Swanson expects to have a deal in place sometime next week after entering a contract with venue management company VenuWorks.

OSHKOSH – The Wisconsin Herd isn’t going anywhere.

Oshkosh Arena receiver Paul Swanson said he is nearing an agreement with the Milwaukee Bucks that would keep NBA team’s G League franchise in Oshkosh for the foreseeable future.

Swanson expects to have a deal in place with the Herd sometime next week after Judge John Jorgensen granted his motion for Iowa-based venue management company VenuWorks to oversee the operations of Oshkosh Arena.

“I don’t want to get specific and say it’s a new deal or that we’ll modify the old one, but I believe we’re going to reach an agreement in the short term with a goal towards reaching a long-term agreement at some point,” the veteran bankruptcy attorney told the Northwestern Aug. 9.

“It’s in everyone’s best interests to keep the Herd on the premises, so I’m counting on them playing at Oshkosh Arena, and I think they’re counting on playing at Oshkosh Arena.”

The news ends months of speculation about the Herd’s uncertain future after an inside source revealed to the Northwestern that the team could possibly leave Oshkosh as it “no longer wants to work” with Oshkosh Arena owner Fox Valley Pro Basketball Inc. over claims of a violation of the current lease.

NBA G League president believes Milwaukee Bucks affiliate Wisconsin Herd will stay in Oshkosh

Swanson confirmed the Herd’s lease agreement is in default.

The source also told the Northwestern the Herd has opt-out provisions that could release the team from its lease agreement, which Swanson confirmed is currently in default.

“They can walk away from it,” Swanson said.

The concerns over the Herd’s status only grew when Bayland Buildings, the company that built the arena, filed a foreclosure suit in Winnebago County Circuit Court claiming FVPB still owed an outstanding balance of $12,417,464.82.

This was after the City of Oshkosh’s Finance Department revealed back in May the Oshkosh Arena owner had unsettled personal property and real estate taxes arrears totaling more than $619,000.

Amid the arena’s financial struggles, the Herd still announced six of the team’s 24 home dates for the 2024-25 season in Oshkosh, as the court appointed Swanson as a neutral third party to temporarily manage Oshkosh Arena’s finances and business operations.

“For certain, the Herd will be playing games at Oshkosh Arena for the upcoming season, and I can’t see them wanting to leave because they really do like the place,” Swanson said.

“They just want the arena to be run professionally so my expectation is for them to be here for the long term so we’re going to have an agreement in place that’s acceptable to both sides.”

Swanson revealed parties are expressing interest in potentially buying the arena.

Fox Valley Pro Basketball listed Oshkosh Arena for sale in April before the foreclosure suit and Swanson said there are parties expressing initial interest in the facility.

The arena is listed on LoopNet as an 80,000-square-foot sports and entertainment building at 1212 S. Main St. for $19 million.

But the plan is to have VenuWorks manage the facility during the Herd’s upcoming season before engaging any perspective buyers in serious offers.

“I personally believe we have to have the venue up and running before we can get a reasonable price for it because any buyer will want to know what it can produce in terms of income,” Swanson said.

“The only complaints I’ve ever had about the arena is that consumers can’t get a beer because the lines are too long and that’s where you make your money with these venues … not the team but the sale of liquor and food.

“And that’s why I went with VenuWorks because they actually run 47 types of properties about this size and type, and they have experience and depth to manage it successfully,” he added.

AirVenture: EAA already mulling ways to improve AirVenture Oshkosh after 2024’s record-setting event

Swanson said the contract with VenuWorks is a five-year deal, but a new owner would have the provision to get out of that contract.

Oshkosh Chamber President/CEO Rob Kleman estimates each Herd home game generates about $100,000 of economic impact in the area.

The arena seats more than 4,000 people and the Herd averaged 87% capacity crowds in 24 home games during the 2022-23 season while selling out 11 of those contests.

According to team President Steve Brandes, the Herd donated $277,000 to charitable causes in that same season when they were also recognized as the NBA G League Franchise of the Year.

Contact Justin Marville at jmarville@gannett.com.

Have mosquitoes felt extra annoying this year in Wisconsin? 

If so, that’s because they’re likely more prevalent than in previous years. Warm weather plus lots of rain create ideal conditions for mosquito  populations.

All major regions of the state are seeing above-average precipitation this year, according to the State Climatology Office.

But it can be challenging to gauge exactly how bad mosquitoes are in Wisconsin because the state lacks any major agency dedicated to the control and monitoring of the buzzing insects. 

Daniel Huff is executive director of the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District in Minnesota. Huff’s district covers seven counties around the Twin Cities and a majority of the neighboring state’s population. Huff recently told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that bad mosquito years are only going to become more common as the climate changes. 

“I think mosquito-borne diseases are the biggest risk to us with climate change,” he said, referring to Dengue fever, Zika, malaria and other illnesses. “We are concerned that those diseases will migrate (north).”  

Earlier this month, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported the first confirmed cases of West Nile virus for the year. 

Huff said there are three main kinds of mosquitoes in the Upper Midwest: snow-melt mosquitoes that come in the early spring; summer mosquitoes that arrive around May or June and breed all year long; and cattail mosquitoes, which arrive around Independence Day and are the most “aggressive” breed in the region. 

“What a great time for our July Fourth picnics,” Huff said. “And they actually live over winter.” 

On WPR’s “Wisconsin Today,” Huff talked about the risks of mosquito-borne disease due to climate change, the prevalence of mosquitoes this year and the work of his agency at controlling  and monitoring the insects. 

The following was edited for brevity and clarity. 

RF: We’re seeing earlier thaws and later frosts with climate change. Is that extending the breeding season for any mosquito varieties? 

DH: Absolutely. We’re getting mosquito species that we don’t normally get up here in the Upper Midwest. One of the beautiful side effects of our harsh winters is they kill off a lot of the mosquitoes that you might have down south. But as the winter changes, we risk having mosquitoes move up here and stay, being able to survive our winters now.

When you have a shorter winter and a longer warm spell, you’re going to have more mosquitoes. Mosquitoes need two things to reproduce: they need water and they need warm temperatures. The longer the summer, the more mosquitoes we’re going to have. 

RF: Most of us think of mosquitoes as a nuisance. We don’t want to get bit. We don’t want the itches. You’re worried about public health here. What are some of the concerns we have about mosquito season when it comes to communicable diseases?  

DH: The Metropolitan Mosquito Control District is at its heart a public health agency. We like to make people’s summers better and more enjoyable. But our primary function is to prevent the spread of diseases that are caused by mosquitoes. You may have seen the statistic that mosquitoes are the most dangerous animal in the world. They kill more humans than any other animal in the world, including other humans. And it’s because they carry disease.  

RF: Here in Wisconsin, we do mosquito research through the Universities of Wisconsin, the Department of Health Services and so on. But we don’t have a Metropolitan Mosquito Control District. Tell us a little about this outfit. 

DH: The Minnesota Legislature in 1958 set forth that we were going to have a seven-county, independent unit of government whose sole purpose was to track and control mosquitoes. We’re very fortunate to have that. It covers about 3,000 miles. That’s about the size of two Rhode Islands. And by focusing on such a large area, we’re able to control and suppress mosquitoes in the whole region. Mosquitoes can fly about 5 miles. Treating a little area doesn’t mean that you’re protecting the people who live in that little area.

RF: Are there things people can do in their yards to help with mosquitoes? 

DH: First of all, get rid of your breeding habitats, your old tarp or little bucket. I’ve seen a picture of mosquito larvae in a Coca-Cola bottlecap. They don’t need a lot of water to grow. Eliminate those sources of water.

And do what you can to promote other beneficial insects and vertebrates, like birds and bats. While they’re not major consumers of mosquitoes, they will consume them. It’s really about reducing the habitat, reducing those little puddles of water that might collect in your yard. 

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (AP) — For a brief moment this week, the fierce competition for swing voters in swing-state Wisconsin converged on the tarmac of the tiny Chippewa Valley Regional Airport.

Minutes after Vice President Kamala Harris landed with her newly minted running mate Tim Walz for their first campaign stop in the state, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance arrived. He walked across the tarmac to check out Air Force Two, just missing Harris.

The close encounter of the political kind could be written off as a coincidence if it happened anywhere other than Wisconsin, one of a small number of states that will not only determine the winner of the presidential race but could also shape the balance of power in Congress. But it sent a much louder signal that both parties understand the importance of a region that could tip the balance of power in more ways than one.

The western Wisconsin congressional district where Harris, Walz and Vance all campaigned Wednesday is one Democrats hope to flip this year as they look to cut into the narrow GOP majority in the House. It’s also crucial to U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s reelection bid, a must-have for Democrats if they are to hold onto the Senate.

The small airport in Eau Claire in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District is far from the Democratic urban strongholds to the east and the deep-red rural swaths of northern Wisconsin. But the area is essential for both Harris and former President Donald Trump in one of the “blue wall” states, along with Pennsylvania and neighboring Michigan, that both parties say they need to win to secure the White House.

The battle lines will become clearer Tuesday in a competitive Democratic primary for the congressional seat, which is currently held by Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden, one of Trump’s loudest backers.

“The 3rd Congressional District is a purple district in a purple state,” said Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, from Wisconsin’s neighboring congressional district to the east. “How it votes will very likely indicate how it goes statewide for Vice President Harris.”

Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson called it “a bellwether district in a bellwether state.”

The diverse district has historically been drawn to moderates like Democrat Ron Kind, who held the congressional seat for 26 years before retiring in 2022. Before him, moderate Republican Steve Gunderson held the seat for 16 years. Democrat Barack Obama won the district twice in his White House races, but Trump won there in both 2016 and 2020 as rural areas nationally became more conservative.

Johnson said Trump’s presence on the ballot helped him win in 2016, boosted by the former president’s appeal to the working class and farmers. But that doesn’t mean the district is reliably Republican.

“The people of the 3rd District are independent thinkers who don’t like to be pigeonholed one way or the other,” said Republican Brian Westrate, who grew up and lives in the district. “They don’t like people telling them who they are or what they believe. They can’t be taken for granted, one way or the other. You have to earn their votes.”

Republicans have done a better job addressing the issues they care about, said Westrate, who serves as treasurer for the state Republican Party.

“They are people who like to get out there during the nine-day gun hunting season,” he said, “and that’s as much of a religious experience as Christmas.”

With the Mississippi River and the border with Minnesota to the west, the district includes the rolling hills of the Driftless Area and Chippewa Falls, home of Leinenkugel beer. From the Illinois border, it stretches 250 miles north past Prairie du Chien, known for its Cabela’s outdoor gear distribution center and 19th-century riverside historic sites.

Harris and Walz campaigned on the western edge of the district in Eau Claire, home to a University of Wisconsin campus, about an hour’s drive east of the border with Minnesota, where Walz has served as governor since 2019.

Harris is counting on his appeal to translate across state lines. It did in reverse Wednesday, when many of the more than 12,000 people her campaign says attended the rally came in from Minnesota.

A strong showing by Harris and Walz in western Wisconsin would take pressure off Democrats in Milwaukee and Madison to deliver huge margins to counter Republican strongholds in the suburbs and rural parts of the state, said Anthony Chergosky, a University of Wisconsin-La Crosse political science professor.

“They don’t necessarily have to win this congressional district,” Chergosky said of Democrats. “But they can’t get blown out.”

Pocan has argued Democrats didn’t spend enough money to win the open 3rd Congressional District race in 2022. This year, as the Republican Van Orden seeks reelection, Democrats are making the race a priority. The Democratic House Majority PAC in July added the race to its list of 31 target seats as part of a $24 million ad buy.

Unlike Kind and his moderate Republican predecessor, Van Orden aligns with the far right of the Republican Party. Democrats think that opens a door for them.

Van Orden attended the Jan. 6, 2021, rally before a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Since winning the election in 2022, he was chastised by leaders of both parties for yelling at high school Senate pages in the U.S. Capitol, shouting “Lies!” during President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech this year and getting into a scuffle with a liberal activist at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

Van Orden’s campaign did not return a message seeking comment.

The Democratic congressional primary, which will be decided Tuesday, also will test the strength of Democrats outside the party’s urban hubs in Milwaukee and Madison. Each of the three Democratic candidates has taken a different approach, offering a kind of messaging laboratory for how best to connect with swing voters.

“There’s a very interesting conversation ongoing in the Democratic Party right now about what’s going to sell in this part of the state,” Chergosky said.

Rebecca Cooke is a former political fundraiser and former small business owner who ran and lost in the 2022 Democratic primary. She is running as a political outsider, a position her challengers have questioned given the years she spent working as a political activist and fundraiser in Washington. Cooke touts her upbringing on a dairy farm and management of a nonprofit aimed at helping women-owned businesses, and she continues to work as a waitress.

State Rep. Katrina Shankland, who has been in the state Legislature since 2013, argues that she’s the candidate with the most experience in office. She has the backing of more than 18 labor unions and touts the more than 200 bills she’s supported that have been signed into law by either the current Democratic governor or his Republican predecessor.

The third contender, Eric Wilson, is a political newcomer trying to position himself as the most liberal candidate, touting his support for “Medicare for All” and the “Green New Deal,” a set of policy proposals on the environment touted by liberals in Congress.

At the end of June, Cooke had more than $1 million cash on hand compared with about $342,000 for Shankland and just $42,000 for Wilson. Van Orden, meanwhile, had $2.3 million on hand ahead of the general election.