The Oshkosh Arena, formerly the Menominee Nation Arena, is a

indoor arena An arena is a large enclosed platform, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators ...

located in Oshkosh, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. The facility is primarily used for

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

, but has also hosted a handful of conventions and concerts. It serves as the home of the

Wisconsin Herd The Wisconsin Herd are an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and are affiliated with the Milwaukee Bucks. The Herd play their home games at Oshkosh Arena. History On June 29, 2016, it was anno ...

of the

NBA G League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official List of developmental and minor sports leagues, minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development ...

, which is affiliated with the

Milwaukee Bucks The Milwaukee Bucks are an American professional basketball team based in Milwaukee. The Bucks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded in 1968 ...

of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

. The first event to be held at the arena, a Wisconsin Herd game was on December 1, 2017.

Location and design

The arena is located along the east side of South Main Street, on the former site of the Buckstaff Furniture Company. With a seating capacity of 3,500 spectators, the new arena broke ground on March 29, 2017, with completion slated for late November. Oshkosh Arena dismantlement of Buckstaff Furniture Building Feb 2017

Oshkosh Arena dismantlement of Buckstaff Furniture Building Feb 2017

History

On January 25, 2017, the Oshkosh City Council unanimously approved the construction of the $15 million facility. The cost of the construction was privately funded, with the arena being part of a larger development plan for a new housing and commercial area called the Sawdust District, located near Pioneer Drive Park along the shores of

Lake Winnebago Lake Winnebago ( mez, Wenepekōw Nepēhsæh, oj, Wiinibiigoo-zaaga'igan, one, kanyataláheleˀ) is a shallow freshwater lake in the north central United States, located in east central Wisconsin. At 137,700 acres it is the largest lake entir ...

. On June 13, 2017, the Oshkosh City Council announced that the arena was to receive an additional $250,000 in state-supported funding for improvement of the nearby roadways and infrastructures to improve transit to the facility. On October 23, 2017, the

Menominee The Menominee (; mez, omǣqnomenēwak meaning ''"Menominee People"'', also spelled Menomini, derived from the Ojibwe language word for "Wild Rice People"; known as ''Mamaceqtaw'', "the people", in the Menominee language) are a federally recog ...

Native American tribe announced that they had purchased the naming rights to the arena, giving it the Menominee Nation Arena name. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The owner and operator of the arena, Fox Valley Pro Basketball, Inc. filed bankruptcy on August 19, 2019. According to Jeff Bollier of Gannett News multiple lawsuits have been filed against the owners. In March of 2021 it was announced that the Menominee Tribe were ending their contract for the naming rights as part of their business restructuring due to COVID-19. As of August 19, 2021, the arena began to remove the Menominee Nation name from the Arena.

References

External links

Official Site
Indoor arenas in Wisconsin Sports venues in Wisconsin NBA G League venues 2017 establishments in Wisconsin Basketball venues in Wisconsin Sports in Oshkosh, Wisconsin Wisconsin Herd Sports venues completed in 2017 {{Wisconsin-sports-venue-stub