A new NBA arena in Oklahoma City? Thunder, city officials beginning discussions

The Oklahoma City Thunder is putting its Thunder Alley development on hold and Mayor David Holt wants to pause $70 million in MAPS 4 upgrades as the two sides begin discussions on whether to build a new NBA arena.

The Thunder is currently in a 15-year contract at Paycom Center that expires in 2023. Mayor David Holt announced at Thursday’s State of The City address that the team has agreed to a three-year extension.

“Obviously we want a long-term relationship with professional sports in this city,” Holt said. “And to do that, you have to have facilities that are current and competitive.”

As part of MAPS 4, voters approved $115 million for the arena and the team’s practice facility, with the practice facility to get no more than 9% of the $115 million ($10.3 million). Proponents explained during the MAPS 4 campaign that improvements were needed to remain competitive and sign a new lease with the Thunder.

Holt is asking city staff to pause $70 million of the MAPS 4 improvements, which would have included adding 70,000 square feet to allow for more restaurants, premium ticket amenities and expansion of the top level “Loud City” concourse. Some MAPS 4 improvements including replacing seating and the arena scoreboards are already underway and will proceed.

"A lot of people think of arenas in terms of the seats,” Holt said. “That's only part of the experience that drives revenue for sports teams and concerts alike. You have to have all this other room for all the other elements of user experience. And our square footage (586,000 square feet), is the smallest in all of the NBA and not by a little."

The team's Thunder Alley project, first announced in 2019, was to include a sculpture and plaza at the corner of Robinson and Oklahoma City Boulevard. The development also was to include a digital video board-wrapped building that would be home to a 6,125-square-foot Thunder Alley Grill. A second 10,000-square-foot restaurant would be built in the middle of the block along with a covered basketball court for fans.

The project would be built on the former Interstate 40 easement between Oklahoma City Boulevard and the arena. Designs submitted by Bockus Payne Architecture show a development with significantly more street presence than the first renderings submitted earlier this year.

Neither Holt nor the Thunder indicated whether the team is hinting at leaving without improving its playing accommodations. Dan Mahoney, vice president of communications at the Thunder, said the team’s owners “appreciate Mayor Holt's vision and leadership” and that they “welcome the dialogue."

Paycom Center originally opened in 2002 and was funded as part of the original Metropolitan Area Projects passed by voters in 1993. The arena was designed with the hope of attracting an NHL team. The NHL rejected Oklahoma City when it bid for a 1996 expansion team. The NBA temporarily relocated the New Orleans Hornets to the Oklahoma City arena in 2005 when New Orleans was devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

A group of investors, led by Clay Bennett, bought the Seattle SuperSonics for $350 million in 2006 and moved them to Oklahoma City in 2008 when Seattle leaders failed to secure public funding to build the team a new arena. Forbes in 2021 valued the team at $1.63 billion.

How much has been spent on Oklahoma City's Paycom Center?

Voters have approved a series of renovations and improvements to Oklahoma City's arena over the years including $90 million as part of the 2008 Major League City sales tax and $9 million as part of the 2017 Better Streets, Safer City bond issue.

The original $86 million cost of Paycom Center was seen at the time of its opening as a bargain compared to the $420 million American Airlines Center in Dallas that opened in 2001.

“To secure the Thunder, we made a further commitment to the arena and now $190 million in total has been invested in Paycom Center,” Holt said. “When compared to the cost of all other NBA arenas in 2022 dollars, that total ranks ahead of only one NBA arena — Smoothie King Center in New Orleans.”

Holt added New Orleans and Oklahoma City are the only arenas originally designed without an NBA team as a tenant. Sue Hollenbeck, special projects manager at City Hall, said the differences between Paycom Center and other NBA arenas include press boxes up by the suites instead of near the court. Concourse sizes and premium ticket holder amenities.

“It’s posed challenges but we’ve been able to overcome them,” Hollenbeck said. “But we can’t do that forever.”

How does Paycom Arena compare to other NBA arenas?

The average age of NBA arenas is 21.5 years, according to Holt, and Paycom Center is 20 years old. Arena upgrades and replacement are common in the NBA.

San Francisco’s Chase Center, which opened in 2019, and Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, which opened in 2012, are two of the most glamorous NBA arenas befitting of their big-market locales, but new, state-of-the-art arenas have also been built in smaller markets like Detroit, Milwaukee and Sacramento in the last six years.

Chase Center cost $1.4 billion while Sacramento’s Golden 1 Center, still one of the nicest arenas in the league, cost $507 million.

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson recently started a discussion about the city’s professional sports venues, including whether to replace American Airlines Center.

The Mavericks and Stars leases at American Airlines Center expire in 2031. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said in November the likelihood of his team staying in the arena was “less than 50%.”

Holt said he supports the city moving forward with some of the MAPS 4 improvements at Paycom Center and predicted any replacement or venue changes will take several years to become a reality.

The Oklahoma City council previously approved the lower and upper bowl fixed seating replacement at a construction cost of $4 million. The council will consider $5.5 million for retractable seating, $2.5 million to modernize four existing elevators and $6.9 million to replace the scoreboard.

MAPS Project Manager David Todd said he has the authority to issue a stop work order on the remaining $70 million of MAPS 4 improvements, and that it wouldn't require action from the city council.

Paycom Center is marking its 20^th anniversary with the busiest year for concert bookings since its opening. Holt has on multiple occasions shared stories and photos from other countries showing the Thunder is an international brand.

Eleven active NBA players were recently named to the NBA’s all-time team celebrating the league’s 75th anniversary, and five of those 11 players have played for Oklahoma City.

“No franchises in sports are as well-known both in America and around the world as the 30 franchises of the National Basketball Association, and we in Oklahoma City have one of them,” Holt said. “It is a truly global sport, so not only did we luck out having a major league sports team, but we got the best one we could have hoped for.”

Holt said 18 larger cities are without an NBA team and some of them are preparing to compete for teams as their leases expire.

“Our ascension into the ranks of NBA cities was remarkable because it lifted us into an entirely new group of peer cities,” Holt said. “That means we now exist in a hypercompetitive environment, an unforgiving environment. We are not in some junior version of the NBA, we are in the same league with teams who play in billion-dollar arenas, and we have non-NBA cities checking our pulse every morning. Bottom line, if we want to be a top 20 city, we have to act like it.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC Thunder, city officials begin discussing plans for new NBA arena