La Crosse was in early running, but Milwaukee Bucks pick Oshkosh for D-league franchise

City building an $18 million arena, while La Crosse Center going through $35 million renovations.

The Milwaukee Bucks have chosen Oshkosh for their NBA-Developmental League franchise.

A private firm is now clearing the way to build an $18 million, 3,500-seat facility for the team, which will also, apparently, contain a team shop and sports bar.

The La Crosse Center had put its name as a potential destination for the NBA-DL team but was out of the running by early August.

Center director Art Fahey said a few weeks before that, the conversation with the Bucks was very nuts and bolts. 

Details into the Center’s $35 million upgrade/expansion or, even, the possibility to naming the court/arena after Flip Saunders, were not part of the conversation with the Bucks.

WKTY poll: Did city of La Crosse miss the boat on big money, a big attraction, by not trying harder for the #Bucks D-League team?

— 580 WKTY (@wkty) February 7, 2017

Saunders led the La Crosse Catbirds to two titles at the Center, before becoming the GM and head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves. He passed away from complications with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma on Oct. 25, 2015.

Fahey also said the Bucks didn’t want to set up in La Crosse because it was too far from their existing fan base. 

The Bucks, however, have said they want the D-League team in Wisconsin to help expand the fan base. Putting an affiliate on the other side of the state would certainly have done that.

Finalists for the D-league team included Sheboygan and Racine – cities very close to Milwaukee. Oshkosh is about 85 miles away.

The D-League is not like an MLB minor league team, where players may be called up and down regularly to play in the pros, so a team across the state wouldn’t be that big of a headache for travel.

The Bucks have scheduled a 3 p.m. news conference in Oshkosh on Wednesday.

There’s still a chance La Crosse gets a D-league team. Adding Milwaukee, 20 NBA teams have minor league affiliates. The Timberwolves, however, are not one of them. 

La Crosse could be a long shot getting a Timberwolves D-league team, perhaps using its ties to Saunders.

That, however, didn’t seem like something on the table, either.

“I don’t think the reaction was that we’d be running for that,” La Crosse Center board president Brent Smith told WIZM back on Aug. 3, “because we obviously aren’t in the state of Minnesota – not that that’s the only qualification, but that was ranked pretty high.”