Over the last decade the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks have made the the playoffs a total of 3 times, all 1st round exits. During that time their best season was in 2009-10 where they won 46 games. In those 10 years they've gone through 7 head coaches, won only 41.5% and lost 470 games. Their lowest point was a 15-67 record in 2013-14, but that did get them the 2nd pick in the 2014 NBA Draft. The Bucks have not been very relevant in the league since they last went to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2001. A time when the Eastern Conference was very weak.
As early as 2013, NBA officials have stated that the Bucks need a new arena as their current home, the Bradley Center was 25 years old at the time. After a mediocre 41-41 season last year (they have a good young team with a lot of potential), team officials announced their plan for a new arena in April. Then in July, the team announced that without public funding for a new arena, the Bucks would have to relocate. Mind you, the current owners of the Bucks are both billionaire hedge fund managers. That's right, billionaires. Guys who can easily get the financing themselves, want the Wisconsin tax payers to pony up and chip in. Current polls about the pubic funding are mixed depending what poll is used and the state has agreed upon a proposal for funding. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker calls the proposal a "good deal all around." This is the same Governor who has gone after the state's teachers union with reckless abandon because he felt that the union (pretty much all unions) were the main source of the state's problems. With that kind of endorsement, the deal can't be good.
Public funding for new sports arenas are a bad idea. Unless of course the venue in question is in a state that's awash in money. That was a joke. Most states are all claiming poverty as public services are being cut. As someone who does not are about the Bucks, let them leave. The last NBA title the team won was back in 1971 and they have not been to the NBA Finals since 1974. That's FOUR DECADES of futility.Well to be fair, it's four decades of mediocrity. The Bucks won the NBA title in only their 3rd year of existence! That was largely due in part to this guy...
The Bucks took Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with the 1st pick of the 1969 NB Draft and would go to expansion franchise to relevance after one season. Kareem was traded to the Lakers after the 1975 season and enjoyed a nice run in the 80's, making it to 3 Eastern Conference Finals in 4 years. The hump they couldn't get over was in the form of either the Boston Celtics or Philadelphia 76ers. Basically, the glory years of the Bucks have been gone a long time. Though the future seems bright, but they're probably not going to win a championship any time soon. The Bucks are threatening to leave,so let them. It's not a good long term deal. If the new owners get a new arena, they'll probably sell after a few years and walk away with a few billion dollars and then they'll be a new ownership group to deal with.
If the Bucks leave, I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts that Milwaukee will keep going without too much trouble. When the Whalers left Hartford in 1997, did Hartford flame out? Did Montreal stop functioning when the Expos left? Seattle is doing just fine since the Sonics left in 2008. When the NHL left Atlanta twice(!), the city powered on. Heck, the Braves are leaving metro Atlanta in 2017 and I doubt anyone in the city will care too much. Speaking of Atlanta, the Hawks are coming off a season where they went they went to the Eastern Conference Finals for the 1st time in the teams's history (they moved from St. Louis to Atlanta in 1968) and the ownership group are squawking about getting a new arena. Let's see what happens.
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