Big Bucks In Milwaukee: Fiserv Forum’s Busy Week

– Fiserv Forum
Milwaukee, Wis.

The city of Milwaukee is on the upswing, with a growing, diverse population as well as an exciting sports scene. What better complement than the brand-new, world-class Fiserv Forum, which is home to the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks and has a full slate of concerts coming up with everything from J Balvin (first Latin artist to play an arena show in the city in almost 20 years) to Travis Scott to two nights of Eric Church. The 17,500-capacity building recently earned a Pollstar Awards nomination for Best New Venue. 

Fiserv Forum general manager Raj Saha talked to Pollstar about a particularly busy week at the recently opened arena, which saw Metallica, Foo Fighters, Eagles, Twenty One Pilots and the Milwaukee Bucks’ home opener hit the brand-new facility.

“It was an awesome week, with five sold-out events,” said Saha, who oversees the talent and programming team at the venue.  

“We had 18,878 in the building for Metallica on Tuesday, got that out, loaded in Foo Foo Fighters Wednesday, loaded them out, and had about a two-hour gap from the last Foo Fighters truck to leave the building before doing a floor mark for the Eagles on Thursday. “ “That was an amazing show,” Saha said of the Eagles’ Oct. 18 gig. “I’m not sure if you’ve seen them on this tour, but you sing the hits the whole time. It’s fantastic. 

“Then we had our first Bucks regular season game ever in the building on Friday, which was awesome as well. As soon as the game ended we probably had half the crowd go out to our newly opened beer garden to watch the last few innings of the Brewers game 6. 

“At the same time we had about 500 people camping outside for Twenty One Pilots, got them all situated by our GA entrance that night, and started loading in Twenty One Pilots in the early morning hours on Saturday.  

– Raj Saha
with J Balvin at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wis.

“And then we pretty much slept all day on Sunday – except I’m a glutton for punishment so I went on a 4-mile hike and felt worse Sunday night. But it’s good to see outside.”  

Going forward, “The city on the up and up,” Saha added. “The basketball team is a young, exciting one that will challenge for a top position, which helps.  Just seeing the amount of cranes in the air, condos being built for millennials newly graduated from college. It’s always been a city of industry, but is becoming more of a city of creatives. It really is a good music city, here in Milwaukee.

“We weren’t sure what would happen after we got off the traditional rock genre, but pop has done quite well from ticket sales perspective,” he said of business at the arena. “We had our first Latin show with J. Balvin and we’re looking for other Latin stars, and hip-hop, other music genres that did not play across the street (at the Bradley Center).”

“Latin seems to be one of the fastest-growing music genres globally. Balvin, Bad Bunny and Ozuna and Maluma, for example.  The Latin population is Milwaukee is going through an explosion, with 74 percent growth since the 2000 census. 

“What we did for the J Balvin show, we kind of made it a Colombian takeover. We had the USA vs Colombia friendly on the screens inside the arena as well as out in the beer garden.

“As it warms up we’re going to start looking at festivals, not just music but lifestyle, wine and cheese, artisan fairs and all that,” Saha added.