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When Wes Edens and Marc Lasry bought the Milwaukee Bucks last April for $550 million, the two New York investors said they would also commit at least $100 million toward the construction of a new, multipurpose arena in downtown Milwaukee.

As it turns out, sources say, the new owners committed even more: at least $150 million.

The disclosure that the owners agreed to spend at least $150 million, coupled with the $100 million former senator and team owner Herb Kohl pledged, means at least $250 million will go toward the new arena if one is approved and built.

The amount of private capital pledged could go even higher. Ted Kellner, one of the new minority investors in the team, said he believed the amount of private capital pledged to the new arena could reach $300 million.

When Kohl announced a year ago he was putting the team he had owned since 1985 up for sale, he made a point of saying he would sell only to investors who were committed to keeping the team in Milwaukee. In addition to pledging his own money toward a new arena, Kohl also convinced the new owners to agree to put more money toward construction of a new arena. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said that, to his knowledge, Kohl's financial pledge was unprecedented.

Three months after Edens and Lasry bought the team from Kohl, a third co-owner emerged: Jamie Dinan, the founder of York Capital Management, a hedge fund. It is not known how much of the team each of the co-owners control.

There are at least 14 additional local and regional investors in the team.

No specific estimate on what it would cost to build an arena downtown has been made public. Multipurpose arenas that can accommodate basketball, hockey, other sports and concerts can cost $400 million or more.

Last month, Edens said he believed the new arena would have a capacity of 16,500 for basketball, and would be a design that would allow arena managers to reconfigure the venue for more intimate events, such as concerts.

In Sacramento, the Sacramento Kings' new arena is expected to cost $477 million. Construction there is already underway. The project there is similar in scope to what the Bucks have in mind: an arena surrounded by ancillary development that includes retail, commercial and residential.

Bucks spokesman Jake Suski declined to comment specifically on the $150 million commitment. In a statement, Suski said, "Marc, Wes and Jaime are fully committed to building a new arena in downtown Milwaukee, for the future of the Bucks and the entire community. We're working hard to determine the best possible site, which will help clarify what's required to bring everyone together to make this shared vision a reality."

The Bucks' preferred site was land now occupied by Journal Communications, publisher of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in downtown Milwaukee, as well as the current sites of the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena and, possibly, the Milwaukee Theatre. However, talks between Journal Communications and the Bucks to purchase the Journal Communications buildings broke down and the Bucks have started to focus on the largely vacant land just north of the BMO Harris Bradley Center. That land is largely owned by the Bradley Center Sports & Entertainment Corp., the state-created entity that runs the BMO Harris Bradley Center.

A source knowledgeable about the talks between Journal Communications and the Bucks said it was difficult to accommodate the Bucks' need to move quickly on securing the site and finding a new home for several hundred Journal Communications employees. There were no major differences over the asking price. Moreover, Steven J. Smith, chairman and CEO of Journal Communications, said the company was not aware of any environmental issues, adding that no environmental studies had been done on the site.

For decades, the main Journal Communications site was the home of the presses that printed the old Milwaukee Sentinel and Milwaukee Journal. That led to speculation that the site had environmental problems. The two newspapers merged in 1995. The Journal Sentinel is now printed on presses at the company facility in West Milwaukee.

The Bucks are facing an NBA-imposed deadline of the fall of 2017 to have a new arena in place. The Bucks have said they hope to select a site early next year. The next step after that would be to study the feasibility of the site and develop a financing plan.

If the land north of the BMO Harris Bradley Center is selected, the current arena would likely stay open until the new facility is ready. That would allow the Bucks, Milwaukee Admirals and the Marquette University men's basketball team to play there. In addition, the NCAA announced that the BMO Harris Bradley Center will host first and second-round games of the NCAA men's basketball tournament on March 16 and 18, 2017.

The Bucks' owners have said they expect to seek some form of public financing to complete the financing package. A number of ideas are on the table, including asking the state Legislature to approve a bonding plan to raise at least $150 million. Supporters of that plan argue that the request by the Bucks would be no different from any other company seeking state bonds for an economic development project.

Another possibility, which also would require state legislative approval, involves capturing the income taxes paid by NBA athletes and possibly Bucks' team employees, and diverting that to debt service on a general obligation bond backed by the state.

In addition to the site north of the BMO Harris Bradley Center, the Bucks are looking at two other sites in downtown Milwaukee. They are a city-owned parking lot at the corner of N. 4th St. and W. Wisconsin Ave., and land at the corner of N. 2nd and W. Michigan streets.