Bucks owner and president Senator Herb Kohl spoke to the media on Monday, April 23, 2007 at the team's training center in St. Francis, WI.

OPENING STATEMENT FROM SENATOR KOHL

(Today is an) opportunity to have an exchange of views in an informal way to give you an update on where I am as the owner, where the team is, and where our future is, as well as respond to any of your questions that you may have. I hope you will be as frank with me as I will with you. I will speak for a few minutes and then will be happy to respond to any of your questions.

We had a bummer of a year. We understand that and I will return to that in a minute. But I think it needs to be put into context. This is a proud and a successful organization that has been in business now going on 40 years and it is chuck full of outstanding people whose attributes are intelligence, energy, loyalty and hard work at all levels. The Bucks are staffed by people who really care about Milwaukee and about this organization and its future. They are dedicated and determined to see that we remain an important part of the landscape here in Milwaukee and throughout Wisconsin.

Now, this past year was unsuccessful, but we have to recognize going into this year that in the prior eight years we made the playoffs six years and in the seventh year we missed by just one game – the game in Detroit at the end of the (2001-02) season. So we have had considerable success by standards in any league of having reached the playoffs. Yes, we haven’t gotten deep into the playoffs. That certainly is something that we are not satisfied with and something we are determined to rectify. But reaching the playoffs in the major leagues is a standard of achievement that is well accepted.

This year was going to be another playoff year for us. I think we all expected that. It was our hope, expectation and our standard. Indeed, through the first two months, that’s where we were cruising to get to. We were 16-15 at the end of the (calendar) year and with it being the toughest part of the schedule. We had 18 games on the road and 13 games at home and, nevertheless, we were 16-15 – even with Bobby Simmons out for the year. But then, as we know, January rolled around and the rest of our team basically went down. First, Michael (Redd) and then Mo (Williams) and then Charlie (Villanueva) and before you knew it the season was gone. Now, it’s very hard to compete without your players. Not that we don’t know it, but I saw a quote in the paper yesterday from Pat Riley. Pat Riley said, “I have always been aware – very aware – that this is a game of chance. As much as it is talent and execution, you lose your best players or even get one (hurt) and it changes everything.” Well, we know that. We understand that and it was pretty hard to compete and be successful when four of our five starters were missing numerous games, and in one case the whole season. When the smoke cleared, we were behind the eight-ball and were not going to make the playoffs. That was very unfortunate and we’re all very sad about it and you can be sure that we are determined to see that it doesn’t happen again. You can be sure that our new coach and our General Manager as well as our strength and conditioning coach and trainer will have the most rigorous off-season training program since I have been around. It is very sad when the players that you are counting on to carry your franchise – deliver a product to your customers – it’s very sad when they’re not available. You can’t compete. We are not going to let that happen again if it’s within our power to prevent it.

So that is where we are. We have had a history of success. We are very sad about this past year and we’re determined to see that it doesn’t happen again. We’re really optimistic about our future, our immediate future as well as our midterm and long-term future. We have a lot of things going for us. We have a brand new coach, Larry Krystkowiak, who everyone is excited about. I feel really good about him. Everybody in the organization feels good about him and the people throughout the community feel good about him. It was rather interesting in the extreme that once we made the coaching change some of the booing that accompanied our on-court performance that had been going on for sometime, it all stopped. At least at the games I attended. We continued to not fair well on the court but people weren’t expressing their dissatisfaction with their voices. I think that is because they sort of recognized that we have a good guy here. The organization is not sitting on its hinder; we’re trying to make it better and people did understand with the injuries that occurred it was very hard to win games. But they understood that we have a good coach here and a good coach is really important. I am excited about him (Larry Krystkowiak) and our General Manager (Larry Harris) cause I believe the two of them will work well together, that they will see to it that we’re doing everything in our power this summer – both with the players we have, the players we’re going to sign, with a top draft pick and with the free agents we’re going to be able to look at – so that we come back next year ready to put forward our very best effort to have an outstanding season. And that’s where we’re going.

At this point our renewal rate is really high for a non-playoff season. There is always a difference between your renewal rate if you’re heading into the playoffs or if you’re not. Our renewal rate is well over fifty percent at this time, which is as high as it’s been in several years for a non-playoff season. For the most part, our customers, who we cherish and value to the extreme, each and every one of them understand what happened and they are prepared to give us a mulligan on the basis of what we’ve accomplished in years past. There’s a lot to be enthusiastic about. We feel good about our team, we feel good about our organization, we feel good about our future and we will be back to compete and win.