The sale isn't officially approved by the NBA's Board of Governers yet but commissioner Adam Silver has stated that he doesn't foresee any issues with the sale.
Full disclosure: I went out and celebrated the ownership transfer last Wednesday night (after Charlie and I attended the final game of the Herb Kohl era), because I had to. It was perhaps a bit too much in the end but it happens.
Now that that's out of the way, I must first pay tribute to one Herb Kohl. While he was very unsuccessful during his 25+ years of ownership, Kohl has single-handedly ensured that we've had NBA basketball in the 414 for the past 25+ years and (hopefully) for the next 30+ years. I cannot deny him of that fact. However, during the standing ovation the BC crowd that I was a part of last Wednesday gave, I had my fingers crossed a bit. It was almost like a "thank you, Herb, you son of a bitch" type ovation, at least from me.
The fact that he was really doing his best to drive the franchise into the ground by his constant push for the eight seed in the East had grown absolutely tired and the entire fanbase was completely sick of it. With these new owners, I have to believe the black veil that Kohl had over this franchise has been lifted.
One thing Herb did that may prove to be invaluable, is the provision in the contract that if a new arena deal isn't at least in place by November 2017. This should force the owners, who seem like highly competitive guys, to get the ball rolling as soon as they can. It should also prevent them from pulling a half-hearted attempt at an arena and then throwing their hands up and moving the team to wherever they please.
However, no matter how much young talent this franchise had accumulated over the past 12 months, it was still owned by Herb Kohl and the guise that he/they would do something stupid to screw up the foundation, was always there. Now, given the new billionaire owners, a new arena on the horizon and some young talent, Milwaukee might not be the wasteland of the NBA that it has seemed to be over the last approximately ten years.
 |
| Kohl flanked on the left by Edens and the right by Lasry |
Who are these new guys?
Marc Lasry and Wesley Edens are each worth over a billion dollars. They are hedge-fund managers based in New York City.
Lasry is the co-founder and CEO of Avenue Capital Group and actually bought the penthouse at the top of the 55 Central Park West in Manhattan, commonly known as the "Ghostbusters Building". He has been a highly successful businessman in his life but while I can't find anything, I've heard he doesn't have the cleanest of hands. Let's face it though, you don't get to be a billionaire with out being a King Cobra sometimes. You can't make a cake without breaking a few eggs, if you will.
Edens is worth a little more than Lasry and is the one with a few ties to the state of Wisconsin. He stated in the introductory press conference that his mother was raised and educated in the state and he also employs approximately 700 people in the state.
He is the co-founder and co-chair of Fortress Investment Group, Inc. and has a bachelor of Arts and Sciences from Oregon State working against him (I'm a Ducks guy).
As I previously stated, some of these guys' initial comments make them seem genuine about keeping the team here and building a championship caliber basketball team and that's really all fans want. I feel a new arena would contribute directly to that idea but the fans will come back in droves if you can just give them hope. With Kohl there was no hope.
In a Q&A with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the two expressed their deep interest in basketball and that they both seem to understand that you need to have the right people in place, especially in management, to be success. That's music to my ears and says that they're not here to just collect the gate profits from making the eight seed in a sh*tty Eastern Conference to get buried by the Miami Heat twice at home. They are basketball fans and they are winners; a potentially great combination.
We'll see who they bring on as front office personnel on both the business and the basketball side. You'd have to think they'd at least consult with Milwaukee Brewers' personnel on what makes them so popular, if not plucking someone from the Brewers' organization to run the business side. That'd be the smart move, in my opinion.
Arena situation
Lasry & Edens are together putting down $100 million toward a new building from the jump. Couple that with Herb Kohl's $100 million he's vowed to leave toward the building and that's $200 million right away, approximately half of what it would take for a state-of-the-art, multi-purpose arena in Milwaukee.
That should be more than enough right? Well, I'm not sure it is. I could see "Ledens" needed to throw down a bit more, possibly Kohl throwing in a bit more (what else is he going to do with it?) and the parties needing to bring in other investors to get this thing entirely privately financed. Lord knows, getting any public funding for what fans think is exclusively an NBA (Bucks) arena is going to be an absolute bitch, but I digress.
The problem I have with a totally privately financed arena is that the city won't get a cut of any profit. The only way the city would then benefit is the bars and restaurants surrounding the new facility thriving.
I genuinely believe they will get this down at this point in time. The two new owners have said they plan on having a deal in place in the next 12-18 months. So if we get into that period and it's still crickets, I'll be worried but for now, I'm alright.
With new owners, Giannis Antetokounmpo and another top pick in the upcoming draft, the future looks a lot brighter than it did just one year ago.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar