I know it’s been a busy few months, but when was
the decision made that there absolutely has to be a new Bradley Center, and
that the public will bear the brunt of the cost?
An article in the Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel Business Section on Sunday assumed that a new center
was a done deal. The only question seemed where it will be built, with the Park
East area the preferred location.
A couple of other whoppers were buried in the
story. First, that the public likely will be stuck with most of the bill, which
is expected to range between $350 and $500 million. Second, that the arena
probably won’t even pay property taxes on the new building.
You don’t have to be a financial wizard to know
that when multimillion-dollar buildings don’t pay property taxes, the bill goes
up for Joe Average homeowner.
Boosters for a new arena say it will be provide for
more club seats and suites, and for higher-priced tickets closer to the court.
“All of those changes would make the center more lucrative for the Bucks,” the
article noted.
In other words, more profitable.
WHY THE RUSH? Although the Bucks are the main tenant other teams
use the aging center, such as the Milwaukee Admirals and Marquette University.
(If you want to be like the rest of the Milwaukee media, you have to use the
adjective “aging” before any reference to the arena.)
One final thing. You can’t call it the Bradley
Center anymore. It’s now the BMO Harris Bradley Center. Yes, that’s the same
BMO Harris which recently announced that it will close 17
bank branches in Wisconsin come October, eliminating jobs for an undisclosed
number of people.
Why the rush for a new Bradley Center? The existing
one is only 24 years old. As columnist Jim Stingl infamously noted a few years
back when talk of a new center first surfaced, “I have underwear older than the
Bradley Center.”
Apparently, you can never underestimate the longing
of boys for their toys. Building a new center is a top priority of the Metropolitan
Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC), probably only outdone by the
association's love affair with publicly funded but privately run voucher
schools.
One wishes the MMAC had a jobs strategy that went
beyond building sports stadiums catering to businesses that use their fancy
luxury boxes to watch the games far from the huddled masses — and then writing
off the cost of the boxes as a business expense
Herb Kohl, the Bucks owner, has gained kudos for
saying he will provide a “significant” contribution to help build a new center.
But he’s been mum about exactly how much.
And shouldn’t Kohl and the Bucks, as the arena’s
main beneficiaries, bear the main cost? Isn’t that one of the supposed rules of
capitalism? That entrepreneurs get to make all those profits because they are
willing to take the financial risk?
But if the public pays for most of the Bradley
Center, and the center doesn’t even have to pay property taxes, where’s the
risk?
This Bradley Center proposal has “scam” written all
over it.
During an ongoing economic downturn, with
unemployment, poverty and foreclosures in the City of Milwaukee at
heart-breaking levels, why is the focus on building a new Bradley Center
subsidized by taxpayers but catering to the rich?
— — —
This blog is cross-posted at the Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel Purple Wisconsin project.
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