For many people, the end of the past NBA season was as exciting a conclusion as one can remember. The most-talked-about team in the league – the Miami Heat – held off the San Antonio Spurs in one of the best NBA Finals ever played. For the 39th consecutive season, Milwaukee Bucks fans did not have a hometown favorite for whom to cheer in the championship round. That is concerning enough. More disturbing is the notion that, in coming years, there may be no Milwaukee Bucks to cheer in the Finals.

This spring, a development on the West Coast may have accelerated a process that could lead to the departure of the Bucks from Milwaukee. The process really began in 2007 and 2008, when the Seattle SuperSonics were bought by a businessman from Oklahoma, who moved the Sonics to Oklahoma City to become the Thunder. Seattle has a passionate fan base – and a city that did not meet the demands of the new owner for a new arena. As sketchy as the sale and move may have been conducted, the raw arena politics of sports took a team away from a city that loves its basketball.

Milwaukee County recently announced that 10 county residents who drop off household chemicals and hazardous waste will win tickets to the (Bucks’) 2013-14 home opener. The joke writes itself.

Seattle thought the shaky ownership situation of the Sacramento Kings could return hoops to the Emerald City. The Kings’ owners tried last year to relocate to Anaheim, then arranged an agreement to sell to Seattle owners and a drop the team into a new building. Sacramento fought back and cobbled together potential local owners – and a new arena plan – to save the franchise. In May, the NBA voted that the team would be sold to the Sacramento group, leaving Seattle searching. Surely, their eyes have scanned due east ... to the shore of Lake Michigan.

The Bucks have had trouble cultivating a devout fan base in Wisconsin for decades. You recall my column on “Operation Buck ’Em Up” in 2009 as a way to gin up Bucks fandom outside of Milwaukee? Perhaps not, since the response was nearly nil. That is the landscape in outstate Wisconsin; in the BMO Harris Bradley Center (in case you didn’t notice, naming rights were sold last year), the Bucks regularly rank near the bottom of NBA attendance. The teams below and around them are mostly franchises that have either recently moved or are future candidates.

Yes, the Bucks have fan hotspots like the rowdy, soccer-esque Squad 6. However, the overall Bucks enthusiasm picture is bland. Milwaukee County recently announced that 10 county residents who drop off household chemicals and hazardous waste will win tickets to the 2013-14 home opener. The joke writes itself.

Yet fan apathy may not be the greatest danger to the team’s tenure in Mill-town. Rather, it’s the arena. The Bradley Center is 25 years old, third-oldest in the league – and the two older ones have had major renovations since the 1990s and/or may soon be replaced. What does the Bradley Center lack? According to the future NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, the seating arrangement, arena footprint and amenities are lacking compared to the rest of the league. What was tops in the NBA through the 1990s is subpar by today’s standards. Not helping was the original financing of the arena, which included no provisions for upgrades over the years. So, build a new one, right? Well, plenty of Milwaukee-area skepticism exists for a tax to pay for an arena, particularly in the wake of opposition to the funding of Miller Park. Now you see why the Bucks are at the top of the NBA-to-Seattle list.

One factor weighs strongly against a move: Herb Kohl. He has owned the team since 1985, and even though he’s 78 and recently retired from the U.S. Senate, he is a solid Wisconsinite who not only will not move the team, but says he will only sell to those who will keep the team in-state. The question is whether such people exist with the financial wherewithal to match the Seattle folks … and those guys have lots of money.

This season brings echoes of the Bucks’ successful past: a new floor with a design reminiscent of the legendary old MECCA court. Enjoy the site on TV while you can; echoes may be all that remain of the Bucks by the end of this decade.