Joe Taschler

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Excitement over the Milwaukee Bucks heading into the NBA playoffs this weekend is enough to turn the Milwaukee River a bright shade of green.

That's exactly what the Bucks plan to do Friday in Milwaukee as the team and the city jump-start a gigantic party to accompany what is hoped will be a deep run in the NBA playoffs.

"We have been working for months on the ability to launch the playoffs by painting the Milwaukee River green for a period of time," said Peter Feigin, president of the Bucks and Fiserv Forum.

The Bucks and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett's office have been working together to put the river dyeing plan in place.

Exactly where and when the event takes place will be forthcoming, according to the Bucks. The weather forecast for Friday calls for partly sunny skies and a breezy high of 50.

In addition to dyeing the river green, the Bucks are planning to throw a playoff party the likes of which hasn't been seen around here, Feigin said.

With a league-best 60 wins and one game remaining Wednesday against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Fiserv Forum, the Bucks are the No. 1 team in the league. They will have home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.

Expectations are high. The first round begins in Milwaukee this weekend.

Beyond the Bucks' lofty position as an elite regular season team in the NBA, Feigin and the entire Bucks organization is keenly aware that an opportunity to shine on a global stage such as this only comes around so often.

The goal is to build a major buzz around a franchise that, for the better part of a generation, has remained dormant in the excitement department.

RELATED:It's been five years since the Bucks won a franchise-worst 15 games; it's a season that's hard to fathom today

RELATED:Former Bucks star Sidney Moncrief talks about what it was like getting the call to Basketball Hall of Fame

"It’s our responsibility to build the excitement," Feigin said. "How do we make it a moment in time and capitalize?"

Off the court, the Bucks organization has been working on this party nearly around the clock for at least a year, with the efforts ranging from visiting 300 schools across Wisconsin to translating nearly everything surrounding the team into Cantonese to reach fans in Asia.

Milwaukee's Hop streetcar will soon be wrapped in Bucks attire, the first time that has been done. The skywalks that criss-cross downtown Milwaukee will also be adorned with Bucks playoffs messages.

"I think what people will see is a kind of treatment and execution that they haven’t imagined before," Feigin said. "The goal is for this city and this region to get beyond excited."

No ticket? No problem.

The epicenter for this party is a piece of land that five years ago was a barren hole in the ground where a long-demolished freeway once stood.

In its place stands a brand new arena, known as Fiserv Forum. Surrounding the arena is a burgeoning entertainment complex -- now known as the Deer District -- and the Bucks plan to use the playoffs to further establish the area as a destination.

Even if you don't have a ticket to a playoff game, the Bucks want you at the party.

"Now that we have kind of this ‘Milwaukee’s living room’ with the plaza and the beer garden (outside the arena), we want to make a big a deal for the home games, (and) we want to make the away games as big of a deal," Feigin said.

"Our hope is, for home and away games, that we are going to create enough of an experiential magnet to have people want to be in and around the arena whether they have a ticket or not," he added.

For each game of the First Round – home or away – a 40-foot high TV will be placed on the plaza for fans to watch the games, in addition to the outdoor TV already in place in the Beer Garden.

There also will be food, games, a DJ, retail shops, contests to win playoff tickets and more on the plaza, which will open two hours prior to each home playoff game and one hour before each road game.

An international audience

Off the court, the entire organization knows what's at stake.

"One of the challenges in a smaller market is you don’t have many opportunities to screw up," Feigin said. "There aren’t 18 million people to build from as if it were the New York demographic area. You’ve got to do it right.

"Your brand and team promise have to be real. People have to appreciate it. People have to have fun and have an unbelievable experience and you have to keep them engaged."

It's the process of taking the inside-the-arena experience -- Feigin says that will be memorable, too -- and spreading it far and wide.

"We are aggressively trying to implant the footprint when we have this opportunity," Feigin said. "This is the moment.

"That’s what really happens with winning and playoff prospects," Feigin added. "What we really want to do is capture the passive fans and kind of build them into engaged, loyal fans forever."

RELATED:Brook Lopez has been the iron man and two-way anchor for injury-riddled Bucks this season

RELATED:Milwaukee Bucks to replace 3,000 cup holders, make Fiserv Forum atrium a little less dizzying

The Bucks have visited more than 300 schools across Wisconsin to build on the ‘Fear the Deer Fridays’ where students are encouraged to wear Bucks gear to school on Friday.

The team has added to its retail and merchandise offerings.

There will be Bucks bar nights throughout the playoffs covering watering holes across the state, from Eau Claire to Racine.

No detail has been left to chance, Feigin said.

"We care about all of our touch points down to how we serve food to the (broadcast) announcers so they understand that every element of our experience matters and Fiserv Forum is a special place," Feigin said.

"We take these national games – really they are international games – as unbelievable advertising opportunities and platforms that just don’t exist anywhere else. With that three hour window, we feel there is an opportunity – and the broadcast partners are totally into it – to market our team, market our players, market our city and market the state," he added.

The significance goes well beyond basketball, what Mayor Barrett calls a "Milwaukee Renaissance" that has seen a building boom and a string of positive developments for the city, including a resurgent Brewers team and landing the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

"These are all incredible activities that put Milwaukee in the dialogue of what’s happening in this country," Feigin said. "It gives everybody a sense of pride, a sense of ownership which are really important for a community in a big way.

"We think we are an unbelievable first class city and we have this opportunity to kind of pound our chest and really market ourselves to the world.

"In its simplest form, it’s how we get this community from good to great."

And, just like on the basketball court, all the players have to execute.

"You’ve got to perform," Feigin said. "It’s kind of fun because the pressure is on."

Contact Joe Taschler at (414) 224-2554 or jtaschler@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JoeTaschler or Facebook at facebook.com/joe.taschler.1.