Well, this is great new for downtown Oklahoma City. Some expert recently said that even with the addition of the Renaissance and Courtyrad downtown, and the building of the new Embasy Suites on the canal, and renovation of the Skirvin Hotel, more hotel rooms are still needed downtown if we expect to keep attracting major sports events. I think this is great news, and hopefully hotel developers will hear this news. You know, St. Louis, a city that is acually smaller than ours in population, but a lot more developed, has around 20 hotels downtown. I could see us having a good 10 to 15 hotels downtown in the near future. I'd like to see many high rise hotels along the canal in Bricktown....seems like San Antonio's Riverwalk is dominated by hotels. I think they have somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 hotels right on the Riverwalk itself, with many others in the downtown area surrounding the Riverwalk.
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"Make room for SPORTS: More hotels needed to land tournaments
By Paul Monies
The Oklahoman
Despite the hotel-building boom near Bricktown, the downtown Oklahoma City area may need more hotel rooms to keep attracting collegiate tournaments, a local sports executive said Thursday.
Next year, the city will host NCAA men's bas ketball tournament opening rounds, the Women's College World Series and the Big 12 baseball tournament. The tournaments are expected to pump more than $24 million into the local economy, said Tim Brassfield, executive director of the Oklahoma City All Sports Association.
"It's all about economic impact, quality of life and making memories for our state," said Brassfield, one of four speakers on a sports business panel at the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce's monthly luncheon.
With the recently opened Courtyard by Marriott, the Renaissance Hotel -- which opened in 2000 -- and proposals for an Embassy Suites and renovating the Skirvin Hotel, the city's central core could have more than 1,400 hotel rooms in the next few years.
But Brassfield acknowledged that still may not be enough to keep attracting top-flight tournaments.
"We're probably still in need of additional hotel rooms because most
of the downtown hotel rooms are used by teams during the tournaments," Brassfield said. "The fans have to stay elsewhere."
Bricktown development, including the SBC Bricktown Ballpark and the Ford Center, has helped the city increase its national profile. In the last decade, Oklahoma City has become the top small-market sports and entertainment destination in the nation, said Brad Lund, chief executive officer of Express Sports, which owns the Blazers ice hockey team.
"Are we major-league yet? No, but we're on the right track," said Lund, who also teased the crowd with plans for a "major Blazers announcement" Aug. 26 at the state Capitol.
State Sen. Scott Pruitt, who owns the RedHawks along with Bob Funk, said attendance for the minor-league team is up 25 percent this year. The RedHawks also have entered the concert business, with the first-ever ballpark concert last month. Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson are set to perform at the ballpark Sept. 3.
"We're trying to make sure the ballpark is getting used most of the year, or when we're out of town in the summer," Pruitt said.
Aside from the Ford Center and SBC Bricktown Ballpark, renovations to the Don E. Porter Hall of Fame Stadium complex near Remington Park have led to "unbelievable growth," said Bill Plummer, manager of the ASA National Softball Hall of Fame. The stadium had record crowds for this summer's Women's College World Series and will host more than 250 amateur softball teams in the next year, he said.
"We want to keep the NCAA Women's World Series," Plummer said. "ESPN is thrilled, it's good for softball, it's good for the softball association and it's great for Oklahoma City. The city is on the right path."
Express' Lund said other events such as Davis Cup tennis tournaments and the fact that Oklahoma has a boxing commission means the city's sports business is growing.
"We've come a long way in the last 12 years from an image perspective," Lund said. "We now get calls -- whether it's tennis, boxing, rodeo, lacrosse, major league soccer. Twelve years ago, we all had to go to those groups and say, 'Put our city in your league.' Now the tide has turned, and we can pick and choose the event for our demographics that makes business sense as well."
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