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The Milwaukee Bucks played this past season without a lease.
The Bradley Center is close to an extension of a lease with the Milwaukee Bucks, a move that could secure the team's future in the city until a new basketball arena is built.
News of a potential new Bucks' lease came on the same day that Bradley Center and Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce officials announced that BMO Harris Bank had agreed to buy the naming rights for the downtown Milwaukee sports and entertainment facility.
MMAC officials also announced that 25 companies, including BMO Harris, had agreed to sponsorship deals, worth a total of $18 million, to support the Bradley Center.
Marc Marotta, chairman of the Bradley Center board, told The Business Journal Monday that Bradley Center officials are close to a lease agreement with the Bucks that could be for as long as five years.
Over the past several years, the team has operated on a one-year lease. In fact, the Bucks played this past season with no lease, operating under the terms of a lease that expired Sept. 30, 2011.
With the new corporate support in place, Marotta said a new deal with the Bucks will be finalized soon. He said the deal would be at least three years, but could be as much as five years.
"This (business support) is the first part of the bridge to hopefully getting to a new building," he said. "We have that commitment now. Getting a lease done with the Bucks to keep them in the building during that time will be another sign to the community of this commitment."
The business commitment also will help ease any fears that National Basketball Association executives have had with the lack of revenue at the Bradley Center for the Bucks, Marotta said.
"We've been talking to the NBA and they are comfortable with the direction we are moving in Milwaukee," he said.
Mark Kass is the editor of The Business Journal and covers the business of sports.
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