Today, Milwaukee Bucks will announce they are having their D-League team play in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Many people have been submitting different names for Bucks D-League team, and I’m curious to see how they go about picking the nickname. But this is a big step for Bucks to be a statewide team and build future Bucks fans for generations to come. Oshkosh was the correct choice for a variety of reasons.

Oshkosh is the perfect venue for a new D-League team. Green Bay and Madison would have been too big. Eau Claire and La Crosse have the Minnesota influence so that leaves you with Oshkosh, a fun college town. Putting a D-League team in a college town is a great move because it’s an easy draw for kids to do on a random night and see some players they remember from college basketball. It’s not just college kids though that Bucks are thinking about with this location. The other plan is to get younger families to check out a professional basketball team and draw a connection there to make them want to be Bucks fans. This is a move to attract new audiences to hoops.

This is the ideal location as well from a travel standpoint. Most people in the state can get to Oshkosh in one to two hours. That’s huge. There might not be interest every night, but it gives Fox Valley residents something to hold on to. Imagine if Thon Maker started out the season there? How many people would be drawn to watching Maker play? A good amount. This is a great next step for Bucks future.

Question now becomes how does the whole state get on board. They’re really close. The new arena is going to help and they’ll need to give people a reason to come back. It took Miller Park years to take off, but once it did, they never looked back. To me, Bucks window to have an awesome fan experience starts day one. This Oshkosh venture will only help things.

CHarlie.