Bucks Plaza prepares for thousands of fans ahead of Sunday's first-round playoff game

MILWAUKEE - The Milwaukee Bucks face the Detroit Pistons for the first round of the NBA playoffs Sunday night and the team is making sure no one misses out on the cheering for the hometown team.

“This city is behind this team like I've never seen before,” said TJ Sagen, the Bucks event programming manager. “People are excited, they want to be a part of it.”

Outside of Fiserv Forum Saturday, crews were getting the plaza ready for the playoff festivities.

“This is the sports court, so we'll have the game operations team out here doing a lot of demonstrations,” Sagen explained.

The Rim Rockers and Bango will also be hanging out with fans before the game. There will also be food and drink vendors, a beer garden and DJ.

“The old arena, we had to do things on the street,” Sagen said. “With the plaza having 7,600 square feet, we want to utilize and make this the place to be.”

Fans can come down to Deer District for free. There will be two massive TV screens to watch the game on the plaza for the fans that don’t have tickets to the game.

“Not everyone may be able to afford a game day ticket, but we still want them to feel like they're part of the action to come down here and enjoy the game,” Sagen said.

Close to the action, Punch Bowl Social will have their TVs on for fans looking to enjoy the game indoors.

“We're right on the plaza,” said Justin Beam, Punch Bowl Social’s general manager. “We've got 30 TVs, 25,000 square feet and eight bowling lanes. ‘There's not a bad seat in the house.”

Fans said they’re ready to cheer on the Bucks.

“Everyone knows it's our time to shine,” said Craig Grady. “We got the MVP Giannis. “It's time to do our thing and put us on the map.