MILWAUKEE -- The Milwaukee Bucks say the planned opening of their new downtown arena will be delayed a year.
The team hoped to have the arena ready by the start of the 2017-2018 NBA season, but the Bucks said Tuesday their construction schedule now targets an opening for the 2018-2019 season. Team spokesman Jake Suski said the earlier date "simply isn't realistic."
The Bucks play in the 27-year-old BMO Harris Bradley Center.
The NBA had threatened to move the team if a new arena wasn't built by 2017. An NBA spokesman said Tuesday that the league is "comfortable with the revised timetable."
On Monday, the Bucks submitted to the city of Milwaukee preliminary plans for the $500 million arena and a surrounding development. A planning commission will review the plans Nov. 9.
