MILWAUKEE (WTAQ) – One of Milwaukee’s top business leaders says the opportunities from a new Bucks’ arena are “too big to lose” — and there’s not much more time to take advantage.
Tim Sheehy, who heads the Metro Milwaukee Association of Commerce, said the governor and Legislature only have until mid-summer to meet a deadline of this fall for groundbreaking. That would give contractors about two years to build the arena before the NBA’s deadline to get it open by mid-2017 — or else the league could buy back the team and move it.
On the TV show “Up Front with Mike Gousha, Sheehy said he does not believe the arena funding package is in “trouble.” In his words, “If you picture Milwaukee in 2030 with a blank Park east and a boarded up Bradley Center, I want to know which legislator wants to put their name on that future.”
Sheehy said the revenue from a new arena could exceed $300 million over the next two decades. As he put it, “If we miss this opportunity, there is no do over.”
Sheehy said it’s imperative that something pass, whether it’s in the new state budget — or as a separate bill, which could attract some Democratic votes while the budget would not.
(Story courtesy of Wheeler News Service)
