Time to look ahead at a massive sports' facility?

[Laramie]

Houston is hosting the mens' final four; San Antonio hosted a regional and Dallas hosted an NCAA women's regional.

Oklahoma City needs a facility capable of hosting the final four.

Get the convention center built first so as the hotel industry will follow--this will allow the influx of new money into our economy and the building of new hotels capable of allowing us to bid on a final four.

Build a riverfront football-soccer specific stadium with a retractable roof. Someone beginning in the neighborhood of 50,000-60,000 with flexible seating yet capable of being expanded in the future to 80k-90k.

Texas has major facilities in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio--all capable of hosting the big event.

Our next MAPS will come up in 2017 when the current tax is sheduled to expire.

We need to be look ahead.

What are your thoughts?

[dcsooner]

I totally agree, but most shortsighted persons won't see the big picture and recognize the immense possibilites of such facilities. OKC has just recently began to move past its own insecurities to begin to think it could compete with other cities

[ljbab728]

I totally agree, but most shortsighted persons won't see the big picture and recognize the immense possibilites of such facilities. OKC has just recently began to move past its own insecurities to begin to think it could compete with other cities

I agree that it would be nice but the reality is that it currently would not be economically feasible without some kind of major league franchise as a permanent tenant. (Soccer doesn't qualify). I know that San Antonio does not have a major league franchise but it was built quite a few years ago and I suspect that if they had to do somethng like that now it wouldn't get done there either.

[rcjunkie]

An absolute waste of money, maybe in 10--15 years, but not now.

[Midtowner]

Probably not going to happen anytime soon.

[onthestrip]

Return on investment would be horrible. A 50-60k seat stadium with a retractable roof would probably cost at least $500million and there would be very few events. A final four would be difficult to get and even if we did it would only be every 10 years or so. Same way with hosting a NCAA tourney regional final.
Say we get lucky and get a small bowl game, thats still only once a year.
Maybe it brings in some concerts, maybe a couple a year.
The slight chance we get an MLS team and we have several lightly attended soccer matches. Not paying off that stadium.
Maybe we have the state football championships there, still not bringing in much revenue.
NFL, not happening.

So basically for $500mil we get a handful of events a year with only small portion of them actually bringing in much money.