I have never been excited about the convention center. However, I think the chances of me winning the lottery (and I don't buy tickets) are higher than the chances of the city deciding not to build it. We probably do need a new convention center, regardless of how convention business is going to grow or shrink, because of the age of the Myriad. Not being an expert on this subject myself, if someone tells me that we need to replace the Myriad with a better structure because XYZ, I'll believe them. Sounds good to me.

So the question becomes, what kind of convention center do we need and where should be put it?

If we build a really big nice one, I could see putting it south of the Myriad Gardens to show it off. A big gleaming glass and steel thing, like our version of the Sydney Opera House, where people drive by and go "oooooh cool", and yeah we'd want it front and center downtown so everybody could see how cool it was. The problem with that is we don't have enough money for that. $250 million will build us a nice medium sized building, perfectly servicable for a city our size, but it won't give us our own version of the Sydney Opera House. If we spend our money right, we'll get something like the Bricktown Ballpark or the Chesapeake Arena, a very nice venue where we got a lot of value for our money.

The problem with the current selected location is that it's the Big Money location. Nothing that gets built there is going to be cheap. If you build the convention center there you're not getting a Bricktown Ballpark or a Chesapeake Arena value, you're committing to spending Big Money. And I don't think we're committed to that. So that means we may need a different site selection.

I don't buy the idea at all that there are a huge number of developers licking their chops waiting to put giant mixed-use developments here. Sounds like crap to me. I think the best hope we have is that Continental Resources or whoever is not buying Stage Center decides to buy that property and build a tower there. I don't think the convention center is holding back a horde of private investors who are weeping over their inability to purchase that land.

What about all those old sheet metal buildings out in east Bricktown, north of Bass Pro? That seems like a fantastic spot to target. Redevelop a crap location in one fell swoop. I know there's some sort of plan for redevelopment there, but I think it would be a lot less expensive than what we're seeing in the C2S area.