The Naming Rights for Chesapeake Energy Arena expires following the 2022-23 season. Which Oklahoma City Entity do you think will win the bid on the new naming rights...

I feel like Love's will on the shortlist. Sonic isn't really OKC anymore I guess, but I'd still love to see the OKC Thunder playing in the Sonic Super Stadium. :D

I agree that Love's would be good. Of those on the list Paycom I could see.

What about BancFirst? Or OnCue? Could have Love's logo on the jerseys and OnCue on the arena. Could be called the Travel Stop Team. lol

I'd like to see a huge Red Heart on the roof of the arena, if it happens to be Loves.

I'd like to see a huge Red Heart on the roof of the arena, if it happens to be Loves.
Oh. Hey. That would look great!

I personally really liked Oklahoma City Arena.

I personally really liked Oklahoma City Arena.
I like that too but since the city can't pay multi millions in naming rights that ship has sailed.

Velveeta is making a push, check out their Twitter feed. Liquid Gold Thunder Dome!

I personally really liked Oklahoma City Arena.

That sounds great! What street is it on again? :tongue:

Would be shocked if it isn't Paycom.

That sounds great! What street is it on again? :tongue:

Reno and Robinson. Why? :)

I personally really liked Oklahoma City Arena.
So what you’re gonna do is take I-35 over the Oklahoma river to connect with the Oklahoma City BLVD and take a right at the Oklahoma City convention center until you hit the Oklahoma City arena and park in the Oklahoma City parking lot a in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

So what you’re gonna do is take I-35 over the Oklahoma river to connect with the Oklahoma City BLVD and take a right at the Oklahoma City convention center until you hit the Oklahoma City arena and park in the Oklahoma City parking lot a in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

And you can watch the post-game summary on Oklahoma's Own News 9.

Reno and Robinson. Why? :)

Incorrect. Reno Ave and Thunder Drive. There is no Robinson at that intersection. :-)

16732

Call Elon Musk. Maybe he'd like a Tesla Arena and help make it green. He's got a couple of extra bucks. OKC needs to search for a proper sponsor before something like Preparation H puts in a bid.

Didn't Sonic leave Oklahoma? Obviously still a major connection to OK, but I sincerely doubt they would even put their name in the hat.

I don't think it'll be anyone on that list.

Wouldn't be surprised if they went back to Ford who has had a nice little Renaissance since they most recently let the rights go. Would like to see them get Boeing to buy in as a way to sort of cement our push toward expanding our aerospace sector.

Express Personnel Arena

Express Personnel Arena

I'd assume Funk wants to wait until the soccer stadium to do that *but*, I've got to wonder if they're not in a great place where they could get more aggressive in an attempt to gain more market share.

It's an NBA team, OKC should have a national sponsor. There's so many possibilities.

Didn't Sonic leave Oklahoma? Obviously still a major connection to OK, but I sincerely doubt they would even put their name in the hat.

I don't think it'll be anyone on that list.

Wouldn't be surprised if they went back to Ford who has had a nice little Renaissance since they most recently let the rights go. Would like to see them get Boeing to buy in as a way to sort of cement our push toward expanding our aerospace sector.

sonic HQ is still in OKC and i doubt that changes ..

the 'Ford" on the ford center was the oklahoma ford dealers only and they were not paying much


it will be a surprise if it is not Paycom arena

My overall vote is for Velveeta just because I think they could have so much fun with Velveeta themed promotions, and also the dude who runs their twitter account is a huge Thunder fan and runs a really entertaining account. It would be such a huge branding win for the team.

My realistic vote is for Paycom because I think it would be nice for our team to not be sponsored by a truck stop or fast food restaurant. Also their branding is so minimal and won't look as gross as the Love's logo does on our jerseys.

I'm putting my money on the Paycom Center

I think it will end up being called either Paycom Center or Paycom Arena, or maybe Boeing can buy the rights to it.

*Boeing Arena* would get that national brand but could lead to some unfortunate nicknames.

Boeing has zero interest in spending marketing money in a market such as OKC. As far as OKC is concerned they are a defense contractor to Tinker. They have nearly zero PR or corporate presence in OKC. The public goodwill of OKC means very little to them overall.

Ok then

Ok then

I'm not saying it wouldn't be huge, but I just don't think this is the right market for their PR dollars. OKC needs them much more than they need OKC. It would be like Hobby Lobby going for the naming rights for an arena in New Orleans... just not the right place and no PR connection to the local community.

Boeing has zero interest in spending marketing money in a market such as OKC. As far as OKC is concerned they are a defense contractor to Tinker. They have nearly zero PR or corporate presence in OKC. The public goodwill of OKC means very little to them overall.

This certainly seems likely - but a couple of thoughts that create a different context here:

I think if you're OKC you're not so much trying to get them to put their name on the building because of goodwill toward OKC, but that it's their name on a building in a place where they have a presence and more importantly, that houses a team in a high profile national sports league and with a regional convention presence etc. So every time an OKC game is televised nationally, the Boeing name gets said, or when people are in conventions here they see the name, potentially even use the facility.

There's a value to that to Boeing, for sure, but the question is if the ROI makes sense.

For OKC the question of ROI becomes can we put a name on there that helps out our economy. I'd argue Boeing is probably the #1 brand we could put on our building to tell the world that we're not just O&G. As much as Paycom would be a good name, I think we can get a better ROI by selling it to Boeing cheaper than we would Paycom because it can have a greater positive influence on continuing to add to the Aerospace sector than it would the tech sector.

If OKC can offer a package to Boeing that would get a "yes" from Boeing and it's reasonably short of what others would bid, then, to me, it's totally worth it.

On another note, Paycom passed on putting their name on the jersey a few years ago. Obviously they've put their name on the court for regional broadcasts, but I'm not sure Paycom is convinced that it's the best place to spend their advertising dollars. This is definitely a different arena (!) of marketing but, i don't know, I just question how much Paycom would be willing to pay. I wouldn't be shocked, but it just doesn't seem as obvious to me as a lot of other people.

Companies like Boeing, who do not offer any services or products to the general public, do not have any public ROI for putting naming rights on an arena. Their ROI comes from tax rebates and incentives the local government will provide in exchange for a multinational company putting their name on a building, and a little bit of local PR in the form of the big company that likes "being here" and is a good "corporate citizen". American isn't going to place an order for 200 more airplanes because the CEO was watching TV and saw Boeing's name on an Arena in Oklahoma City (do we even fly there?) The US Government isn't going to award them a contract because of the same. OKC offers them very little return for their name on an Arena, whereas Chicago, Seattle, or even Charleston do. They have huge operations in those cities, where throwing in a naming deal can perhaps buy some goodwill from the locals who will vote to open the city coffers and give Boeing even more incentives.

oh really? Boeing has one of it's corporate HQ (https://kfor.com/news/boeing-breaks-ground-on-80-million-facility-in-oklahoma-city/) based in OKC. ...


We’re proud to announce today that we will be moving the headquarters for our aircraft, modernization, and sustainment business, led by Scott Strode, here to Oklahoma City,” Leanne Caret, president for Global Services & Support Defense, Space & Security, said.

Boeing is much more than just a defense contractor - that used to be the case prior to the consolidation and relocation of many engineering and nearly all of the refurb management TO Oklahoma City (https://jobs.boeing.com/boeing-in-okc)!

Saint Louis (which moved to OKC) was not JUST a defense contractor. ...

While I agree that Boeing sponsoring the arena is a very long, long shot (they just don't do that type of marketing), I can fully disagree with you about their presence and impact in OKC and the importance of OKC to them.

Has Boeing even put up a $50 banner on a local marathon? They have zero PR presence in OKC.

Companies like Boeing, who do not offer any services or products to the general public, do not have any public ROI for putting naming rights on an arena. Their ROI comes from tax rebates and incentives the local government will provide in exchange for a multinational company putting their name on a building, and a little bit of local PR in the form of the big company that likes "being here" and is a good "corporate citizen". American isn't going to place an order for 200 more airplanes because the CEO was watching TV and saw Boeing's name on an Arena in Oklahoma City (do we even fly there?) The US Government isn't going to award them a contract because of the same. OKC offers them very little return for their name on an Arena, whereas Chicago, Seattle, or even Charleston do. They have huge operations in those cities, where throwing in a naming deal can perhaps buy some goodwill from the locals who will vote to open the city coffers and give Boeing even more incentives.

I agree they're not going to sell more planes because of their name on the stadium. But they do have a brand and that brand does matter to their clients. And given the massive amount of issues they've had recently doing some things to rebuild that brand is a fact of life for them. I'm not saying putting their name on an arena is going to completely alter their public image, but it is *a* step, and that step has a value. I can assure you if OKC approached them and said, please pay us $100.00 per year, they would say yes. So the question is, how much larger can that number be before they say no.

If you said $1M/year for Boeing vs. $5M/year from Paycom - I think the city can find a way to use $4M/year better for economic development than just having Boeing's name on there. If you said $1.75M/year for Boeing and $2.5M/year from Paycom - the dynamic changes quite a bit.

Again - I'm not saying it's going to happen, but I think it's the one name the city should really analyze and see if a mutually beneficial deal can be made.

I think it would be tremendous and I would love to eat crow on this one, but I just can't see it. if the city is asking $100, I will give Pete a bill to apply to call it the OKCTalk Forum :)

I think it would be tremendous and I would love to eat crow on this one, but I just can't see it. if the city is asking $100, I will give Pete a bill to apply to call it the OKCTalk Forum :)

I'll cover him in 2022 & 2023 :cool:

Who else is down?????

Oklahoma City Thunder is the anchor tenant; they control arena-naming rights.

City sales tax/MAPS 4 sales tax revenue IIRC are 5% under previous collections. If that remains steady, you're looking at $98.8 million/arena and $10.45 million/practice facility improvements. Or would the $104 million be taken off the top with the rest going to the practice facility ($5,25 million).


An estimated $115 million would go toward Chesapeake and the Thunder’s practice facility in northwest Oklahoma City. If sales tax revenue meets projections, the arena would receive about $104 million, with the rest going to the practice facility.--https://stories.usatodaynetwork.com/maps4/maps-4-proposal-for-chesapeake-would-prolong-life-of-arena/

We need to remember that the NBA stipulated that Oklahoma City maintain a viable NBA arena & practice facility. OKC will put more into the practice facility (Est. $11 million) than the $10 million original cost.

catch, I agree with you that Boeing wont likely be a sponsor because Boeing doesn't really sponsor in this way. Boeing does sponsor events (http://www.boeingclassic.com/) but they NEVER put their name on anything (there's no Boeing Arena to my knowledge). This is where I agree with you.

However, I completely disagree with you on Boeing's presence in OKC or the importance of OKC to Boeing; It's similar to what it was in Saint Louis.

catch, I agree with you that Boeing wont likely be a sponsor because Boeing doesn't really sponsor in this way. Boeing does sponsor events (http://www.boeingclassic.com/) but they NEVER put their name on anything (there's no Boeing Arena to my knowledge). This is where I agree with you.

However, I completely disagree with you on Boeing's presence in OKC or the importance of OKC to Boeing; It's similar to what it was in Saint Louis.

You prove my point. St Louis was important to Boeing until it wasn’t. OKC is important to them because of Tinker, and OKC’s generous tax incentives. Boeing is one of the largest tax mooches in the US, they have no problem milking Washington State for every nickel they can get - and now they are doing the same to Charleston now that Washington has slowed their incentives to Boeing. Other than Tinker, there is nothing in Oklahoma City that they can’t get elsewhere. And with remote working scaling up, even that is questionable. They have bitten every community they operate it, and have very little charitable involvement in local communities.

https://cdn2.newsok.biz/cache/large960_blur-81ab91e74deb7be82a92025f3c6d4c5b.jpg
Boeing Oklahoma City https://oklahoman.com/article/5457052/boeing-qualifies-for-more-than-90-million-in-oklahoma-jobs-incentives

Agree, not likely to see anything by Boeing as far as naming-rights; that's not their forte, despite their presence in Oklahoma City.

Cox Business Services may be a strong bidder when the naming-rights comes up for bid since Prairie Surf Media now has its name on the formerly Cox Business Services convention center aka --The Myriad.

Does anyone remember any of the companies in the past who participated in the naming rights bidding for the Ford Center and the Peake Arena...

Catch, Boeing got (and often gets) incentives from Washington state all of the time (not just an OKC thing), I'm not debating with you that they are a mooch.

But OKC is just as important to them as a city, it is in the corporate hierarchy just like Seattle (well, Tukwila) is and to a lesser extent now, Long Beach and Saint Louis were. It's immaterial the reason why or what they get to maintain a relationship as you could say the same thing about most companies including United Airlines and why Denver is important to them when (like Boeing) Chicago is their HQ and obvious #1 city. ..

Anyway - Given this, it would be natural to expect such a company to possibly advertise in OKC - IF they advertised on sports facilities/buildings they dont own or occupy, (which I agree with you, they dont) and therefore wont in OKC.

Boeing can use a less direct name...

(Operation) Bongo Arena



(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_sonic_boom_tests)

Oklahoma City Thunder is the anchor tenant; they control arena-naming rights.

City sales tax/MAPS 4 sales tax revenue IIRC are 5% under previous collections. If that remains steady, you're looking at $98.8 million/arena and $10.45 million/practice facility improvements. Or would the $104 million be taken off the top with the rest going to the practice facility ($5,25 million).

--https://stories.usatodaynetwork.com/maps4/maps-4-proposal-for-chesapeake-would-prolong-life-of-arena/

We need to remember that the NBA stipulated that Oklahoma City maintain a viable NBA arena & practice facility. OKC will put more into the practice facility (Est. $11 million) than the $10 million original cost.

Well if this is true, it's really just going to go to the highest bidder. I'd be inclined to think Love's at this point.

Well if this is true, it's really just going to go to the highest bidder. I'd be inclined to think Love's at this point.
Wouldn't it be the highest bidder no matter who controls it?

Wouldn't it be the highest bidder no matter who controls it?

I think if you're the city, it's a more strategic decision. An extra $1M doesn't mean nearly as much to OKC as it does to the Thunder, and the name on the arena doesn't really affect the Thunder's brand. It does however broadcast some things about OKC. Like, the first time I learned that KC was naming their new indoor arena the Sprint Center, I automatically assumed that Sprint is headquartered in KC (turns out that's relatively accurate).

If you work in the areospace industry or are a smaller aerospace company and your owner is a fan of the NBA, it would be near impossible to not have Oklahoma City at the forefront of your mind when investigating potential places to relocate if you knew the Thunder played in the Boeing center. That obviously would not even be in the Top 10 reasons to choose OK, but it could absolutely be a major reason why OKC was even thought of in the first place for some people/decision makers.

I'm inclined to think it won't be Love's as there's only one other team that has the same sponsor for both the jersey patch and the arena (Memphis/FedEx)

I truly hope the powers that be actively search for a respected national sponsor. After seeing what has happened to some of the bowl games, l really wouldn't want to see the Boyer Bail Bonds Arena.

If I were the Chickasaw Nation, I'd be very interested in elevating the tribe's brand nationally with arena naming rights. With all those 1st round draft picks coming up, the Thunder are setting themselves up for a years-long streak of deep playoff appearances. That will bring an enormous amount of national exposure.

I'm putting my money on the Paycom Center

Big winner