New Stadium for the Milwaukee Bucks - the London Olympic Arena?

[Gothamite]

I thought this was interesting - appearently, we've now entered the era of stadium relocation.

Could London Olympic arena become cheaper way to keep Bucks in Milwaukee?

MILWAUKEE - An architecture firm which designs sports venues says the 2012 Olympic basketball arena could theoretically become the home of the Milwaukee Bucks.

No, the Bucks wouldn't relocate to London.

The arena would be modified, and moved to Milwaukee.

That arena's for sale, right now, for a lot less than the half-billion dollar figure that's been discussed for a new gym for the Bucks.

"Half a billion sounds like a lot of money...we probably built (the recently-renovated 90,000-seat) Wembley Stadium for less than that," said Sam Wright, the assistant director of Wilkinson Eyre Architects in London.

"At the moment, you can buy the main structure, the envelope and seating for roughly about $7.5 million."

His firm designed the Olympic basketball arena (reported cost: $40 million) to be what he calls sustainable, able to be taken down and put up somewhere else.

"It's currently being dismantled in London at the moment," Wright told 620WTMJ's Jay Sorgi.

"A reusable building, you're putting it up, you're taking it down, you're either putting it up in the same configuration, or perhaps you're looking at a different number of parameters."

The specific parameters for the Bucks might include adding:

- 8,000 more seats (it sat 12,000 for the Olympics)

- permanent locker rooms and storage space

- revenue generators like luxury boxes, restaurants and shopping

- the ability to withstand cold Wisconsin winters

Could Wright's firm do something like that?

"It's infinitely flexible," Wright told Jay.

"The structure itself is a very simple structure. You can change the grid. You can extend the building in length, and in terms of the bowl design, you can adjust the height as well."

Wright says that the 2016 Rio De Janerio Olympic Summer Games could have used the building.

"Could we have taken it to Rio? Yes, and Rio made very serious noises about it."

Specifics about Rio De Janerio's necessities didn't allow that plan to work.

If such issues don't come up with Milwaukee, Wright says his firm could ship, reconfigure, and rebuild the arena for the Bucks with a much smaller final price tag than that bantered-about figure of $500 million.

"Much cheaper. Take off a zero and that's where you're probably at," claimed Wright.

Of course, it could cost more than $50 million with the money-making amenities the Bucks need, road construction, utilities and other parts of the construction work.

But if the firm's plan works, it could be a relatively low-cost way for the Bucks to stay in Milwaukee.

Interesting idea.

[ridenlow71]

Wonder where in Milwaukee they'd put it? Tear down the Bradley center..or maybe the U.S cellular arena?

[GeauxColonels]

Very unique.

[nas1787]

Really interesting idea. But shouldn't the biggest basketball league in the world aspire for something greater? This sounds like the kind of solution a smaller Euro league team would opt for.

Also, does it really cost half a BILLION dollars to build an arena these days? Yowza!

[PhlyBoy]

Really interesting idea. But shouldn't the biggest basketball league in the world aspire for something greater? This sounds like the kind of solution a smaller Euro league team would opt for.

Also, does it really cost half a BILLION dollars to build an arena these days? Yowza!

Well, it is the Bucks....not too far off

[Sodboy13]

I wonder if, after buying the arena, dismantling it, shipping it across the ocean and half of the country, and converting it to meet top-tier North American arena standards, if there'd be any real savings over that $500M price tag.

Sounds more to me like someone's desperate to unload their unwanted stadium after the Rio deal fell through.

[sportstar1212]

Really interesting idea. But shouldn't the biggest basketball league in the world aspire for something greater? This sounds like the kind of solution a smaller Euro league team would opt for.

Also, does it really cost half a BILLION dollars to build an arena these days? Yowza!

The Barclays Center cost twice that.

[zinman11121]

Is this an April Fool's joke that's a month behind?

[Burmy]

So perhaps stories like this could be closer to being a reality?

http://www.theonion.com/articles/pnc-park-threatens-to-leave-pittsburgh-unless-bett,2003/

[ddub53]

If saw the arena during the Olympics, it's not an NBA quality venue. It had no suites and the structure looked like what it was...a temporary venue. Plus, you would have to make it hockey compatible too, which it doesn't look feasible.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/London_2012_Olympic_Basketball_Arena.jpg

[Gothamite]

I wonder if, after buying the arena, dismantling it, shipping it across the ocean and half of the country, and converting it to meet top-tier North American arena standards, if there'd be any real savings over that $500M price tag.

Sounds more to me like someone's desperate to unload their unwanted stadium after the Rio deal fell through.

Maybe, but they're only getting $7.5 million for the thing. Dollars, mind you, not even pounds!

[illwauk]

Wonder where in Milwaukee they'd put it? Tear down the Bradley center..or maybe the U.S cellular arena?

Since this arena would essentially replace the Bradley Center, it would make more sense to tear that down. Not only does the Cell have way too much history (NBA Finals, NCAA Tourneys, MU's 1977 title run, UWM's 2005 Sweet Sixteen run, only venue in WI that The Beatles ever played, etc.) but without it, Milwaukee would have no indoor venues with a capacity between 2,500 and 18,000... that's way too big of a gap.

That said... they can keep this thing the hell away from Milwaukee as far as I'm concerned. They want to add 8,000 seats to it? Why? So the Bucks can play in front of 2,000 more empty seats?

[TheOldRoman]

It will be interesting to see what comes of this stadium. A temporary stadium was part of Chicago's olympic bid. Soldier Field is too small for the opening/closing ceremonies, so they would have built a temporary football stadium over a park area, probably for $1 billion dollars, then sold its parts off for pennies on the dollar. There was a lot missing from Chicago's bid, but that was the worst part.

[IceCap]

I was psyched about the possibility of the Albion Stags...

[dbadefense1990]

Really interesting idea. But shouldn't the biggest basketball league in the world aspire for something greater? This sounds like the kind of solution a smaller Euro league team would opt for.

Also, does it really cost half a BILLION dollars to build an arena these days? Yowza!

The Barclays Center cost twice that.

The Barclays Center looks like someone stuffed an egg salad sandwich on rye bread in their pants and it got morphed when taken out.

[Geoff]

To me the idea of relocating an arena or stadium is odd but it's not new. The University of Denver's old hockey arena was a Naval training hall in Idaho during WW2 and then donated to the school.

And that's just one I can think of right now.

[The_Admiral]

I guess it would match the Art Museum, kind of.

[Gothamite]

Really interesting idea. But shouldn't the biggest basketball league in the world aspire for something greater? This sounds like the kind of solution a smaller Euro league team would opt for.

Also, does it really cost half a BILLION dollars to build an arena these days? Yowza!

The Barclays Center cost twice that.

The Barclays Center looks like someone stuffed an egg salad sandwich on rye bread in their pants and it got morphed when taken out.

You just made me love it more. What could be more New York than egg salad on eye? Now we just need an egg cream building across the street...

[The_Admiral]

Oh, if it were constructed out of garbage, you'd love it and say nothing could be more New York than garbage along the side of the street. Also, green!

[Gothamite]

I do like me some green. But no.

And FWIW, I was against building the thing in the first place.