New sports franchise in Milwaukee?

[paul253]

I don’t have a link because I don’t have access to the article but Mark Lasry stated this morning in a meeting that he’s interested in investing in another sports franchise to be located in Milwaukee. He said it was way too early to discuss and wouldn’t mention what sport he was referring to but let the speculation begin. Here’s to hoping no it’s an NHL franchise but I wouldn’t hold my breath

[MrTPlush]

MLS

 

On a serious note, good luck. NHL is flat out not happening and I can't see what else would find success here. Something low profile maybe, but a major sport? Not too sure.

[paul253]

Yeah my thought is something minor but what? We have minor league hockey. We have indoor soccer. The basketball market is flooded. Some low level soccer team? Quite possibly.

 

As far as NHL it’s not out of the realm of possibility. They specifically built their new arena so it can hold a NHL size rink. Would they really do that simply for Disney on Ice every year and maybe the Frozen Four once a decade? Like I said I’m not holding my breath and I’d put the likelihood somewhere between not happening and yeah right but I can dream.

 

Another thing to consider by the way if it’s something really minor why even bring it up?

[MrTPlush]

Another thing to consider by the way if it’s something really minor why even bring it up?

 

Well I wouldn't be surprised if he is talking about his pipe dream out loud. And it probably wasn't a big cost changer to make it fit an NHL rink. Might as well do it for some events it will be able to hold and then the "never know" NHL team possibility.

 

I believe the specific reason was for the Frozen Four.

[tmwiese55]

FWIW Badger hockey attendance is majorly still struggling this year. I think they used sell outdraw some NHL teams but fans still haven't come back after those couple really bad years. And it's super cheap to go to UW games. It's like $200 total dollars for Friday night seats for the whole season. Obviously MKE is a much larger city but just thought I'd mention it.

 

I think the NHL is very skeptical on whether MKE can support another major franchise or it would've happened already. Plus, there may be some politics going on with the Blackhawks having rights to the market or something like that, you hear that in other sports.

[trwi7]

Some random women's team that nobody is going to care about.

 

[paul253]

Blah.

[BrewersSuperCollector]

The Milwaukee Does will make a comeback. I wonder who owns the name.

[young guns]

Some random women's team that nobody is going to care about.

 

And I was just gonna make a joke about it being a wnba franchise. Thunder gone.

[Jimbo]

Some random women's team that nobody is going to care about.

 

 

That's because we're talking about...Milwaukee.

[homer]

FWIW Badger hockey attendance is majorly still struggling this year. I think they used sell outdraw some NHL teams but fans still haven't come back after those couple really bad years. And it's super cheap to go to UW games. It's like $200 total dollars for Friday night seats for the whole season. Obviously MKE is a much larger city but just thought I'd mention it.

 

I think the NHL is very skeptical on whether MKE can support another major franchise or it would've happened already. Plus, there may be some politics going on with the Blackhawks having rights to the market or something like that, you hear that in other sports.

 

They had a franchise all lined up but Lloyd Petit passed on it because the expansion fee was more than most NHL teams were worth at the time.

[trwi7]

To hopefully put it to bed once and for all here is a Phil Wittliff interview about Milwaukee's expansion bid.

 

 

The expansion talk is about 15 minutes in but the whole interview is interesting. If you don't want to watch it here are the highlights.

 

The Bradley Center opened the same year the Admirals became the affiliate of the Canucks. It was built to keep the Bucks in Milwaukee.

 

Milwaukee had a very good chance of getting an NHL team. Wittliff went on a trip with the Canucks to Buffalo and Quebec. The two reasons he went were to meet with the Canucks as the Admirals were the farm club but also meet with the owners of the Sabres and Nordiques because they were both on the expansion committee (he watched the game in Quebec from the owner's office.) Wittliff and the Pettits thought the expansion fee was going to be $30 million and the Quebec owner told him it was going to be $50 million. After he told the Pettits and Joe Tierney the expansion fee was going to be $50 million they looked at the expansion draft procedures and realized they were going to have a bad team.

 

They never got as far as a negotiation with Chicago. They assumed Chicago would ask for some compensation but it never got far enough where Chicago said they wanted it because the Pettits withdrew their application. After Milwaukee withdrew their application there were only two cities left, Ottawa and Tampa. Sidenote: Tampa made the playoffs in their 4th season but missed in 9 of their first 10 seasons. They won their first playoff series in their 11th season and won the Stanley Cup in their 12th season. Ottawa made the playoffs in their 5th season (after a combined record of 51-260-38 in their first 4 seasons) and made the playoffs 11 straight seasons after their first 4 seasons.

[tmwiese55]

Good info, yea I'm not expert. So the timeline on that is late 80s/early 90s since Tampa started in 92. Pushing 30 years ago by now and now in the post financial boom of sports and I don't think it's been seriously revisited since to my memory while NHL has added teams and several have moved.

 

Makes you wonder what would've happened, maybe NHL sticks and Bucks leave. Both succeed, how it affects the Brewers. Who knows.

[FVBrewerFan]

Makes you wonder what would've happened, maybe NHL sticks and Bucks leave. Both succeed, how it affects the Brewers. Who knows.

 

Yea, I wonder too. I consider myself a fairly typical Milwaukee sports fan. That is, a marginal interest in NHL but would probably turn into a big fan if Milwaukee had a team.

 

That said, I seriously doubt Milwaukee could support both NBA/NHL long term. My guess is NHL would have stuck, and the Bucks would have moved. This season the Bucks are 19-9, have Giannis, and the allure of a brand new arena. But they're still promoting deals for tickets, which tells us they still have an issue selling out. I know I've been able to find reasonable tickets on the secondary market too- even weekend games. With a winning team, the draw of Giannis, and a brand new shiny arena they shouldn't be having a problem selling tickets.

 

The NBA is exploding in popularity across the country, and the world. Little ol' Milwaukee actually has a team, but I think it's taken for granted.

[owbc]

Yea, I wonder too. I consider myself a fairly typical Milwaukee sports fan. That is, a marginal interest in NHL but would probably turn into a big fan if Milwaukee had a team.

 

That said, I seriously doubt Milwaukee could support both NBA/NHL long term. My guess is NHL would have stuck, and the Bucks would have moved. This season the Bucks are 19-9, have Giannis, and the allure of a brand new arena. But they're still promoting deals for tickets, which tells us they still have an issue selling out. I know I've been able to find reasonable tickets on the secondary market too- even weekend games. With a winning team, the draw of Giannis, and a brand new shiny arena they shouldn't be having a problem selling tickets.

 

The NBA is exploding in popularity across the country, and the world. Little ol' Milwaukee actually has a team, but I think it's taken for granted.

 

Strongly agree--from a branding perspective the NBA franchise is more valuable to the city than NHL ever would be, but it's true that the Bucks have never achieved the same level of popularity as the Packers and Brewers. To me it shows that cultivating a fanbase is a complicated process that evolves over decades. There are only so many entertainment dollars to go around and it's a tough time to compete with the Brewers. It's impossible to say how an NHL team would have fared but it's safe to say that co-existence with the NBA and MLB would have been tough.

 

Given recent history I think we will see more relocation in coming years. There isn't any reason to keep a struggling franchise around when there are other cities begging for a team. Milwaukee is lucky that the Bucks will be around for awhile and this year's playoff run will draw far more interest than recent years and hopefully create some lasting momentum.

[superfly]

Yea, I wonder too. I consider myself a fairly typical Milwaukee sports fan. That is, a marginal interest in NHL but would probably turn into a big fan if Milwaukee had a team.

 

That said, I seriously doubt Milwaukee could support both NBA/NHL long term. My guess is NHL would have stuck, and the Bucks would have moved. This season the Bucks are 19-9, have Giannis, and the allure of a brand new arena. But they're still promoting deals for tickets, which tells us they still have an issue selling out. I know I've been able to find reasonable tickets on the secondary market too- even weekend games. With a winning team, the draw of Giannis, and a brand new shiny arena they shouldn't be having a problem selling tickets.

 

The NBA is exploding in popularity across the country, and the world. Little ol' Milwaukee actually has a team, but I think it's taken for granted.

 

Strongly agree--from a branding perspective the NBA franchise is more valuable to the city than NHL ever would be, but it's true that the Bucks have never achieved the same level of popularity as the Packers and Brewers. To me it shows that cultivating a fanbase is a complicated process that evolves over decades. There are only so many entertainment dollars to go around and it's a tough time to compete with the Brewers. It's impossible to say how an NHL team would have fared but it's safe to say that co-existence with the NBA and MLB would have been tough.

 

Given recent history I think we will see more relocation in coming years. There isn't any reason to keep a struggling franchise around when there are other cities begging for a team. Milwaukee is lucky that the Bucks will be around for awhile and this year's playoff run will draw far more interest than recent years and hopefully create some lasting momentum.

 

Winning playoff series will sell out the 'Serv, just like winning playoff series created sellouts at Miller Park. You can see the boost starting in 2007 and it's maintained a higher level ever since.

[bjkrautk]

Since no one else has mentioned it, I will point out the possibility Lasry is talking about an e-sports franchise. If memory serves, the Bucks have an e-League (NBA 2k) team already, so there could be an economy to having another one.

 

(I've never watched the 2k league, so I don't know if they're on LAN or completely online. My only e-sports knowledge comes from having watched a few fighting game tournaments and having followed the first season of Activision-Blizzard's Overwatch League.)

[HiAndTight]

To hopefully put it to bed once and for all here is a Phil Wittliff interview about Milwaukee's expansion bid.

 

 

The expansion talk is about 15 minutes in but the whole interview is interesting. If you don't want to watch it here are the highlights.

 

The Bradley Center opened the same year the Admirals became the affiliate of the Canucks. It was built to keep the Bucks in Milwaukee.

 

Milwaukee had a very good chance of getting an NHL team. Wittliff went on a trip with the Canucks to Buffalo and Quebec. The two reasons he went were to meet with the Canucks as the Admirals were the farm club but also meet with the owners of the Sabres and Nordiques because they were both on the expansion committee (he watched the game in Quebec from the owner's office.) Wittliff and the Pettits thought the expansion fee was going to be $30 million and the Quebec owner told him it was going to be $50 million. After he told the Pettits and Joe Tierney the expansion fee was going to be $50 million they looked at the expansion draft procedures and realized they were going to have a bad team.

 

They never got as far as a negotiation with Chicago. They assumed Chicago would ask for some compensation but it never got far enough where Chicago said they wanted it because the Pettits withdrew their application. After Milwaukee withdrew their application there were only two cities left, Ottawa and Tampa. Sidenote: Tampa made the playoffs in their 4th season but missed in 9 of their first 10 seasons. They won their first playoff series in their 11th season and won the Stanley Cup in their 12th season. Ottawa made the playoffs in their 5th season (after a combined record of 51-260-38 in their first 4 seasons) and made the playoffs 11 straight seasons after their first 4 seasons.

 

 

That's an interesting interview. I was always under the impression the Bradley Center was built to draw in an NHL Franchise and that's a big part of the reason why it wasn't an ideal Basketball Arena.

 

Also, when you think that Jerry Jones bought the Cowboys for 150 million in 1989 and we're talking several years before this, that 30 million dollar fee sounds high, much less the 50 million dollar fee. I realize there's not a direct correlation, but the most valuable or one of the most valuable franchises in sports is just 3 times more than the right to build an NHL franchise in Milwaukee?

 

 

Who knows, maybe had the city gotten an NHL franchise, things would have worked out great, but I feel lucky as a huge Wisconsin sports fans to have 3 teams on VERY solid footing with two of them having new arena's and experiencing a lot of success at the moment and the 3rd one of the cornerstone franchise in the NFL. I was worried about the Seattle Bucks for a while, so...

 

 

I do like watching the NHL Playoffs. I'm mostly ignorant about the game and only know the main teams and main players, but in the post-season, the game becomes so intense and the import of each shot goes up so much, it's a lot more enjoyable to me. Not sure I could get on board for 82 games season though.

[paul253]

I guess it would be hard back then to have foreseen the explosion in franchise values but I wonder if the decision makers (i realize both Lloyd and Jane passed away) could go back if they’d make the same decision. The expansion fee was $50 million but according to Forbes the Lightning and Senators are both valued around $440 million. That’s a hell of an investment. Sports franchises seem to be one of the better investments out there. When has a franchise ever lost value over a multi year period of time?