Wisconsin sports fans love tailgating for football and baseball games, so why not basketball, too? That’s apparently what the Milwaukee Bucks are thinking with their new parking garage, which opens to the public on Wednesday and features a rooftop gathering space for tailgating before a game or a concert at the Downtown arena set to be completed next fall.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which reported the story Monday, the parking ramp – located on North 6th Street, just north of Juneau Avenue – will include 1,250 spaces, a four-story LED message board visible to drivers off of I-43 and intuitive design elements that allow for eased traffic flow and rapid exit.
The $47 million project accounts for much of the City of Milwaukee’s contribution to the $250 million in public financing for the $524 million arena. The Bucks will operate the structure and share parking revenue with the city, which is also helping to pay for construction of the public plaza outside the new arena’s main entrance.
The rooftop level will have enough space for 150 cars and offer fans panoramic views of the city, Downtown skyline and surrounding arena entertainment district. Bucks President Peter Feigin suggested there might even be grills installed for people to use up there.
"This could be really good for tailgating," Icon Venue Group’s Mike Abrams told the Journal Sentinel. "We've got extra power up here."
Leave it to the Bucks to make a parking garage cool. Just make sure you bundle up.
Born in Milwaukee but a product of Shorewood High School (go ‘Hounds!) and Northwestern University (go ‘Cats!), Jimmy never knew the schoolboy bliss of cheering for a winning football, basketball or baseball team. So he ditched being a fan in order to cover sports professionally - occasionally objectively, always passionately. He's lived in Chicago, New York and Dallas, but now resides again in his beloved Brew City and is an ardent attacker of the notorious Milwaukee Inferiority Complex.
After interning at print publications like Birds and Blooms (official motto: "America's #1 backyard birding and gardening magazine!"), Sports Illustrated (unofficial motto: "Subscribe and save up to 90% off the cover price!") and The Dallas Morning News (a newspaper!), Jimmy worked for web outlets like CBSSports.com, where he was a Packers beat reporter, and FOX Sports Wisconsin, where he managed digital content. He's a proponent and frequent user of em dashes, parenthetical asides, descriptive appositives and, really, anything that makes his sentences longer and more needlessly complex.
Jimmy appreciates references to late '90s Brewers and Bucks players and is the curator of the unofficial John Jaha Hall of Fame. He also enjoys running, biking and soccer, but isn't too annoying about them. He writes about sports - both mainstream and unconventional - and non-sports, including history, music, food, art and even golf (just kidding!), and welcomes reader suggestions for off-the-beaten-path story ideas.
