayor Richard) Daley would lock them in a room and wouldn't let them out until they had a mutually beneficial working agreement that made more efficient use of the downtown entertainment resources. He wouldn't even let them out to (go to the bathroom) until they figured it out," said the executive.
The clock is ticking on the Bradley Center. If Milwaukee is to somehow replace it, the new building needs to not only be the home of the Bucks and a premier concert venue, but it also need to directly serve the convention center.
The Downtown Master Plan that ignores the future of the downtown entertainment district is woefully incomplete.
Steve Jagler is executive editor of Small Business Times.
6 Comments
So the public should foot the bill for another $400-600M stadium (think Miller Park) so another owner (Herb Kohl, the previous being Selig) can sell the team and rape the public? No thanks.
Dan:
I don't see where asking two groups to work together in the face of an obvious impending problem leads to rape. So think of it this way: if we want to see the Bucks make that ever-elusive title run, all we need is enough money for 1,765 more Fonzie statues. Howzzat?
i say the Bucks can pay for it themselves or leave, and we invest that $300M to start to reverse the crisis in the Milwaukee Public Schools. we need an educated work force and arts and culture to attract more corporations and jobs.
We have a valuable lesson availble to us in Miller Park. The taxpayers got saddle with the cost and what happened? Once the newness wore off, seats went unsold. However, once the brewers started putting a good product out (after some herculean changes) the seats filled at record numbers. I certainly admit the roof helps, but without the product...
Lesson 1, a new building generates sales for a year, maybe two.
Lesson 2, a good product (winning teams) generates sales consistently year after year.
Another important note, replacing County Stadium with a the new venue provided more amenities (read roof and restaurants etc.). Replacing the Bradley Center probably does not bring any significant advantages over the current building; none that come immediately to mind. I could see an upgrade, some fresh paint and more parking for the current building. But filling it? Sen. Kohl's money is better spent on improving the product. If we see a time when the BC is raising ticket prices because demand is greater than the seating, then lets start talking about a new venue.
In the mean time, where are we on the schools and crime. I would rather the city/county politicos focus on these priorities first.
Seems to me the Bradley Center Board is at fault for the current situation.
They were GIVEN a building and asked to take care of it. After all these years they have not taken care of the upkeep nor have they put ANY money away for renovations or a new building.
If they weren't making enough money on events to be able to put away some money it was their responsibility to charge the events and Bucks and Admirals more money.
The old Brewer owner's hoodwinked the public into a new stadium and then they took the increased revenue and payed down Brewer debt instead of stadium debt.
After the Brewer lesson and seeing the incompetence of the Bradley Center Board, I say zilch, bubkus to you.
We have a city who is on a schedule to replace its roads every 160 years, as Mike Brenner aluded, an MPS that is abysmal and rampant crime and murder, but your concern is a basketball stadium?
Get your priorities straight.
Milwaukee, we keep getting so close to deing a unified community with direction. Even the largest community cannot absorb this type of pettiness. Part of the future solution of this could be a much more aggressive approach to shaping the downtown area. As was urged when the Midwest Airlines Center was being designed, there should have been a retail and lively street side component knitting the otherwise barren and sparsely occupied plazas along Wis. Ave, 4th St. and Wells St. when there are no events. There needs to be a plan to bring activity from the Ghazi development all the way up to the hopefully new commercial and residential park freeway area. We need to embrace the architectural and planning potential of expanding the existing Bradley Center. When a Wembly Field - like - soccer stadium with street side businesses was proposed for part of the barren Park Freeway lands, to the north, the City fell deaf ear on it. As part of a huge sports and entertainment district, all these could be designed to complement each other and bring visitors and more money making events.
I am shocked that planning discussions are now degenerating into just requests for more parking. U.S. cities our size, and almost all others, are now pursuing balanced transportation systems. The provision of safe clean light rail and street car lines is essential in making a competitive and expanding urban core. The completed convention center and Bradly Center would greatly benefit from a downtown circulating street car system that would broaden the availability of existing parking and create business throughout the central area. It does work.
I'd also, in addition to the Mayor, also look to some of the downtown property owners to atleast act on some of the potential this city has set before then. To have the State's largest bank sit on the largest most strategically located contiguous piece of land in downtown Milwaukee, and think it offers no better use than a parking lot along North Water Street, is inexcusable. Just as AWOL, is the Journal conglomerate which owns literally vacant buildings and parkings lots opposite the Midwest Center and Bradley Center for years. Where is the leadership? Where is aggressive and visible planning?
Having been a city planner and architect here for 39 years, though much is gone, an awful lot has been accomplished. I don't think enough people yet believe what our potential can be. You can't continue to fight old battles, and you must make good decisions and move on. I see more bright people and more business creation going on than I ever have. Let's not muff it.
Dan Thompson