The View From Wisconsin

Now that the holidays are past us (and the Vancouver Canucks have once again downed the Nashville Predators at GM Place), it's time to look at something that hasn't really been on the radar for many people: the Bradley Center.

No, I'm not talking about events or games there, I'm talking about its continued existence. See, right now the city of Milwaukee is in this huge state of limbo in regards to what exactly to do about the BC.

The arena's primary tenant, the Bucks, are interested in a new arena, but don't want to have to shell out the cash for it.

The Bradley Center board wants to merge with the marginally successful Wisconsin Center so they can settle issues of conflicting event scheduling.

The Wisconsin Center board wants to merge with the Bradley Center board so they can get approval for the wrecking ball to the 15-year old facility and build something new in its place – preferably something that won't compete with the Midwest Airlines Center or its sister facilities (the Milwaukee Theatre and Arena).

The other professional tenant of the BC, the Milwaukee Admirals, are more interested in getting their financial ship (pardon the pun) righted than they are dickering over a new arena.

Marquette University isn't overly concerned about a new arena, either, since they just built one across I-43 on their campus (the McGuire Center).

The people who donated the BC to the city are six feet under, and the city of Milwaukee can't even agree on what to do with the old Pabst Brewery, let alone one of the buildings not set for demolition.

Atop all this, for some reason, people believe that the city of Milwaukee is ripe to take the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins in 2007, should they fail to get financing for a new arena (which it appears they most likely won't).

Considering the length of time that it took for the city to come up with the funds for Miller Park, and how it took the Pettits basically shoving the money to build the BC at the city, it's a bit ridiculous to think that Milwaukee could suddenly get together behind a planned purloin of another city's NHL team.

No money, old arena, small market – three things by which even the "new" NHL can't abide.

Irony is considered to be, according to dictionary.com, "the incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs."

Irony is also the fact that the one thing that could bring people together on the fate of the Bradley Center – say, a new NHL team – is the one thing that is impossible for any group in this city to agree upon.

Five years from now, we could wake up and realize that the BC is an old, outdated behemoth of a facility, and wonder why the Bucks are now playing in Madison, Oklahoma City, Kansas City…

…or Nashville.

Dear Johnny Damon,

What in the **** were you thinking?

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Dear Chris Chelios,

Okay, how much money did you give USA Hockey? There's no other reason why you should be on the Olympic squad. Unless, of course, you have a picture of Laviolette with a goat... or you really know who was behind the hotel room trashing in Nagano. Your fellow alum Ryan Suter deserved a spot more than you do.

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Dear Bill Wirtz,

When are you going to wise up and sell the team to someone who actually cares about hockey more than you care about your door?

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Dear Ryan Suter,

Way to use the snub by team USA to your advantage. I'm sure dad can help you get that puck mounted for your trophy case.

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Dear ESPN,

Must have been a slow news day when you end up as the story. What the heck were you thinking when you asked Matt Leinart, an NCAA "student-athlete", to do a promo for SportsCenter? Even if you didn't pay him, you could have accidentally messed up the BCS "championship game" your parent company paid all those beau coup bucks to broadcast.

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Dear Coach Berezowitz,

These things happen. Too bad it happened in the championship game. I know you'll get the Hawks back to the playoffs again. This time, though, maybe you guys need a loss in the regular season before you hit the post-season.

Oh, and tell Beaver to stay healthy during the off season... he looks like he could be our load carrier for the next couple of years.

Haven't mentioned much on here in a while, so figured I'd play Heinz 57:

• The fantasy football season is over for me - or at least for my teams, anyways. The wife's squad managed to get into the playoffs, after going into a funk over the last few weeks (and having a few mulligans because of my "altered work schedule" at times).
  
• The injury bug that bit the Predators had me on an emotional rollercoaster this past week. It was so good to hear that TV was back in net. The boys responded with six goals in the 2nd period against the hapless Blue Jackets.
  
• The Purple and White had a rough time in the Stagg Bowl Saturday. That 95-yard run by Mount Union's Mike Kmic (Kmic???) was an absolute dagger in the Warhawks heart. It's always tough when you lose the last game of the season; it's even harder when it's the first defeat of the year.
  
• I'm really trying to get into the holiday spirit, but it's hard when it's so freakin' cold outside. My temp gauge on my car's digital compass hasn't topped the single digits in a few days. It's just TOO damn cold out there to want to do anything.
  

There we were, cruising along, coming oh so close to having the best record in the Western Conference, and then...

Tomas Vokoun tweaks his knee late in the first period against the Rangers, and he's suddenly out for a couple of weeks. To make matters worse, David Legwand messes his knee up and isn't scheduled to be back until middle of January.

PPDDS (Post-Predators-Defeat Depression Syndrome) has kicked in hard and heavy. Our injury list is like a who's who of our franchise: captain Greg Johnson (out since Nov. 23), Scott Walker (out since Oct. 25 for 10 weeks), Scott Nichol (Out since Nov. 14 for 8-10 weeks), Legwand (out for four weeks), and Vokoun (out for a couple of weeks, but not put on IR).

It doesn't help that we've lost - badly - in our last two games.

I was going to put a nice, long blog about my travels in Arizona (and my growing dislike for America West Airlines), but something has trumped them all:

It's back. Even if it's only for Sundays at home, it's back.



The Ball and Glove logo, and the "retro" uniforms from the 1980's, is finally back.