Milwaukee Bucks and Fiserv Inc. strike 25-year naming rights deal for new downtown arena

James B. Nelson | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Show Caption Hide Caption Milwaukee Bucks and Fiserv announce 25-year naming rights deal for new arena Jeff Yabuki, president and chief executive officer of Fiserv, and Peter Feigin, president of the Milwaukee Bucks, discuss naming of Fiserv Forum.

The Milwaukee Bucks and Fiserv Inc. on Thursday announced a 25-year naming rights deal for the team's new $524 million downtown arena.

The new arena will be called the Fiserv Forum, said executives with the Bucks and the Brookfield-based financial services company. Fiserv signs will be attached to the new arena Thursday afternoon.

The dollar amount of the deal was not made public Thursday.

The announcement marks the most important milestone since the $250 million public financing deal for the arena came together in 2015. Construction of the building is all but finished and it is scheduled to open next month.

It's an equally important move for Fiserv, a 34-year-old publicly traded company, said CEO Jeffery Yabuki. The company's value was about $31 billion on Thursday.

Until now, Fiserv has had no civic presence in the form of sponsorships or its name on, say, stages at Summerfest.

Soon, the company's name — largely unknown to consumers — will be before millions of basketball fans around the world. Fiserv's technology is used by banks, merchants and billers to move money around, and allows customers to do things like check their balances online.

"Milwaukee is our home. We have deep roots here," Yabuki said in an interview.

The decision was motivated by a desire to "give back to the community, and it will elevate our brand to a new level," he said.

It also positions Fiserv as a "cool" employer among the next generation of workers, he said.

Bucks President Peter Feigin said he and the team's owners were delighted to be a partner with a large local company that has an international presence.

"Their exponential success is insane," Feigin said.

Yabuki described the partnership with the Bucks as part of a "transformation" of the company. "It's not just about technology, it's about life."

Fiserv employs about 900 people at its corporate headquarters in Brookfield and another 2,000 in Alpharetta, Ga.

The company has been engaged in a lengthy search for a site for its new corporate headquarters to replace the aging Brookfield facility. Yabuki said the naming rights decision was an important signal that the headquarters would remain here.

Last year, the Bucks said Fiserv had been a candidate to build its headquarters on a parcel of land it holds just north of the new arena. That deal never materialized, and on Thursday Feigin and Yabuki said a headquarters deal was not part of the naming rights package.

"This is an open invitation," Feigin said with a laugh.

The Fiserv Forum name will appear before worldwide audiences who tune in for Bucks home games and highlights, as well as games played by the Marquette University Golden Eagles men's basketball team. It will also appear as part of the Bucks' NBA 2K video game team.

In May, the SportsBusiness Journal reported that Fiserv and the Bucks were nearing a naming rights deal. Both sides flatly denied the story at the time.

"We didn't have a deal yet," Feigin said.

Drone video of the Bucks arena progress Drone video of the Bucks arena shows it's near completion as well at the progress on the entertainment area next to the stadium.

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The most recent NBA naming rights deal came in 2015 when Golden 1 Credit Union agreed to a $120 million, 20-year deal with the Sacramento Kings. Last fall, Washington D.C.'s Verizon Center became the Capital One Arena in deal reported to be worth $100 million over 10 years.

For the Bucks, the partnership is a critical component of the arena project. The building is owned by the Wisconsin Center District and will be leased to the Bucks.

The team is responsible for all upkeep, and is allowed to retain all revenue generated by events held in the building. The naming rights revenue will help cover those costs.

The Bucks have announced a string of concerts and events for the new building, which until now has been dubbed the Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center. On Thursday, the Bucks announced a Sept. 4 concert featuring The Killers and the Violent Femmes.

RELATED: The Killers, Violent Femmes playing grand opening concert at new Milwaukee Bucks arena

The naming rights deal has been long delayed. The Bucks executives and owners had said they expected the deal to be worth $7 million to $10 million a year for up to 20 years. Some experts said the delay indicated the Bucks sought too much money or too long of a commitment.

Last summer when Foxconn Technology Group announced plans to build a massive new facility in Racine County, the Bucks aggressively pursued the company as a possible partner.

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A deal with Foxconn never materialized, and the Bucks did a reset last fall. Feigin appeared on national and international television shows and gave interviews to high-profile publications like Forbes. He emphasized the new building and the role it is expected to play in revitalizing that part of downtown Milwaukee, along with the NBA's huge international audience.

Feigin revealed a bit of frustration in an interview with Forbes last fall.

"We spent a lot of time here almost re-educating people about our ownership, the transformation of the city, where we are headed," he told Forbes. "It is a 50-year-old franchise with little-to-no brand equity within the marketplace."

RELATED: Milwaukee Bucks arena naming rights going to a local company with a national presence

The Bucks have expressed excitement about the "Giannis effect" — the international audience attracted by their All-Star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who draws large and young audiences in his native Greece as well as Africa and China.

Several key businesses either based here or with large local presences have joined the Bucks as "founding partners" — the most important partnership for the new arena announced to date. They include Johnson Controls, MillerCoors, Froedtert & The Medical College of Wisconsin and BMO Harris Bank.

Feigin said the team was seeking partners in businesses such as technology, insurance and payment systems.

Time lapse: Construction of the Milwaukee Bucks new arena Time lapse: Construction of the Milwaukee Bucks new arena

New York billionaires Wes Edens and Marc Lasry bought the Bucks in 2014 from Sen. Herb Kohl for $550 million. The team is now valued at more than $1 billion.

The nearly completed arena is located just north of the BMO Harris Bradley Center, the Bucks' home for the past 30 years, and will celebrate its grand opening Aug. 26 with a day-long event that will include free public tours.