OKLAHOMA CITY — In less than three months, a new OKC arena will be voted on by local residents to determine if the current proposal is passed.
A Dec. 12 vote will ask OKC residents if they wish to continue its current one-cent tax rate for six additional years to fund a new arena.
Buy Thunder TicketsThe current proposal projects the construction costs of a new arena to be at least $900 million with $50 million contributed by Thunder ownership. The opening will be by the 2029-30 season.
If it gets voted in, then the long-term future of the Oklahoma City Thunder — whose current lease at Paycom Center expires in 2026 — will be secured. The Thunder have promised they will sign a 25-year lease for the new building.
On Thursday, OKC Mayor David Holt hosted a kickoff event at Scissortail Park for a pro-arena campaign. He re-emphasized the importance of a new arena and why OKC needs to build it in order to keep the Thunder.
“The truth of the matter is no one thinks we should have this team except for the people in the city, the people who own this team and the people I’m looking at right now,” Holt said.
Afterward, Holt spoke to local media and answered questions about the campaign and the new arena proposal. USA Today’s Thunder Wire was able to speak to him and ask him a handful of questions.
The conversation is lightly edited for clarity.
You mention that this is an Oklahoma City vs. the world situation, could you talk more about that?
“I think people need to understand that as the 42nd-largest market and a league with 30 teams, nobody in the sports world and certainly nobody in those 18 cities think we should have this team. So we have to work hard. We have to put our best foot forward. We have to seize this opportunity. We have to make this commitment for a new arena. And if we do all those things — and I believe that we will — we will win but as a small market, the deck is stacked against us.”
How important is it for OKC residents to remember the history of how the Thunder arrived here in the first place with Seattle’s refusal to fund a new arena?
“Pretty important. The idea that you can kind of have your cake and eat it too is a fantasy. That you can not invest in your arena as we have for 100 years and expect to have a major league sports team.
“I felt like it was really important today to say that because my role is to tell people the truth and to be real with people and sometimes that’s a thankless task, but it’s it’s an important one. We can’t let anyone who’s going to cast a vote on Dec. 12 cast a vote based on misinformation or a fantasy that’s simply not available to us as the 42nd-largest market.
“We have to do this. Bottom line. If you want to be big league. That’s the choice on the vote on the ballot on Dec. 12.”
If a new arena gets voted in, are there any upgrades or additions you’d like to see?
“We’ve definitely talked a lot about the size and it’s not the seating capacity. Everybody gets caught up in that. We’re talking about the square footage. We put that into the agreement to pass this week. It’s got to be 750,000 square feet. That’s almost a 50% increase from where we are today. So the size is going to be really important. It’s a revenue driver for all users of the arena.
“I’ve said — as you understand better than most — I mean when you just stand for 20 seconds in front of Milwaukee’s arena, Brooklyn’s arena, San Francisco’s arena, you are immediately struck by the difference in scale the difference in ambition of the architecture and with $900 million budget. we have that opportunity to really make a statement and raise the bar for the aesthetic value of our downtown.
“So I’m excited about that opportunity. I’m not necessarily in the weeds on like whether the seats have cupholders or not. But I am interested in a statement this can make for our community. I’m interested in obviously making it an arena that works for great concerts and for the NBA. But the bottom line is this is what the NBA needs to make a long-term commitment to Oklahoma City. And that’s all that matters to me.
“That’s why I always say it’s a lot of questions and a lot of things you can discuss. But at the end of the day, there’s one very simple question on Dec. 12 — do you want to be big league or not? And that’s really what should guide people’s votes.”
What did you think of today’s turnout?
“Excellent. I’ve been around these things for 20 years, really, and we’ve never had a crowd this big for a kickoff of one of these campaigns. So I love where we’re at right now. I think the city’s has a really broad consensus behind this. And we just got to turn people out on Dec. 12.”
