Taft Stadium

[bradh]

so forget the POS units (did they have them at BM last year, can't remember), but for the love, put people in the position of taking orders who are quick with math. If that lady handwriting everything down is there next week it's a total failure (obviously exaggerating, but it was that bad)

[mkjeeves]

My thoughts too. First game, they just moved in. Things will probably change over time, or not. Being a bit behind in construction, they probably don't have a LAN setup between the buildings yet either, if they ever do.

[C. B.]

I drove by Taft yesterday and they have the front parking lot paved with asphalt.

[shawnw]

I heard that at an OKC Energy season ticket holder meeting it was mentioned that this would be the last season at Taft. Can anyone corroborate?

(They're looking for a place to put a temporary [but nice] pop-up stadium until something can be built.)

Apologies if it's been posted somewhere, did some cursory searching and didn't see it.

[SEMIweather]

I heard that at an OKC Energy season ticket holder meeting it was mentioned that this would be the last season at Taft. Can anyone corroborate?

(They're looking for a place to put a temporary [but nice] pop-up stadium until something can be built.)

Apologies if it's been posted somewhere, did some cursory searching and didn't see it.

Nothing is official yet, but reading between the lines of the press release that was issued when they brought in a new senior advisor last month, I would be fairly surprised if they were still in Taft after this season. As mentioned in your post, I think the most likely outcome for next season is building a pop-up stadium similar to the one that Phoenix's USL team currently plays in.

There's been some additional discussion about this in the Wheeler Park thread recently.

I'd be interested in hearing opinions from everyone about potential pop-up stadium locations. To me, the only two that would really make sense are the Fairgrounds and Chisholm Creek. I just don't think that the Wheeler Park area has enough room, but I may be missing something. There may also be another area with enough room that I haven't thought of yet.

[shawnw]

Funny, Chisholm Creek was one of my first thoughts as well. I hate it, but it was a first thought.

Here's another.... AICCM has tons of space currently.... and city owned, right?

[mugofbeer]

I'd have to go with The Fairgrounds south of the tracks. Are there any suitable spreads of land in near S. OKC?

[SEMIweather]

Funny, Chisholm Creek was one of my first thoughts as well. I hate it, but it was a first thought.

Here's another.... AICCM has tons of space currently.... and city owned, right?

Yeah, I'm fairly close to Taft so I'll be pretty disappointed if they move all the way up to Chisholm Creek for next season, but if they do decide to go with the pop-up stadium option, it would not surprise me if they put it there to try and draw in the Edmond/NW OKC/Deer Creek money.

The AICCM area is an interesting option that I hadn't considered. Another one I just thought of is the American Fidelity complex on the east side of Broadway Extension between Wilshire and Britton. Not sure how much of that land is still unspoken for, though.

[bombermwc]

If they move all the way up to Chisholm Creek, then they will lose me. I'm not driving that far. And i can't imagine i would be the only one. Who wants to drive from EOC/Moore/Norman/etc all the way up there for a non-MLS game? If the stadium doesn't stay somewhere near the CBD, it's a real major lost opportunity. All of those options north of I-44 have the same issue. The more you go in one direction, the more you're going to lose people from the opposite direction.

[RaRaRyan]

The massive parking lot between Myriad Gardens and the new Scissortail park is almost the exact same size as the current Taft stadium block. Ideally I would love to see another stadium downtown, especially close to our parks, new developments, and the street car. I would certainly buy season tickets if they moved closer to downtown.

[benjico]

What are the reasons they want to move away from Taft before a permanent stadium is built? I'm out of the loop. I understand its shortcoming but it seems like a fine solution until a soccer specific permanent stadium is built.

[OKCretro]

how has attendance been this year?

seems like to me and the people i follow on social media, the buzz seems over.

[Pete]

I don't think it much matters where they play if they can't put a better product on the field.

They will need lots of public help to pull off a new stadium and their ownership credibility has taken a bit hit.

[Jersey Boss]

They play a 17 game regular season home schedule. Seems like quite an investment in potential disruption of a city park as well as a sizeable commitment of tax payer revenue to justify for a team that is minor league. Most nights there is no local coverage on the sports segment of the local news. I think a study needs to be done by an independent entity( not the CC or Funk) to determine how much interest there is and whether that interest translates to the cost. Maybe Funk should partner with one of the Native American nations to see it happen.

[shawnw]

What are the reasons they want to move away from Taft before a permanent stadium is built? I'm out of the loop. I understand its shortcoming but it seems like a fine solution until a soccer specific permanent stadium is built.

They're getting pressure from the league is my understanding. They have an exemption to be playing in a high school stadium and are the last ones left doing so in the whole league. I'm sure the 2020 soccer-specific thing comes into play a bit as well.

[PaddyShack]

We had a pretty good turn out this past weekend. Being a season seat member myself, I have seen the product greatly improve since the start of the season, these past 4 or 5 games has been fairly enjoyable soccer. From what I hear there is a fairly large group of supporters or potential supporters who have been unhappy with Taft Stadium's setting, i.e. the existence of a track, quality of seating, location, parking issues. From my own experience, we need to have a stadium that was designed for soccer, not a multipurpose stadium. Even though I want the stadium now, I rather not ask for tax payer money. Hence why I support a "pop-up" stadium such as Rising Phoenix has. There are a number of areas which I believe the stadium location would be a good fit. There seems to be some vacant land around E Grand Blvd and SE 22nd that could be a good fit. Of course there is the Crossroads Mall site that might do well, though I prefer it to be closer to the CBD, and the USL is getting more strict on how far out a club can be from a downtown center.

I can't help but think people in OK are still in the mindset that they will only throw support for a major league team, i.e. the support for the Thunder wouldn't be there if we only had a D-League team. But the soccer community is changing and with time I imagine people will see the flaws with the MLS. I personally hope to we stay in the USL, since the MLS essentially owns the teams and franchises them out to owners rather than teams being individually owned. I also think with how many teams are in the USL, you see more variety in the competition. I also would like to see the Energy FC ownership put the major league investment and get us to the top of USL consistently rather than waste money away on the MLS fees. But this is just a small part of a much large conversation about soccer in the U.S.

[PaddyShack]

They play a 17 game regular season home schedule. Seems like quite an investment in potential disruption of a city park as well as a sizeable commitment of tax payer revenue to justify for a team that is minor league. Most nights there is no local coverage on the sports segment of the local news. I think a study needs to be done by an independent entity( not the CC or Funk) to determine how much interest there is and whether that interest translates to the cost. Maybe Funk should partner with one of the Native American nations to see it happen.

They used to be broadcast on YouTube and one of the local Cox channels, however this season the USL sold the rights to ESPN, and now people have to pay for ESPN+...

[PaddyShack]

They're getting pressure from the league is my understanding. They have an exemption to be playing in a high school stadium and are the last ones left doing so in the whole league. I'm sure the 2020 soccer-specific thing comes into play a bit as well.

This is the more likely situation. Currently, the field at Taft Stadium is the narrowest in the USL nationwide, which is also under width requirements for a soccer field. They knew this when re-designing Taft and didn't do anything about, so I assume they were planning on not staying in Taft for a long period of time.

[warreng88]

We had a pretty good turn out this past weekend. Being a season seat member myself, I have seen the product greatly improve since the start of the season, these past 4 or 5 games has been fairly enjoyable soccer. From what I hear there is a fairly large group of supporters or potential supporters who have been unhappy with Taft Stadium's setting, i.e. the existence of a track, quality of seating, location, parking issues. From my own experience, we need to have a stadium that was designed for soccer, not a multipurpose stadium. Even though I want the stadium now, I rather not ask for tax payer money. Hence why I support a "pop-up" stadium such as Rising Phoenix has. There are a number of areas which I believe the stadium location would be a good fit. There seems to be some vacant land around E Grand Blvd and SE 22nd that could be a good fit. Of course there is the Crossroads Mall site that might do well, though I prefer it to be closer to the CBD, and the USL is getting more strict on how far out a club can be from a downtown center.

What parking issues are you talking about?

[Laramie]

how has attendance been this year?

seems like to me and the people i follow on social media, the buzz seems over.

The $12.5 million OKC spent to renovate Taft Stadium, the City could have built a decent 20,000-seat double decker stadium (without all the bells & whistles) on the riverfront for less than $25 million on land the City owns.

Energy FC did better when we had Rayo OKC in the competitive mix.

As of the following date:
Taking Attendance 4/25/2018: First USL Numbers Of The Season: http://www.kenn.com/the_blog/?p=9581

Check out the notes in the above link, majority of the USL franchises are down. As soon as an update on Kenn.com is available (this one is 2 months back), will post an update.

[shawnw]

I'm under the impression a renovation of Taft stadium was going to happen regardless, just like with the stadium at Grant (?).

[Laramie]

I'm under the impression a renovation of Taft stadium was going to happen regardless, just like with the stadium at Grant (?).

Good reminder that Taft & Capitol Hill stadiums were preservation projects.

Mick Cornett did admit that he would have liked to put some kind of football stadium on one of the early MAPS initiatives. There just wasn't enough funds that could have done a stadium justice.

[PaddyShack]

What parking issues are you talking about?

Currently most people have to park on neighborhood streets or in the lot at NW Classen HS and cross over May Ave. It isn't about lack of parking, rather it is not the safest setup.

[kukblue1]

Lack of parking and sitting in the hot sun keeps me from going. What ever they decide to do most of the stands need to be on the west side of the stadium with some shade. Go to a baseball game in bricktown your sitting on the 3rd base side.

[jn1780]

I'm under the impression a renovation of Taft stadium was going to happen regardless, just like with the stadium at Grant (?).

Right, its a high school football stadium first, professional soccer stadium second. It wouldn't have made sense to optimize it for soccer.