OSHKOSH (WTAQ-WLUK) – Groundbreaking at the future site of a Milwaukee Bucks development, or “D-League” team.
The clock is now ticking to complete the venue in time for the 2017-2018 season.
Oshkosh City and Bucks team leaders put their shovels in the dirt Wednesday. The move symbolized the start of the D-League arena.
“The journey we’re gonna start today is just phenomenal,” said the president of the new team, Steve Brandes.
Although the groundbreaking ceremony was Wednesday, work started weeks ago.
Greg Pierce, President Fox Valley Pro Basketball, spoke to WLUK.
“We’ve been putting pilings into the ground to support the foundation. So those things are happening”
Bayland Buildings out of Green Bay is the lead contractor. Dean Hunt is Bayland’s marketing director.
“We’re putting everything we have on this. We’ve got all our best people. We’ve moved people around from different projects on to this project to make sure we hit the timelines”
There’s about seven months to get the 3,500 seat facility built.
Developers said it’s still very early in the building process, but they say at this point everything is on schedule and Pierce says they said they really have no choice but to get the arena done in time for the 2017-2018 season.
“We’ve got a basketball season that begins in November. We’ve got a team that has to have a place to play” Brandes also has work to do, building a team of his own.
“A front office team, the first step, you know, human resources”
And, he says his team will be working to get the community invested too.
“We wanna make sure that we not only reach out for the tickets, but we wanna make sure we are part of the community and we’re ingrained in the fabric of the community”
The long term plan is to make the arena the cornerstone plans for more development in this area, which will be called the ‘Sawdust District.’
No name yet for the new team, but officials say that will be addressed very soon.
