Opinion | UWM Should Give Up on Panther Arena

The time has come to turn the lights out at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. The 64-year-old building has been witness to many great events over the years, most notably the Milwaukee Bucks lone NBA championship in 1971. But as the saying goes: all good things must come to an end.

The truth about UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena is, the building is old. The arena is almost 40 years older than the one right across the street that is slated to be replaced. Opening in 1950, Panther Arena is the oldest facility to host Horizon League men’s basketball.

The truth about UW-Milwaukee’s men’s basketball is: the team is a mid-major. In games I have watched this season, there appeared to be a “Buy a seat, get a row free” promotion. The arena holds 10,783 spectators for basketball; the third highest capacity in the Horizon League behind Cleveland State and Wright State. The vast majority of the seats are going unused. Watching basketball in a cavernous setting looks bad on television, and it does not reflect well on the university either.

The time has come for the Milwaukee Bucks to return to the site that the team called home for the first 20 years of its existence. The plan is for the Panther Arena site to be the anchor of a revitalization project of downtown. In addition to the new Bucks arena, new businesses will open in the surrounding area. People are given additional options for spending their time prior to and following events the new arena will host.

If a new arena is not built, Milwaukee risks losing its basketball franchise. When Herb Kohl transferred ownership rights to Marc Lasry and Wes Edens, a clause was added that stated the team could be sold to the NBA if no progress is made with the arena by 2017. If the Bucks leave, so do the 15,000 money-spending fans that congregate in the area for 41 regular season games each year.

What happens to UW-Milwaukee’s basketball team if they are forced to move out? The team can move back on-campus at the Klotsche Center while a new, smaller arena is built. Four of the Horizon League’s nine teams play in arenas with fewer than 7,000 seats for basketball. Fans seated closer would look better aesthetically and create an intimate setting.

The vacant Park East corridor north of the Bradley Center can be the site of the new UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. The location has two clear advantages. The university does not have to surrender its footprint in downtown Milwaukee to Marquette, which could happen if Marquette is the lone college basketball team calling the area home. And the new arena, emblazoned with the university’s logo, will be on display to patrons of the new businesses and restaurants that will rise near it.