Top Bucks season ticket holders settle into first seats
The Milwaukee Bucks rolled out the red carpet Tuesday for some of the team’s most important customers — those who have owned season tickets for 50 years.
A half-dozen folks from that elite group were invited to the new arena to try out the first seats bolted into place.
The building impressed David Merar of Mequon, who said it felt intimate and “more like the MECCA than the Bradley Center.”
His family’s business, General Pet Supply, has four tickets located eight rows behind the Bucks bench in the BMO Harris Bradley Center. They’ll be in about the same spot when the new arena opens next fall.
“This is quite the milestone,” said Leo Copeland, whose Minneapolis-based company Benchmark LLC will oversee the seat installation.
Six season ticket holders looked on as Copeland installed one seat for the benefit of a large media turnout. Bucks President Peter Feigin noted that those gathered represent “300 years of season ticket holding” for the team.
The seats installed Tuesday were on the northwest side of the lower bowl, just below a beer garden area that contained some finishing touches such as Edison-style lights hung from a woodplanked ceiling.
A total of 16,091 seats will be installed, 9,625 in the lower level, 636 in the suite level and 5,830 in the upper bowl, the Bucks said. That configuration is just about the opposite of the Bradley Center, which has the majority of its seats in the upper level.
Between 50 to 60 semitrailer trucks will deliver seats, which will be installed at a pace of up to 750 a week.
The Bucks have 33 season ticket accounts that date to the founding of the franchise 50 years ago, said Tom LaCombe, senior account service executive.