New Arena location revealed

[Warrior of Law]

From onmilwaukee.com (Journal building immediately east of the UWMPanther arena)

http://onmilwaukee.com/sports/articles/bucksjournalcommunications.html

Seems to make a lot of sense, and certainly not harmful to MU considering they've been playing in the same neighborhood for several generations.

[Johnny B]

build it

[martyconlonontherun]

Still too early to tell. Negotiations aren't done and the site seems pretty small. I think there is push to get rid of Gimbel and year down uwm arena. If either of those don't happen, they could look at the site on wisconsin as plan b.

[MU82]

I think I'll make a $300 million donation toward the project.

MU82 Arena. I like how that sounds!

[Oldgym]

All in favor, but that's not much space.

[MUWarrior4Life]

Not in favor of that location, especially if Goolsby's is laid to rest. Lots of alums meet there prior to Warrior games. The Major's been around for a long time. Good food, good staff, good times. Just my opinion.

[StillAWarrior]

And in another 25 years when the new arena is "obsolete" and the Bucks new owners explain how they can't possibly keep the team in Milwaukee without a new arena, they can complete the set with another new arena on the NE corner of that intersection.


I'm a big sports fan, but it always bugged me a little bit to see the Bradley Center and the MECCA right across the street from each other.  Seemed wasteful some how.  Seeing another one right there will make it worse.  I'm not saying it's not needed, it's just the "optics" of it.

[bradley center bat]

All in favor, but that's not much space.

One of the plans is to have the lower bowl seats underground. Something that they are doing for the Kings new arena.

[jficke13]

Does the plan involve the demolition of the BC? Two arenas seems more than sufficient for Milwaukee.

[Oldgym]

Does the plan involve the demolition of the BC? Two arenas seems more than sufficient for Milwaukee.

Was wondering that myself.

"Visit Milwaukee!  See our fleet of basketball arenas!"

[jsglow]

The drawings I have seen would include the site currently occupied by the Arena too with the elimination of 4th street.  An alternative would be shifting the project one block west to include both the Arena and the Milwaukee Theater.  These were posted in JS over the weekend when 5 sites were highlighted.

[Anti-Dentite]

Not in favor of that location, especially if Goolsby's is laid to rest. Lots of alums meet there prior to Warrior games. The Major's been around for a long time. Good food, good staff, good times. Just my opinion.

Goolsby's just took over operation of the restaurant at Turner Hall, I guess that now makes sense if this is the new arena location.

[Litehouse]

I wonder if they could keep the BC, tear down the MECCA, and build some type of entertainment complex interconnecting the new Arena, BC, Theatre, and convention center on the site of the MECCA.  Put skywalks between all of them.  It would be nice to keep the BC for hockey and other events like monster truck shows and the circus so the new arena can focus on basketball.

[MUWarrior4Life]

Goolsby's just took over operation of the restaurant at Turner Hall, I guess that now makes sense if this is the new arena location.

That is true. Personally never been in Turner Hall.

[MUfan12]

UWM fans promising a fight if the arena site is part of it. Always good for a laugh.

[LAMUfan]

if they took their arena and kept the BC couldn't they just play there?

[Coleman]

if they took their arena and kept the BC couldn't they just play there?

UWM playing in the BC would be an embarassment. They would never even fill the lower bowl. At least in their current arena, they can sort of fill it on their big games.

Plus, I'm sure they want to keep the arena where they have naming rights.

[Litehouse]

We could always let UWM rent the Al for their games.

I don't see any point of tearing down the 25 yr old BC while keeping the smaller 65 yr old MECCA.  At least with the BC its still a great place for the Admirals and is bigger to accommodate a wider variety of events.  If an entertainment hub could be built on the site of the MECCA connecting it to the BC, Theatre, convention center and new arena, I think it would be a huge success.  They could do an indoor version of the Power & Light area in KC, with restaurants/bars/retail around the outside with an open common area in the middle, and people could use it when attending events at all four facilities.

[Warrior of Law]

If, in fact, the JS building is the choice, and the space is not large enough (my guess is that they did their homework), then the best best is to expand north of State Street.

[Litehouse]

One of the plans is to have the lower bowl seats underground. Something that they are doing for the Kings new arena.

Putting the floor lower doesn't change how much space they need side-to-side.

[longer]

Haven't been on in awhile, so maybe this question has been answered. So, is there a guarantee that MU would get to play in the new stadium? Has anyone wrote about that or made comments about that possibility? A quick glance makes it seem that its some foregone conclusion that MU would be along for the ride.

[Coleman]

Putting the floor lower doesn't change how much space they need side-to-side.

It actually would, if they started deep enough underground.

[jsglow]

Guys,  There's nothing in the plan that I'm aware of that artificially limits the new facility to the JS building footprint.  As I indicated, last Sunday the paper outlined the 5 locations that were being considered.  Two of those overlapped the existing Arena, one stretching west across the Theater, the other stretching east across the JS building site.  Two others were further north of the existing BC and one was the Grand Ave. site.  All were 'double' blocks.

[Litehouse]

It actually would, if they started deep enough underground.

Just curious, but how so?  Because they wouldn't need as much support structure around the outside?  I'd think they still want a lot of room on the sides for concourses and other "amenities".

[Groin_pull]

UWM fans promising a fight if the arena site is part of it. Always good for a laugh.

Yeah, all three of them.