Along with the approval of the the public financing deal by the Wisconsin legislature and then the Milwaukee Common Council, the Milwaukee Bucks face several hurdles with their proposed downtown arena.
One of those hurdles is a so-called entertainment district around the new Bucks arena. The plan is it would bring an economic spark to the district. However, many believe that bringing a developed district to the area would harm existing businesses.
"When you get a lot of new development, it doesn't have those kinds of organic... authentic qualities," says Dan Campo, associate professor in the School of Architecture and Planning at Morgan State University in Baltimore.
Campo co-authored a major study on entertainment zones several years ago for the Journal of Urban Design.
Entertainment zones are, in some cases, more favorable than entertainment districts with finite boundaries. "(Entertainment zones) are more organic," Campo says. "It evolves on its own without the backing of a formal city plan."
Campo uses Water Street in Milwaukee as an example of a successful zone. "Nobody said decades ago, 'let's make an entertainment district on North Water Street in Milwaukee.' It evolved over time from the existing buildings that were there and entrepreneurs found those buildings to be ideal for their businesses," he says.
"The entertainment zone is a place that sort of oozes the oldness of the city. It feels like the city. And, when you get a lot of new development, it doesn't have the same organic, arguably authentic qualities." - Dan Campo
Campo says that one of the things that make entertainment zones work on North Water Street, at least initially, is that rent was reasonable because the buildings were older. "Local people could buy (the buildings) and fix them up...in a way that would support their business," he says. "When you have new development, the rents that are charges are much greater and it is a disincentive for locally-based entrepreneurs to come in, particularly those who don't have much experience in owning a business."
Campo warns that "stadiums are not particularly good public investments." He says there's a common misconception that the stadium will bring people from outside Milwaukee into the city to spend their discretionary income. However, according to Campo, "they make up a relatively small amount of the...patrons of theses places."
Most of the people at the stadium are already citizens of the surrounding region. So in essence, if you take that stadium away, "the spending doesn't go away, it just gets redistributed," says Campo.
