Milwaukee Bucks’ arena granted approval to be voting location, co-owner Marc Lasry says

The Milwaukee Bucks’ arena will be used as a 2020 election voting site, the team’s co-owner, Marc Lasry, told CNBC on Monday. 

In an interview on “Halftime Report,” Lasry confirmed the team received approvals in the last “24 or 48 hours” to turn the Fiserv Forum in downtown Milwaukee into a polling location for the upcoming November election. 

“So I’m happy to say that Fiserv Forum will now be a polling station,” Lasry said. 

The Bucks last month announced their willingness to turn the arena into a voting site, an offer that took on increased significance in recent days as the team’s players initiated widespread athlete protests over racial injustice. 

The Bucks now join other NBA teams such as the Atlanta Hawks, Sacramento Kings and Detroit Pistons in turning arenas into voting locations. 

Lasry’s comments follow the resumption of the NBA playoffs over the weekend after player protests over racial injustice led to a postseason pause. The work stoppage began Wednesday with the Bucks, who were responding to the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin. 

The protests then spread across the NBA and other professional sports league, including the WNBA and baseball. 

NBA players weighed whether to continue with the playoffs inside the league’s so-called bubble in Florida, which was established as a way to safely finish the season during the coronavirus pandemic. The league had attempted to center racial justice as part its July restart following the death in May of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. 

On Thursday, the players ultimately decided to proceed with the playoffs. A day later, the NBA and the players’ union issued a joint statement detailing further commitments to address racial inequality in the U.S., including increasing access to voting by turning some basketball arenas into polling locations. They also agreed to establish a social justice coalition consisting of players, coaches and owners that will work to advocate for other reforms.