FRI AM News: WisBusiness: the Podcast with Kevin Scheibler, Alliant Energy Center; Live “Talking Trade” panel explores global trade shifts, tariffs

April 24, 2026

— This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Alliant Energy Center Executive Director Kevin Scheibler.

The discussion focuses on a planned renovation project for the convention center. It’s located on a 164-acre campus in Dane County near the South Beltline, including a 100,000-square-foot exhibition hall, an arena with 10,000 seats and livestock spaces used for agricultural events.

“The oldest building was built in the ‘50s, the Coliseum was built in the ‘60s, and it hasn’t had really any major improvement to it over that time,” Scheibler said. “It really has outlived its useful life, and really needs some investment.”

The center last fall put out a request for proposal for the project and sought private investment, which resulted in a plan to invest $100 million from Frank Productions into the building to address infrastructure issues and “bring it up to speed” with new amenities and other upgrades.

Scheibler discusses the timeline for the project amid some ongoing negotiations with partners, expected to wrap up in May. After drafting the contract and getting local approval, he expects all of the legal framework will be finished by mid-summer, setting the stage for more in-depth engineering and design work over the coming year.

Construction is expected to begin in fall of 2027 and wrap up in late 2028 or early 2029.

“It is a pretty significant project, we’re not just going in and throwing some paint on the walls and changing some things around,” Scheibler said. “It’s going to be a complete overhaul to that building.”

He also previews some of the major gatherings happening at the Alliant Energy Center this summer and fall, including the Dane County Fair and World Dairy Expo in September and October.

“Which is the largest dairy-centric event in the world, brings people from all over several different countries here, there’s cattle from 48 of the United States plus Canada and Mexico,” he said, adding “from a business standpoint, it’s probably the most important show to most of the vendors that are here.”

Nearly doubling the size of the center’s exhibition hall will help meet the needs of major events like this, he noted.

Listen to the podcast here and see the full list of WisBusiness podcasts.

— A global studies expert at Carroll University warns “we may be having our lunch eaten by China” in the global vehicle export market amid changes driven by the Trump administration’s tariffs.

Lilly Goren, a professor of political science at the private university, joined other trade experts this week for a live “Talking Trade” podcast discussion in Waukesha.

The discussion explored shifting trade relationships between various nations as the world grapples with the impacts of U.S. trade policy, as well as how exporters and other businesses are dealing with the new reality.

“The state of Wisconsin used to sell China all of our ginseng, and now we don’t, and the ginseng farmers have essentially been bailed out,” Goren said, adding “the strange bedfellows that are arriving out of this tariff regime the United States has implemented, is that the post-World War II and to some degree also post-Cold War alliances are completely scrambled.”

She and other panelists noted China has been making deals with other trade partners amid heightened trade tensions with the U.S., expanding exports to European markets for one example.

M.E. Dey CEO Sandi Siegel, who co-hosts the “Talking Trade” podcast, noted it’s not only China that’s looking for other partners in the wake of the U.S. tariff framework.

“So are some of our other key NATO allies that are now not as pleased, based on how we’ve treated them,” she said. “So they’re also softening on talking with China, obviously.”

At the same time, Goren said China is producing the majority of high-quality electric vehicles being sold around the world, jeopardizing the U.S. position as a top vehicle maker and exporter.

Farmers in particular have been impacted by changes in trade with China, according to Prof. Alexandra Sielaff, director of Carroll University’s MBA program.

“It’s our farmers here that are suffering because China retaliated against them … China’s, certainly, retaliation has impacted our farmers’ ability to sell,” she said.

And though the Trump administration’s stated goal of reducing the trade deficit was accomplished in part with China, much of that trade has simply moved to other Asian countries. That’s according to E.M. Wasylik Associates Managing Director Ken Wasylik, the podcast’s other co-host.

“The trade deficit did reduce over last year from China, but it exploded when you look at Vietnam and other countries … like the Philippines, Taiwan,” he said. “Because what businesses did is just shift production, or their suppliers.”

During the president’s first term, many Chinese companies owned by Taiwanese investors began building their plants outside of China in anticipation of developments like this, Wasylik said, noting that foresight has proven to be correct.

“So you’re seeing the trade deficit with Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia even and Vietnam specifically have really increased,” he said. “So the total trade deficit has been reduced, but not anywhere near what the administration thought it should be.”

“Talking Trade” is sponsored by the Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin, Michael Best Strategies and Carroll University. The show is now available in audio form on Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts. Subscribe and find more episodes here.

– AG Josh Kaul announced the state is suing a group of prediction markets, alleging they’ve facilitated illegal sports betting in Wisconsin.

The trio of lawsuits filed in Dane County court against Kalshi, Robinhood, Coinbase, Polymarket, Crypto.com and their affiliates seeks to stop their use of “event contracts” allowing Wisconsin users to bet on the outcome of sporting events. Kaul at a press conference yesterday said the contracts are “indistinguishable legally or practically” from sports betting.

Sports betting and commercial gambling is illegal in Wisconsin, with limited exceptions.

“Our position in this case is that event contracts are no different than ordinary sports bets. The companies collect a fee, we allege, for every bet that’s made, leading them to earn significant revenue from Wisconsinites through violations of our state’s gambling regulations,” Kaul said.

Kalshi, for example, generated about $1.3 billion in annual revenue from sports contracts alone, Kaul said, though he did not have Wisconsin-specific figures.

Gov. Tony Evers earlier this month signed into law a bill paving the way for online gaming in the state as long as servers are located on tribal lands. The next step will be for the guv to negotiate new compacts with the state’s 11 tribes, the only entities allowed to offer gaming.

Kaul said there is no direct relationship between the lawsuits announced today and the new law. He said the allegations would be the same whether or not that legislation had passed.

Kaul noted there has been a “huge increase” in online sports betting in recent years.

“I certainly think that that may very well be linked to the fact there was legislative activity on this topic recently, just as there has been litigation activity,” he said.

— Workers at Rogers Behavioral Health sites in Madison and West Allis have voted to join the National Union of Healthcare Workers, which alleges the employer attempted to interfere in Wednesday’s election process.

The NUHW yesterday announced workers voted 53-4 in West Allis and 26-4 in Madison in favor of unionizing, saying they’re now “ready to negotiate contracts that would provide better pay, protections to ensure safe staffing levels and more time to care for individual patients.”

In a statement on the results, a spokesperson for Rogers Behavioral Health acknowledged the vote for unionization and said “we are evaluating our next steps” following yesterday’s elections.

“We are committed to our patients, our people, and the integrated care that has made Rogers a trusted provider across Wisconsin since 1907,” the spokesperson said in an email.

While the union is touting the successful unionization push, it also says Rogers tried to “stop the election” in West Allis by barring an NUHW representative from entering the facility and suspending a worker who had agreed to act as an observer.

NUHW says the lack of a union representative at the proceedings could have resulted in delays to counting the ballots, but noted a second worker acted as its observer “over the objections” of the company.

“Rogers took a wrong turn here in Wisconsin, but it’s not too late for the company to reverse course and work with us to improve conditions for everyone,” said Erin Quinlan, a behavioral health specialist at the Madison clinic.

In response to the union’s claims, the Rogers spokesperson said the company is “committed to the integrity of the election process,” noting every ballot was counted.

“During the election at West Allis, Rogers staff became aware that individuals who are no longer employed by Rogers had illegally entered the facility and accessed patient areas,” the spokesperson said. “Given our obligations to patient safety and facility security, Rogers took steps to address the situation, including contacting local authorities.”

Following the incident, the company says it’s reviewing the circumstances and “will pursue any appropriate remedies.”

Meanwhile, NUHW President Sophia Mendoza claims Rogers has “violated the trust of its employees” and wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on “union-busting” lawyers.

“But it can still set things right,” she said in a statement. “We’ve had good faith negotiations with Rogers in California that have improved patient care standards, and we remain ready to work together to make similar improvements in Wisconsin.”

The votes come after National Labor Relations Board Regional Director Jennifer Hadsall recently shot down the employer’s argument that its 13 locations in the state should be treated as a single bargaining unit.

See the union’s release.

For more of the most relevant health care news, reports on groundbreaking research in Wisconsin, links to top stories and more, sign up today for the free daily Health Care Report from WisPolitics and WisBusiness.com.

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— Two-thirds of U.S. adults approve of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that President Donald Trump didn’t have authority to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Powers Act, according to a new national Marquette University Law School Poll.

Among partisans, 61% of Republicans opposed the ruling, while 73% of independents and 92% of Dems backed it.

Meanwhile, the poll also found 57% of respondents believe the court is going out of its way to avoid rulings that Trump might refuse to obey. That’s unchanged from January.

The poll of 982 adults was conducted April 8-18 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points. Interviews were conducted online using the SSRS Opinion Panel.

See more from the survey.

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