See the latest upgrades coming to Paycom ahead of a new arena proposal

Officials unveiled new upgrades Tuesday to the Paycom Center, downtown Oklahoma City’s professional basketball arena, as the city awaits a ballot proposal for a new arena later this fall.

Improvements to the Paycom Center, which is now two decades old, included scoreboards and seating, financed by millions of dollars through the city’s taxpayer-funded Metropolitan Area Projects (MAPS) program. “We need to continue to make this a premier facility for the citizens,” said MAPS Program Manager David Todd. “There are still going to be events going on, there are still going to be games, concerts and all those, and we can’t just let the place fall apart.”

Upgrades arrived during a current three-year extension of a contract for OKC Thunder, the city’s NBA team, to play its home games at Paycom Center. The extension is set to end in 2026.

In hopes of retaining the NBA team and further boosting Oklahoma City as a tourism destination, Mayor David Holt has called for a new arena to be built. Earlier this July, Holt had said the proposal for the new venue would be finalized by the end of the summer, but he told The Oklahoman on Tuesday it would not be on the docket for the next city council meeting, scheduled Sept. 12.

“I define summer by the technical designation, which will end around September 22, so we certainly expect to have some news in the next couple of weeks,” Holt said.

In the meantime, despite what possibilities lie ahead for a new arena, Holt said the current venue will remain the NBA arena for years to come, so it’s necessary to continue maintenance of it.

“We want to have a good experience that’s as state-of-the-art as we can provide in that venue,” Holt said. “The new scoreboard is going to be a welcome amenity for users of the facility, and it was probably overdue. And I’m thankful, as always, to the voters of Oklahoma City for making these investments in our quality of life.”

Upgrades made to scoreboard, seats at Paycom Center

The new 28,000-pound center scoreboard is outfitted with one large continuous video display wrapping around all four sides of the board. It’s set to debut during the Professional Bull Riders Freedom Fest, scheduled for Friday through Sunday at the venue.

The center scoreboard is nearly 25 feet high by 125 feet around and includes an upper ring display that is 8 feet high by 144 feet in circumference.

An underbelly display, 10 feet high by 105 feet around, is also wrapped around the inside bottom of the board. Todd said this was included to make the experience even better for fans sitting courtside.

“I hope they walk in and say, Wow, look at this — look at what the city’s continuing to invest and continuing to increase and progress into the future,” Todd said.

Related: What we know about ongoing upgrades to Paycom Center, and the arena's uncertain future

Twelve additional message boards have been installed around the arena. The old scoreboard has been repurposed for use elsewhere throughout the center.

“Equipment like scoreboards become obsolete real quick, just like your cellphones, computers, those kinds of things,” Todd said. “Even the drivers that are used to drive the individual panels and the software that’s used — they move on and you get left behind.”

Among the upgrades announced Tuesday were 14,400 fixed seats, which had been installed over the past year, and 3,000 retractable seats.

“The old seats were becoming obsolete,” Todd said. “In just getting parts, they were having trouble getting springs that retract the seats, and some of them were pretty worn.”

Chris Semrau, the Paycom Center’s general manager, said the scheduling process installing the improvements was complicated, but that they wanted to make sure some events, such as PBR, could enjoy the upgrades ahead of the basketball season.

The new courtside seats in the corners are now configured to have their focal points angled more toward the center of the court, Semrau said, so attendees should have better views from their vantage points.

“I’m excited to see it in action,” Semrau said. “I think that it’s going to be one of those situations where, once you actually sit in those seats in the arena, you will be able to see the difference from what it was before.”

Both officials said the renovations had gone smoothly, although motor upgrades to two of four elevators are still awaiting completion by October, Todd said.

More: OKC Mayor David Holt answers readers' questions about new arena proposal

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: New upgrades coming to Paycom Center in Oklahoma City