With deadline looming, Bucks owner Marc Lasry lays out potential sites for a new arena

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- One of the new Milwaukee Bucks owners, Marc Lasry, was in Milwaukee on Monday, June 23rd, and with him, came a lot of talk about the Bucks future, and the effort to build a new arena.

Marc Lasry and Wes Edens bought the Milwaukee Bucks from Senator Herb Kohl for about $550 million.

Senator Kohl has pledges a $100 million gift for the development of a new arena for the team, and the new owners have committed to contributing at least another $100 million.

Lasry and Edens have a deadline.

There must be a new arena in place by the 2017-2018 NBA season, or the NBA could buy the team back.

Lasry says he's been busy talking with business leaders about the team's immediate future.

Lasry, a New York financial manager, spent his Monday morning meeting with officials at the Milwaukee Metropolitan Association of Commerce -- among other duties.

Lasry told city leaders at appearances throughout the day that he and Bucks co-owner Wes Edens are searching for a team president, and they've hired a new CFO. That announcement is expected to come within the next couple of days.

Lasry says foremost on their "to-do" list is putting together a proposal for a new arena in Milwaukee.

"We're just starting right now. We've got a group of people coming in Wednesday to take us through different ideas of building a new arena, and over the course of the next few weeks. Then, we'll end up working with the local business community, and looking at where we should be building that arena," Lasry said.

Possible sites are these:

"I think part of it is working with the city and the state and trying to figure out where to build an area and also have a huge amount of development so that it's beneficial to the city as well," Lasry said.

The estimated cost of a new arena is $400 million.

"I think one of the biggest challenges is getting all the approvals, and then convincing the people in Milwaukee that this is in their best interest as well as out best interest. We need to do this in a partnership," Lasry said.

Still to be worked out -- public funding for some of the cost, and other private investors.

Lasry says if that can't be worked out, the NBA takes back the team, and that means the Milwaukee Bucks would be gone.