^^^^^^^
Triathletes. Meaning people who swam in the river. There is no issue with rowing, as far as water quality concerned. Rowing limitations mostly revolve around bridge piers that intrude into rowing lanes.
When I worked downtown in the hospitality industry I had people all the time asking if they could go see a cattle sale. If they put a little effort into it, I believe they would make it into a pretty strong tourist draw.
I don’t know how the sales there operate, but if they are traditional like what I attended when I grew up, having tourists in the bidding arena a would be immensely disruptive. There would have to be a viewing area where actions couldn’t be interpreted as bids.
Most people would be immensely bored imho.
People here who understand how it works might be bored for sure but it might be really interesting for people who have never been around that industry before. I agree that the viewing area would need to be separate and I don’t think it could be a stand alone tourist draw but if you had that as part of a bigger cattle/cowboy museum and interactive experience in the stockyards area, I think it could be really cool. Could even tie in that horse riding deal someone was working on down there (maybe they finished it, I haven’t kept up).
It does just feel like we’re missing out on a massive tourism opportunity down there, especially with the big time resurgence in popularity of cowboy/western/country culture over the last few years.
Maybe a regular rodeo or Wild West show, but watching most cattle operations wouldn’t be that interesting. Like watching other people do their regular job.
Rodeo shows are the most exciting parts of cowboy work/skills and adds to it. Maybe Maps 5 includes a full time high experience rodeo/wild West show arena. Build the area up with western style architecture and more cowboy products geared to non cowboys.
This is an idea I’ve had myself many times when daydreaming about what to do with that area. Between the NHRA, IPRA, Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, First Americans Museum, regular livestock shows at the Fairgrounds, etc. further creating a western identity for Stockyard City would be great to further solidify Oklahoma City in both western/cowboy and American Indian culture.
This is sort of a side comment, but I was watching the NYE broadcast on CBS, where it was based in Nashville, and it made me start to wonder why OKC has never tried to bring in some of these country music bars. We have such a large number of country music greats from Oklahoma that already have bars either in Nashville or other towns. Imagine a mini Nashville-type area with bars from Blake Shelton, Reba, Carrie Underwood, Toby Keith, and Garth Brooks. I know we have a Toby Keith concept, but it is restaurant-based. I feel like this could be a huge draw for country music fans who don't want to spend Nashville prices. Blake has his bar in Ada and Reba has here's in Atoka. Just disappointing that we can't get their concepts in OKC as well.
I used to have relatives in Nashville that I used to go visit once in a while. Mainly because they were in Nashville. The draw of Nashville country music bars isn't the name\concept. The draw is that they're in the country music capital of the world. "Unknown" bands gigging there have worked their asses off to get to play a Nashville bar in hopes of someone in the business seeing them. So they're already pretty good. OKC can't begin to reproduce that. A bunch of bars in some area with stars names on the signs wouldn't be even close to the Nashville vibe.
If OKC needs a concept bar area it needs to be something unique to OKC.
True and bars like that just tend to work better in the middle of an entertainment district. It would be cool in theory to put them in the stockyards but Bricktown would be the ideal spot for something like that based on Nashville, Scottsdale and other cities with similar bars.
Surprised to learn that Stockyards City is separate from OKC. Would have been nice to renovate the area thru MAPS Capital improvements.
Always had a feel for the area as deeply country & western which makes it unique among the various districts throughout our city.
I wish it was called The Stockyards. Drop the city.
Check out this article from The Oklahoman:
The company that owns the Oklahoma National Stockyards, largest in the US, is up for sale
https://www.oklahoman.com/story/busi...e/75695994007/
I agree. I would think as a seller that you want to give a potential buyer the most acreage, freedom and control going forward. Reading the story makes me think the future of the Stockyards in it's current form is cloudy. Selling a chunk of your property to the government could create a situation where that same government makes clear they would like to have more of it, and that makes a business with an uncertain future shift their focus toward the end, rather than the future.
It's up for sale: $27,000,000.
https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/Okla...ards/33776978/
I've heard there have been multiple bids on this 102-acre property.
They stopped the cattle auctions some time ago and it doesn't seem that business will ever return.
Look for a big redevelopment, complete with tons of public money.
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