Quote Originally Posted by KilgoreTrout View Post
Tulsa is waaayyyy more ready to support an NHL team than OKC. I don't even think there is a debate. A city can probably support a professional team with about a million people. To support 2 you need two million people and so on... With 1.3 million in the OKC metro they are not close to having the population/spending power to support a 2nd team. The Tulsa metro with a population could probably (not for sure though) support an NHL team with a population close to 1 million. Besides, being the only professional team in town counts for a lot. The excitement of just having a legit professional franchise can get people very excited (see the Thunder).

So, Tulsa could support a NHL or MLS team. OKC is maxed out at 1 professional team. Neither city could support a MLB or NFL team. That's how I see it...

Definitely agree that Tulsa is in much better shape to support an NHL franchise than Oklahoma City trying to support both the NBA and NHL. Tulsa is right at 1 million metro population and they definitely would need Wichita & Oklahoma City's markets to pull off marketing the NHL in this region.

If the NHL and NBA both were in OKC, you would have a scheduling matrix concern in addition to the fact that 1.3 million people would not be enough to cover 2 major league franchises--the seasons for the NHL and NBA both interlock. I believe that the closer we get to 2020 we just may have to numbers to support the NBA and NFL; New Orleans is managing to support both as the NBA has one foot on a banana peel and one foot in the grave.

Quote Originally Posted by SoonerSoftail View Post
Potential yes. Things in place, no. In OKC you can go to numerous places to eat and have a cold one before an game or other event in the Chesapeake Arena/Cox Center. Then go to the same or other numerous places for a couple of cold ones afterward. In the area around BOK, nada. The wife and I aren't the only one's who find this important based on the number of people we follow before and after events here in OKC and the comments we hear in Tulsa about lack of anywhere to go afterward when we go to events there. Tulsa needs to realize that major league anything is about making a day or evening out of it, not just "Do we have a place where the game can be played".
Tulsa has some really first class eating establishments around the BOK Center. Tulsa would really rally around an NHL franchise in their city. The NHL just may be open to the idea of bringing in more "breakthough markets" like Raleigh (NHL only game in town).

The NBA has a number of breakthrough markets (Portland, San Antonio, Orlando, Salt Lake City, Sacramento, Memphis and Oklahoma City) which the NBA has virtually no competition.