The clock is ticking on the Milwaukee Bucks’ plan to unveil a new $500 million downtown facility.

The arena financing plan must be completed in 10 days in time for the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee’s consideration.

“This has to be wrapped up in the next 10 days,” urged Bucks president Peter Feigin on Tuesday. Feigin admitted to challenges within the politics associated with finalizing a plan, but expressed cautious optimism, reports Don Walker of the Journal Sentinel.

A meeting is expected to convene on Wednesday between representatives from the Bucks, the city councilors and legislative leaders. The Bucks’ current timeline calls for groundbreaking in the fall of 2015 but there would need to be agreements with the city and county as well as a go-ahead on the financing plan.

The Bucks have billed the plan as a 50-50 public-private partnership on the $500 million facility. However that plan has faced some opposition and uncertainty.

The original plan headed by Wisconsin governor Scott Walker called for the state of Wisconsin to provide $220 million in bonding. But that proposal has failed to generate sufficient political backing. Instead, an alternative for $150 million in backing has been put forth by Senate Majority leader Scott Fitzgerald.

Should the $150-million proposal go through, the Bucks would be short $100 million of their goal of $500 million.

The Bucks are facing an NBA-imposed deadline by the fall of 2017 to have a new arena in place. Should the Bucks fail to meet the deadline, the league reserves the right to buy back the team for $575 million.

Charlie Sykes gives the reasons why this is bad news for Bucks fans:

1. Public opinion.
The numbers in last week’s Marquette University law poll were brutal, with 79 percent of registered voters statewide opposing public financing. That was bad enough, but the numbers out state were even worse: 87 percent of out state voters opposed the plan. That’s a huge problem because any package has to have out state GOP backing to make it into the budget. Milwaukee Democrats won’t lift a finger.

2. Tom Barrett.

Not a new story, but it is getting worse with every passing week. Barrett’s lack of engagement on a major project in his own city has both puzzled and annoyed legislators and his apparent refusal to increase the local share — by, for example, creating a TIF for the new private-sector ancillary development — may be a deal killer. This would be bad enough, but legislators contrast his hands-off approach to the arena project to his fervent backing of the $124 million streetcar. Behind the scenes, Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele is floating some ideas, but his ability to get anything through a hostile county board is problematic at best.

3. Tom Barrett’s mouth.

If possible Barrett made things even worse last week, when he lashed out at Governor Scott Walker and the GOP legislators, suggesting that they had passed gun laws that contributed to the city’s explosion of violent crime. Barrett’s comments were cited by both co-chairs of the legislature’s Joint Finance Committee. “Politics is about relationships,” [State Rep. John] Nygren said Friday. “You poke a finger in our eyes, it makes it a little harder.”

Senator Alberta Darling was even more direct:

Darling accused Barrett of “appalling leadership,” saying he was shifting the blame for crime without taking responsibility for what’s happening in the city. Last week, Barrett called on Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican-dominated Legislature to devote more resources to public safety in Milwaukee, saying the state’s gun laws have resulted in more guns on the street.

“He never is at fault for anything,” Darling said. “He’s never the key player.”

4. Marc Lasry.

Some insiders think that Lasy’s public commitment to raise $270,000 in a week for Hillary Clinton could leave a bigger mark than the polling numbers. Lasry has every right to support the candidate of his choice, of course, and he has made no secret of his fealty to the Clintons. But the timing of his all-in-for-Hillary announcement raised eyebrows, given that in order to he has to get his financing package approved, he needs to support of a GOP legislature and a GOP governor… who also happens to be running for president.

Lasry is evidently either tone-deaf, or simply has decided that he wants to be ambassador to France more than he wants a new arena in Downtown Milwaukee.

5. Scott Walker.

In case you hadn’t noticed, the governor has a lot on his plate lately and he is trying to appeal to different constituencies. How much political capital is Walker going to devote to a project that could easily be cast as corporate welfare for billionaires? How will that play in Iowa, or New Hampshire? As we saw in the fight over Miller Park, a political lift this heavy needs an engaged, aggressive, high profile push from the governor. Don’t expect Walker to use the Tommy Thompson playbook here.

Nygren asks:

Currently, the city and county of Milwaukee have committed $50 million, a mere 5% of total costs related to this project. To put that into perspective, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett committed $64 million of city funds to build a 2.5 mile streetcar route, which is 50% of all streetcar costs. If Mayor Barrett is willing to front 50% of the costs for a streetcar, but only 5% for an arena in his city, it begs the question: how serious is the Mayor about keeping the Bucks in Milwaukee?In comparison to what other cities have contributed, Milwaukee’s contribution is considerably less. Most recently, in Sacramento, the city is giving $255 million, nearly 53% of all costs to build a new NBA stadium. The city of Brooklyn is also planning a $1 billion arena; however, the city has committed $205 million, 20.5% of costs. In fact, going back to 2001, no city has committed less to build an arena than Milwaukee. If we want to seriously move forward with keeping the Bucks in Milwaukee, we need the city and county to get serious about funding.

Clearly, Milwaukee and Milwaukee County are not serious about funding a Bradley Center replacement. The Bucks’ owners need not sell the team back to the NBA; they need only ask the Washington state Democrats to come up with taxpayer goodies for Seattle Sonics 2.0.

What legislator interested in reelection would go against 87 percent of his or her constituents? As stated here before, the statewide following for the Bucks is nowhere near the statewide following of the Brewers, and Miller Park was far from uncontroversial. (For that matter, 47 percent of Brown County voters voted against the 0.5-percent Brown County sales tax for the early-2000s Lambeau ield improvements. It’s one thing to buck 47 percent of your constituents, but 87 percent?)

Enjoy the NBA playoffs (game three of Bucks vs. Bulls is Thursday night), Bucks fans. You don’t have long to watch the NBA in Milwaukee.