SOB Editor
Your SOB Editor/Creator has been a Bucks fan since a young child in the late 1970’s. As a youth I got to witness the great Don Nelson teams and loved the fact it was a given the team always played into the month of May. As an adult my goal was to be able to afford season tickets, which I started purchasing approximately a decade ago, continuing in the tradition of my parents who had season tickets for many years in the 1980’s and 1990’s.
I’ve been forever grateful for the stewardship of Senator Kohl, and as a fan supported most of his moves as owner. The past few years however, it was clear to many that the NBA game had changed. What the Bucks were doing wasn’t working. This site was inspired by a dialogue with a large number of Bucks fans and season tickets holders who wanted to voice their thoughts but never had the platform to do so.
Our worst fear was that Senator Kohl would eventually put the team on the market, but that prospective buyers would believe this town not to be a basketball market and not capable of supporting the team given the downward spiral of ticket sales and TV ratings the past decade. As a result the team would be sold and moved.
One of the main goals of this site was to start a dialogue with a number of groups: season ticket holders, casual fans, the media, Wisconsin residents, politicians and even prospective purchasers of the team looking on from afar. The goal was to communicate to potential purchasers locally and nationally that this franchise was once one of the small market jewels in professional sports and could be once again. (True story: Your SOB Editor always wondered why a twitter user from New York named “Alexander Lasry” started following the SOB twitter account in December of 2013).
I’ve been asked by a number of people, why do you stay anonymous? The goal for this site has always been to get people talking about important concepts that needed to be addressed. That way the focus is on the issues and not the personalities involved in the discussion.
Find me at @PaulPressey25 on Twitter
SOB Spokesperson
After the site took off in November of 2013, it was clear SOB needed a public face to things. Someone to speak about the Bucks and SOB on the sports talk shows, attend public forums and rally the troops so to speak in an effort to help recreate the greatness that is the Milwaukee Bucks and secure their long-term future in Milwaukee. We couldn’t have found a better person than Paul Henning.
Paul is a lifelong native of Milwaukee and part of a local family that has held season tickets for the Bucks going back to the days of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He lives on the east side and is an ambassador for all things Milwaukee. You can follow him on twitter at @brewcitypaul to get updates on what he and SOB are up to.
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SOB Web Designer / Site Master
To put this website together, SOB needed a professional webmaster to design, maintain and host the site. To demonstrate the power of social media in global communication, there just so happened to be a fanatic Bucks fan named Paul Cousins, living in Melbourne, Australia, who wanted to be part of the movement. Paul runs his own web-design and consulting firm by day and by night is a Bucks fan, joining our ranks in 2005 when the Bucks drafted his hometown hero, Andrew Bogut. Paul has put in countless hours designing the site and making things run from a technical end. He’s also donated the hosting platform and been a big part of everthing since day one.
The NBA and the Bucks are a global brand. And amazingly the commentary pieces that someone in Pewaukee reads on the site have their technical origins in Australia, courtesy of Paul Cousins.
The Movement
The concept of SOB never gets off the ground without the existence of the Milwaukee Bucks forum at RealGM.com. Located at that message board is a community of Bucks fans that discuss the team 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days of the year. For those who have never visited the site, we urge caution as it is a cantankerous bunch at times and not for everyone. That said, much of the content on this site is derived from a decade of debate that took place on that forum and still takes place today.
The SOB Editor and Web Master worked in concert with a number of the members of that community in making the SOB movement a reality. These were the people who designed and spearheaded the “Winning takes Balls Billboard”, designed the SOB logo, and provided the needed crowd-funding to make the movement a reality.
The Media
As we look back on things, we are grateful to many members of the media who helped get the word out about the movement. There are a number of you who helped publicize the site, the articles and had Paul Henning as a guest on your show or for interviews.
However, the key person who helped legitimize everything was Yahoo NBA writer Kelly Dwyer. Two days after site launch, Kelly wrote a column about SaveOurBucks.com and things went viral from there, sparking the billboard movement over at RealGM. We remain grateful for his continued support. Follow him on twitter at @KDonHoops
Hello, I am the guy who wrote two weeks ago in the JS sports section talking about how much the Bucks mean to the community. I am all in to do what needs to be done to finalize this. Although I live in Naperville, IL I was born in Tosa and love the Bucks. What can I do to help? Do you need me up there Tuesday?
We’d love to have you! Any and all Bucks fans, please wear Bucks gear and come to the meeting June 9th at 5:30pm at the War Memorial on the lakefront.