St. Francis — Since 1986, the Milwaukee Bucks’ practice facility has been located in the Archbishop Cousins Catholic Center. How long the team will continue to practice at the St. Francis location could depend on what is included in the $500 million arena it hopes to build in downtown Milwaukee.
Milwaukee Bucks logoIn announcing plans on Wednesday, April 8, for the proposed venue, the Bucks noted that it would include a practice facility.
However, Mark Rosenberg, public relations manager for the Bucks, told the Catholic Herald Tuesday, April 14,
“Our hope is to build a world class practice facility but that is not to say it will happen.”
He noted that details about the arena are still being worked out and that “nothing is set in stone.”
The Bucks used what had been the gym of the former De Sales Preparatory Seminary for 11 years before investing $3 million in what a Nov. 13, 1997 Catholic Herald article described as “an approximately 35,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art training center.”
Among the improvements the Bucks made at the time, and for which they paid, were lengthening the court by 10 feet in order to make it regulation size, new locker rooms, sprint and running tracks, whirlpools, strength training rooms, video production and viewing rooms, and a conference room.
While the Bucks and the archdiocese declined to discuss terms of the current lease, when the remodeling was done in 1997, the team signed a 10-year lease for the facility, with “renewal extended for three additional five-year terms,” according to the Herald article.
In a Friday, April 10 prepared statement, John Marek, chief financial officer for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, said, “The archdiocese and the Bucks have had a long and cordial partnership. Discussions are underway to assess the best way to meet the needs of both parties in the coming years. We look forward to achieving a mutually satisfactory conclusion to the discussions.”
