I think a 5K standalone event is on the outside edge of what we would hope to see booked on a regular basis and would not be a large percentage of events booked. With a new facility and attached hotel perhaps a half dozen to a dozen of those per year, being optimistic. Much more common would be the 1K to 3K range, and even moreso the 250 to 1K range, but those can/would often be booked simultaneously, in which case you still may often have several thousand attendees coming and going on roughly the same schedule. The goal should be to have as many of these attendees on foot as possible, staying in downtown hotels and leaving their cars parked in hotel garages or perhaps without cars at all. Careful location of the CC allows for this, and in fact becomes one of the main selling points in a market that admittedly lacks sex appeal. I have seen it with my own eyes, when convention planners come to OKC they are blown away by what we actually have to offer vs. their (often) low expectations, and walkable convenience relative to hotel, dining and entertainment is our best selling feature.
Regarding Thunder fans, they (and downtown) benefit from the fact that most of the daytime workers exit downtown and downtown parking facilities shortly before game time. So Thunder fans recycle the recently-vacated spots and there is little conflict. Thunder fans park all over downtown, but I would roughly guess that the breakdown is in the neighborhood of 60%+ in the CBD and Arts District (garages, surface lots around arena) and maybe 30% in Bricktown (with 75% of those in LOWER Bricktown), with the balance coming in via shuttle from other parts of downtown and OKC, dropoff, and other means.
Bookmarks