One of Milwaukee’s favorite family-friendly annual sports traditions, the Harlem Globetrotters entertaining fans here on New Year’s Eve, will continue in 2018 at the Bucks’ new Downtown arena.
The world-famous Globetrotters – who have played in Milwaukee every New Year’s Eve since the 1960s, and at the BMO Harris Bradley Center for more than a quarter-century – are bringing their high-flying hoops hijinks to the Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center on Dec. 31. Tickets will go on sale when the Globetrotters release their full 2018 schedule at a later date.
The announcement was made in a video by Globetrotters players Buckets Blakes and Scooter Christensen from inside the WESC at the Milwaukee Tool Construction Site.
"We have a longstanding tradition of playing on New Year’s Eve in Milwaukee and while we said goodbye to the BMO Harris Bradley Center on Sunday, we are thrilled that we will be able to continue our New Year’s Eve tradition at the new home of the Bucks in 2018," said Blakes.
The news of the Globetrotters’ return marks the third announced show for the WESC, which is scheduled to open in the fall. The musical group Maroon 5 will play on Sept. 16, and comedian Jim Gaffigan will perform on Sept. 22. For more information on the WESC, click here.
To read my interview with a Globetrotters player, click here, and watch us play a very one-sided game of "H-O-R-S-E" below.
Born in Milwaukee but a product of Shorewood High School (go ‘Hounds!) and Northwestern University (go ‘Cats!), Jimmy never knew the schoolboy bliss of cheering for a winning football, basketball or baseball team. So he ditched being a fan in order to cover sports professionally - occasionally objectively, always passionately. He's lived in Chicago, New York and Dallas, but now resides again in his beloved Brew City and is an ardent attacker of the notorious Milwaukee Inferiority Complex.
After interning at print publications like Birds and Blooms (official motto: "America's #1 backyard birding and gardening magazine!"), Sports Illustrated (unofficial motto: "Subscribe and save up to 90% off the cover price!") and The Dallas Morning News (a newspaper!), Jimmy worked for web outlets like CBSSports.com, where he was a Packers beat reporter, and FOX Sports Wisconsin, where he managed digital content. He's a proponent and frequent user of em dashes, parenthetical asides, descriptive appositives and, really, anything that makes his sentences longer and more needlessly complex.
Jimmy appreciates references to late '90s Brewers and Bucks players and is the curator of the unofficial John Jaha Hall of Fame. He also enjoys running, biking and soccer, but isn't too annoying about them. He writes about sports - both mainstream and unconventional - and non-sports, including history, music, food, art and even golf (just kidding!), and welcomes reader suggestions for off-the-beaten-path story ideas.
