Stingl: If kids play the anthem at a Bucks game, should dad and mom pay $66 each to get in?

Here's the deal or, in Steve Szymanski's view, not much of a deal. 

His two sons, 14-year-old Tommy and 10-year-old Ryan, will be performing the national anthem before a Milwaukee Bucks game next month. 

They get in free, which seems only right, but if their parents want to see the boys play the "Star-Spangled Banner" on violin and sit with them in the stands, it will cost them $66 each.

Szymanski stated his complaint in an email to me:

"I am curious if you are interested in a story about the Milwaukee Bucks using child musicians to play the national anthem, but revealing to parents after they have signed their kids up that it will cost the parents $66 each to see their children perform, and claiming that they are receiving a group rate. Why are multibillionaires, who already received hundreds of millions of dollars from taxpayers, hoodwinking parents?"

If it sounds like Szymanski is upset, he is. Somewhere along the way, I guess I lost my sticker shock over $66 tickets for major sports events, though I don't buy many. When I pressed Szymanski on what would be a fairer price for family and friends of the performers, he landed in the $20 to $25 range.

There's something else you need to know about all this. Tommy and Ryan are not performing alone. They will be joined by 28 other Suzuki program classmates from the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, all playing violins, violas and cellos, plus three teachers.

And the Bucks are letting them all in free for the Jan. 7 game against the Utah Jazz.

"This group got 33 tickets in the lower bowl for free. And we were happy to do it. It's a terrific organization," Bucks spokesman Barry Baum said, adding that the Bucks donate thousands of tickets a year to youth programs.

In most cases, the anthem is sung by one person, who receives a comp ticket along with a guest.

Szymanski knew from the start that family and friends would have to pay at a group rate, but he says the amount became known to parents two days after the Dec. 8 deadline to sign up the kids. 

"Quite honestly," Szymanski told me, "we would have been quite happy to sit in the nosebleeds. If you're going to charge me, make it reasonable. I'm irked at the Conservatory, too, because they should have come out and said, 'Wait a minute, do we really want to do this?' "

That answer would appear to be, yes, they really want to do this. The president and CEO of the conservatory, Eric Tillich, said he thinks the price is fair for the red-hot Bucks in their popular new home. The children are chaperoned by the teachers and no parent is required to go.

"These are voluntary opportunities for our parents and students. We try to lift our students up in the community, to give them opportunities to perform," said Tillich, who plans to pay the $66 and attend the game.

Szymanski, who lives on Milwaukee's south side, works as a religious educator at a local Catholic church. His wife, Rebecca, is a hospice manager. So it's not like the $132 expense for two tickets will land them in bankruptcy.

"But 66 bucks doesn't sound like a group rate. Am I going to be sitting in Giannis' lap?" Szymanski said.

That's a no, but Baum said the tickets are normally $80 each, and any ticket fees are dropped, too. Family and friends will be able to sit with their children in three lower-bowl corner sections, 104, 108 and 119.

"At the time the group accepted the invitation, the least expensive tickets available for the game were $66 in the lower bowl," Baum said. "This is the result of having huge crowds at every game and very limited inventory (of tickets)."

Part of Szymanski's dissatisfaction this time around stems from his memory of 2016 when the Conservatory kids performed the anthem for a Bucks game at the old BMO Harris Bradley Center. The kids, parents, grandparents and other family and friends were all allowed in free that time.

But people who came to watch the children play the anthem at an Admirals game and Brewers game that Szymanski recalls were charged for tickets, but well under half the $66 amount.

Szymanski doesn't want to disappoint his boys but isn't sure what he'll do. He'd like to see other parents pull their children in protest, but doesn't believe that will happen.

"They'd probably be like, 'What's up with this crank?' " he laughed. " 'What a curmudgeon.' "

Contact Jim Stingl at (414) 224-2017 or jstingl@jrn.com. Connect with my public page at Facebook.com/Journalist.Jim.Stingl