Thesedays, though, the Bradley Center is in trouble.Everyone from Bucks owner Herb Kohl to the BC's own board says the facilityneeds major repairs and upgrading; NBA Commissioner David Stern has begunominous rumblings about the need for a brand-new arena; and everywhere there istalk of finding "new revenue streams," the mystic elixirs of modernsports franchises.
TheFairly Detached Observers don't deal in mega-millions, and they don't sip fromany revenue streams. Their concern is whether an arena meets Joe Fan's needs.So the Observers recently visited the Bradley Centerfor games involving the hockey Admirals, the Bucks and MU hoopsters. Here'swhat they concluded.
AdmiralsHockey: The Goal Is Fun
Frank:We got our money's worth, for sure. The Admirals lost to Peoria, but in a shootout, and we were rightbehind the south goal so we got a lot of close-up action.
Artie:Just one thing was missing from my dream game.
Frank: Iknow, a bench-clearing brawl. Those don't happen anymore; guys who add to aone-on-one fight get suspended.
Artie:Aside from that, the Admirals put on one heck of a show.
Frank:It's good hockey, the game goes quickly and there are plenty of fun thingsbetween periods and during timeouts.
Artie:Peewee hockey, racing cheeses and of course the "Human Hockey Puck"competition—people getting slung down the ice by a giant rubber band andknocking down inflatable bowling pins.
Frank:And on the scoreboard, the always-fun "Kiss Cam," goofy dance exhibitionsand a chance to "drive" the Zamboni. All in good fun, except as ageezer I have to say...
Artie: Iknow, I know. Everything is just so LOUD!
Frank:It makes a simple conversation tough. I also could do without the ritual chantsof "You suck!" toward the opposing goalie. But as the youngsters say,"Whatever."
Artie:What do the Admirals average in attendance?
Frank:So far this season, about 4,400, middling for the American Hockey League. Ourcrowd was kind of low, but it was a weeknight and there was TV competition fromboth the Bucks and Wisconsin basketball. Mostgames the upper deck stays closed, but the Admirals sometimes sell out thewhole building when they have post-game concerts. Several of those are comingup. Last season the Admirals finished at about 5,800 per game.
Artie:The ticket prices are reasonable, ranging from $16 to $21, and I know there arelots of discount nights. Just check the team's Web site.
Frank:One highlight game will be Feb. 5. The UW band will be here, and they're fabulous!After the game they hit the ice for a "Fourth Period" that's like the"Fifth Quarter" after football games.
Artie:At our game, because of the low crowd, I noticed that a couple of theconcession stands were closed.
Frank:Also some of the kiosks on the concourses that sell specialty stuff—ice cream,premium beers. But for most games there's the full range of concessions,including the pizza stand at the north end and the special sandwiches at thesouth end.
Artie:Me, I'm just a beer and hot-dog guy, and the BC meets those needs just fine.Plus, of course, the other comfort factors: room to walk and lots of bathrooms.
Frank:What were the best things about the brand-new Miller Parkin 2001 and the new Yankee Stadium last spring? Wide walkways and big bathrooms.
Artie:And of course a decent view of the action from your seat. No worries there forAdmiral fans. On most nights, everyone's downstairs.
Frank:And even if you're upstairs, the BC was built for hockey—longer along the eastand west sides and with angled corners to give a better view of the long hockeylayout. Yes, that means the "end zones" upstairs are pretty far awayfor basketball, but hey, it was the Pettits' money and they owned the Admirals,after all.
Artie: Ihave one question. What's with the Admirals' logo, with the skeleton wearing apirate hat? Did his ship sink before the game?
Frank:No way; you saw that ship, designed by MSOE students, on the ice before thegame, "crewed" by some lucky kids and Roscoe, the mascot.
Artie:The ship should stay out there during the game, and if an opponent gets abreakaway they could stick out some oars.
Frank:Scoring is tough enough already.
Artie:I'll say. Those goalies are huge, and so are their pads. Hey Admirals, putGilbert Brown in there, tell him not to move and you'll go undefeated.
MUBasketball: A Gold Rush
Frank:I'm glad we chose upper-level seats for the Marquettegame against North Carolina State.
Artie:Not bad at all. We had a real nice sightline because we were along the westside, not in an end zone.
Frank:For $25 apiece, which is higher than any Admirals ticket downstairs.
Artie:Hey, a big-time hoops program has to charge big-time prices.
Frank:If you say so. And yes, we could have sat wa-a-a-y back for 9 bucks. Anyway,our seats were just fine, with a good view of both the court and the four-sidedscoreboard in the middle of the building.
Artie:They say the scoreboard needs upgrading, but it seemed fine to me. Good colorand nice clear replays.
Frank:For me, the big thing about Marquettegames is the energy that pours out of the student sections.
Artie: Asea of gold in the northeast corner! The band right behind the north basket.And the banners honoring George Thompson, Dean Meminger, Butch Lee and theothers with retired numbers. And, of course, Al McGuire, the school's versionof Vince Lombardi.
Frank:MU does a good job of working all the history into the pre-game hoopla. But Ifind that the lights-out, loud-music, glowering player photos and badassannouncer's voice are a bit much. What, does civilization's fate depend on thisgame?
Artie: Ilike the blow-up celebrity faces the MU kids wave at opposing free-throwshooters.
Frank:Tiger Woods got an especially big laugh from the crowd.
Artie:And there are all the usual crowd-watching antics on the scoreboard.
Frank:Lord knows they have time to fill, with eight freakin' TV timeouts per game.
Artie:Still, I can't get enough of college hoops. MU wound up losing, but it was afun afternoon.
TheBucks: Building Some Excitement
Frank:Our seats for the Bucks vs. Torontowere downstairs in the same corner where the MU students partied a few daysearlier.
Artie:But they would have needed a check from home to join us. These tickets had aface value of $61 apiece.
Frank:The Bucks' Web site lists ticket prices from $10 upstairs to $145 for ClubCambria, the fancy-schmantzy area at the north end of the suite level. As for"Courtside Club" tickets, you're asked to "contact the SalesOffice for pricing and availability."
Artie:Pricing, as in whether you need to surrender an arm or a leg, or both.
Frank:Well, we stayed in one piece and saw a nice 22-point dumping of the Raptors.
Artie:That's a good way for the Bucks to improve their balance sheet—more games likethat. Too bad the weeknight crowd was only 12,637.
Frank:And too bad we weren't there last Friday for the big showdown against Chicago.
Artie: Afull house and a hard-fought win over their top rival. I'll bet no one wascomplaining about the "ancient" venue as they left.
Frank:Winning is the best renovation. On our night, it didn't help that Streetlife,the house band, had the night off. There wasn't much noise at first—except forSection 212. They were jazzed all night!
Artie:Thank Andrew Bogut. He wanted to liven the place up, so he's bought 100 ticketsfor each game. The fans who get them—through auditions, yet—are called Squad 6for Bogut's number and being the "sixth man." They have to stand thewhole game and cheer their heinies off.
Frank:It was impressive. Organized cheers, constant horn-blowing, even the "Ole!Ole!" soccer chant.
Artie:Not a bad use for tickets that go for $96 apiece.
Frank:Or more than four times what they'd cost for the Admirals. Anyway, the pricesat concession stands don't change—beer at $5.50 and $7, hot dogs at $3.50.
Artie:Plus the kiosks if you want a Guinness or some ice cream.
Frank:What more does Joe Fan need? Room to walk, food and drink if desired, enoughrestrooms, a relatively comfortable place to place one's butt, a decent view ofthe playing surface and a scoreboard that works.
Artie:Check, check, check. For me, the BC checks out just fine.
Frank:That ain't good enough, apparently. In the usual words of sports moguls, thebuilding doesn't "generate" enough revenue.
Artie:What does "generate" revenue mean? More suites? In this economy,who's gonna pay for 'em? More places like Club Cambria? How many do you need? Afull-blown restaurant or two? Cripes, how much dough does a guy have to spendto please the NBA?
Frank:Consider the Fan Cost Index, compiled each year by a group called TeamMarketing Report. It estimates how much a family of four spends at sportsevents. The index for the NBA includes four average-price tickets, parking, twosmall beers, four small soft drinks, four hot dogs, two game programs and twoadjustable caps.
Artie:How does the Milwaukeefamily come out?
Frank:The Bucks are listed with a total of $265.98, or 20th in the league. Theaverage ticket price is given as $46, down about 4% from last season, and the totalis down 2.7%.
Artie:Of course you can try cheaper seats or skip the souvenirs, but the familyoutlay will go well into triple digits anyway.
Frank:Any building that's almost 22 years old has maintenance issues, and the BCboard says they include outdated heating, ventilation and air-conditioningequipment; a deteriorating roof and exterior facade; and seats that needreplacing or repairs.
Artie:So replace or repair them. I don't hear anyone saying the building isn't gonnastand much longer.
Frank: Moretrouble. The BC ran a $4 million deficit in the last fiscal year, thanks to therecession.
Artie:But the latest state budget includes $5 million in bonding to help BCmaintenance. Whatever it costs to renovate, it's gotta be a lot less than awhole new place.
Frank:Especially since a publicly funded new place would be an extremely tough sell.
Artie:TheBusinessJournal ran a piece on Mark Cuban, the Dallas Mavericks' owner, when he washere in November to watch his team. Cuban said, “If we can control our costs asa league, I think Milwaukeeis a very viable city for the NBA with or without a new arena. If we do a goodjob of controlling those costs, it’ll be easy. If we don’t, it’ll create adifferent set of challenges.”
Frank:"Control our costs." Hmm...
Artie:We're just two ordinary fans, Sen. Kohl, but how about you and your pals spendless instead of always having us spend more?
AgonizingWith the Packers: It’s an Art Form
Sunday,4:17 p.m.
(Frank's phone rings, and he knows who it is).
Frank: Hey,Gladiator is on TNT if you needsomething else to watch.
Artie: Ithought you'd want to hear this: FIRE THEM ALL!
Frank:There's plenty of time for the Packers to make up that 17-0 deficit.
Artie:Yeah, the Patriots, Eagles and Bengals were all saying, "We have plenty oftime," too.
Frank:The Pack led the league with a plus-24 turnover differential, but KarlosDansby's strip of Donald Driver looked like what they've done all season.
Artie:This morning I heard Mark Chmura say the game would hinge on which team handlesadversity better.
Frank:So far, only one team has had any adversity.
Artie:Time for the fix. Roger Goodell is calling David Stern, saying, "How can Iget the refs to spin this the Packers' way?"
Frank:Um, because...
Artie:The league has to want the NFC Championship Game to be Packers vs. Favre, Round3, as opposed to, say, Arizona-Dallas.
5:08p.m.
Artie:So they made up three points and it's 24-10 at halftime. There's still plentyof time, but that's what they told Dreyfus on Devil's Island,ain'a?
Frank: Idon't know if Mr. Goodell reached the refs, but I think he got Arizona's Michael Adamson his cell phone and said, "When you get a clear shot at Aaron Rodgers onthird down, instead of drilling him please jump past him so he can make thedeep throw to Jermichael Finley."
Artie: Iguess he thought Rodgers would step forward. And Finley made a great catch. Butwhen they got near the goal, if that horse-collar penalty had come with 15seconds left instead of 4, they could have made it 24-14.
Frank:Charles Woodson did another of his "poke it loose" specialties tostop one Arizonadrive, but otherwise the defense ain't doing a thing. But Rodgers and his palsare getting in gear.
6:03p.m.
Frank:Nobody could stop anybody in the third quarter, but that onside kick turned themomentum around for the Pack.
Artie:Still, it's a 14-point spread with 15 minutes left. Maybe it's not meant tohappen, like in April of '67 when Bonnieand Clyde should have won the Oscar.
Frank:In the Heat of the Night wasn't a badchoice, and it's looking like the theme for the fourth quarter. The Packerswere driving as the third period ended, and if they score quickly and stop theCardinals just once, it could be tied up pretty quickly.
Artie:And there they go! A fourth-down pass to James Jones goes all the way, and it's38-31 less than a minute into the fourth.
7:07p.m.
Frank:Wow! What a wacky game.
Artie: Ifeel like Richard Nixon in 1960—"What? It got stolen from me?"
Frank:So many turns. The Packers finally get a stop on defense, thanks to Woodson'sfingertips, and march quickly to tie it at 38. But the defense can't stop KurtWarner again, and it's 45-38.
Artie:Another march by Rodgers & Co. and it's tied again. But they score tooquickly, so Arizonamoves to the winning field goal.
Frank:But Neil Rackers flubs it and now it's sudden death.
Artie:The Pack wins the toss and on their first play almost win the game, but Rodgersoverthrows Greg Jennings.
Frank: Ashort pass gets a first down but a holding penalty nullifies it. On third down,look who blitzes again—Michael Adams. This time he's in front of Rodgers, cansee the ball and swats it loose.
Artie:And as I feared, it comes down to a Packer kick. But it's by Rodgers,inadvertently toeing it up to Dansby. And it's over.
Frank:At least the NFL got one compelling game out of the weekend. Troy Aikman saidthe Cardinals had seen "something in the middle of the field" toexploit against the Pack, and they did, all game long.
Artie:Down the middle. Makes me think of fourth-and-26 against Philly in '04. Ugh.
Frank:Another OT loss. Glad I could summon that memory for you. So this week are youa Cowboy fan, hoping they dump Brett and the Vikes?
Artie:Never! Let the Saints go marching in, I say.
