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.