A committee of the Milwaukee Common Council has endorsed a $47 million city proposal to help finance a new Milwaukee Bucks downtown arena.
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Aldermen Jim Bohl, Willie Wade, Robert Bauman and Jose Perez voted in favor of the arena project funding.
The committee proposed taking all of the naming rights revenue for the city, which is something that posed a serious problem for Bucks officials.
Alderman Bob Bauman successfully introduced an amendment that would allow the pedestrian plaza in front of the arena to be open to traffic on non-event days.
“The Common Council makes policy in the city of Milwaukee”, Bohl said.
In the audience, members of the public brought in signs expressing concern that bars and restaurants in the arena district will be too generic. “I’d say we’re going to discuss and collaborate”. “It could be nearly completely chain restaurants, chain whatever – boring as hell”, said Pat Small.
This summer the state approved its own funding package that covers nearly half the cost of the half-billion dollar arena, which the N-B-A wants for a mid-2017 opening. The committee also passed a motion that called for 40 percent of the initial construction labor to be city residents – with an emphasis on unemployed or under-employed residents.
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Wednesday, there was a scramble at City Hall to work out some major differences after a Common Council Committee recommended changes to the plan a day earlier.
