Zoo Amphitheater

[Urbanized]

Besides having my own great memories at Zoo Ampitheater going back to the early ‘80s, I recently discovered via newspaper archives and ancestry research that my own paternal grandfather (who I never knew…he passed when I was six months old) was very likely involved in the construction of it, along with other zoo features. I found an article in his hometown (Luther) newspaper that he and another young man from there reported to the CCC camp at Lincoln Park in fall of 1934. Not sure (yet) how long he stayed with the CCC, but that time frame would roughly coincide with the building of the amphitheater. He would have been 23.

Suffice to say that I’m in the “retain and restore” crowd when it comes to Zoo Amp.

[Jersey Boss]

What! No firepits? /s/. Not that the summer concert season has use for them.
Sunset just needs to go away. I don't believe this market needs 2 or can support 2.

[bison34]

What! No firepits? /s/. Not that the summer concert season has use for them.
Sunset just needs to go away. I don't believe this market needs 2 or can support 2.

Well, Zoo Amp has a shelf life. It was never meant to be permanent. OKC has just never had a private developer try to build one better. The Zoo wants to develop that area badly

[Jersey Boss]

Well, Zoo Amp has a shelf life. It was never meant to be permanent. OKC has just never had a private developer try to build one better. The Zoo wants to develop that area badly

Who or what says the Zoo facility was never meant to be permanent? I take issue with the claim that what is proposed by Sunset is better. Apparently the Zoo in fact is going ahead with renovations, not developing it into something else. The Zoo apparently does not want to develop this land "badly" for other purposes.
Read post #11 if you think otherwise.

[bison34]

Who or what says the Zoo facility was never meant to be permanent? I take issue with the claim that what is proposed by Sunset is better. Apparently the Zoo in fact is going ahead with renovations, not developing it into something else. The Zoo apparently does not want to develop this land "badly" for other purposes.

It's too small. It holds 7k. Most festivals and summer tours need 10k to make money. That's from a music buddy of mine.

And there is a hard limit on events allowed at the Zoo Amp. That's how you know it was never meant to be permanent.

[PhiAlpha]

Well, Zoo Amp has a shelf life. It was never meant to be permanent. OKC has just never had a private developer try to build one better. The Zoo wants to develop that area badly

What in the world are you basing this on? It’s been there for like 100 years. It was built to be an amphitheater and no one has ever said it wasn’t a permanent venue. What is the hard limit of events allowed there?

Who has ever even alluded to wanting “badly” to develop the zoo amp? If the zoo wanted to develop it that badly…they would’ve done it.

You seem to make a lot of statements with no basis in reality. I’m sorry the zoo amp didn’t request FAA clearance from the airport director.

[PhiAlpha]

It's too small. It holds 7k. Most festivals and summer tours need 10k to make money. That's from a music buddy of mine.

And there is a hard limit on events allowed at the Zoo Amp. That's how you know it was never meant to be permanent.

We’re building a 10,000 plus seat outdoor stadium in the middle of downtown, the zoo amp doesn’t need to be a 10,000 person capacity venue to be successful…it’s worked fine for nearly a century.

[bison34]

We’re building a 10,000 plus seat outdoor stadium in the middle of downtown, the zoo amp doesn’t need to be a 10,000 person capacity venue to be successful…it’s worked fine for nearly a century.

Everything is more expensive now. Everything. Including summer music tours. Doubt that stadium will be used for concerts much. Just like Scissortail Park. Maybe 10 larger scale concerts in 5 years. Outdoor concerts downtown haven't worked much. Hence why you need a true 10k+ fan amphitheater. Every major metro in the country basically has one. Why should OKC be the exception?

[bison34]

We’re building a 10,000 plus seat outdoor stadium in the middle of downtown, the zoo amp doesn’t need to be a 10,000 person capacity venue to be successful…it’s worked fine for nearly a century.

Double post

[PhiAlpha]

Everything is more expensive now. Everything. Including summer music tours. Doubt that stadium will be used for concerts much. Just like Scissortail Park. Maybe 10 larger scale concerts in 5 years. Outdoor concerts downtown haven't worked much. Hence why you need a true 10k+ fan amphitheater. Every major metro in the country basically has one. Why should OKC be the exception?

1. Scissortail park is a park with a stage…not a concert venue…that hosts events all the time, just not large concerts. It was not built to be a ticketed concert venue and is not set up to host ticketed concerts frequently…how many of the concerts it has hosted weren’t free?

2. We’re building a large downtown stadium with no major league tenant (and as of now, no tenant at all)…Why do you doubt how often the stadium will be used for concerts? Prior to the arrival of the Thunder, the Ford Center (also publicly funded and built in the middle of downtown with no major league tenant) was always on the same “top concert venues” lists that the BOK in Tulsa is on every year.

You’re making that opinion up for the sake of argument. It makes zero sense and is unprecedented.

3. How have outdoor concerts “not worked much” where is any evidence of that? Other cities host concerts in their soccer stadiums all the time as they work better, size wise, than football stadiums do. Denver, for example, has concerts at Dick’a Sporting Goods Stadium all the time despite having probably the best outdoor amphitheater in the world down the road.

[bison34]

1. Scissortail park is a park with a stage…not a concert venue…that hosts events all the time, just not large concerts. It was not built to be a ticketed concert venue and is not set up to host ticketed concerts frequently…how many of the concerts it has hosted weren’t free?

2. We’re building a stadium with no major league tenant (and as of now, no tenant at all)…Why do you doubt how often the stadium will be used for concerts? Prior to the arrival of the Thunder, the Ford Center (also publicly funded and built in the middle of downtown with no major league tenant) was always on the same “top concert venues” lists that the BOK in Tulsa is on every year.

You’re making that opinion up for the sake of argument. It makes zero sense and is unprecedented.

3. How have outdoor concerts “not worked much” where is any evidence of that? Other cities host concerts in their soccer stadiums all the time as they work better, size wise than football stadiums do. Denver, for example, has concerts at Dick’a Sporting Goods Stadium all the time despite having probably the best outdoor amphitheater in the world down the road.

1) Fair enough, but neither is the proposed stadium. It isn't a music venue with a primary goal of getting concerts. It will also only be 10k. Booking stadiums costs more than amphitheaters (from same music buddy). So having a 10k limit is almost worse than a 7k amphitheater limit, for money purposes. DSG Park (which you mention later) holds almost 3x as many people for concerts. May not always draw that much, but the potential is there for that many.

2) Because of how few outdoor shows OKC's downtown has had. The ballpark? Maybe 1 or 2 a year for 25 years. So you want to say that based off what, that the venue will be used a bunch for concerts? Ok then.

3) Again, there is nothing that says the stadium will be used for concerts. Especially a downtown one. Consistent outdoor concerts haven't worked in OKC. The reason DSG Park works is because it is in a suburb, and also holds almost 30k for concerts. You really are comparing a potential 10k stadium to one of the best MLS stadiums in the country? Good for you.

I am done on this track. Ir isn't about the Zoo Amp now, so I will refrain from any OT posts going forward.

[PhiAlpha]

1) Fair enough, but neither is the proposed stadium. It isn't a music venue with a primary goal of getting concerts. It will also only be 10k. Booking stadiums costs more than amphitheaters (from same music buddy). So having a 10k limit is almost worse than a 7k amphitheater limit, for money purposes. DSG Park (which you mention later) holds almost 3x as many people for concerts. May not always draw that much, but the potential is there for that many.

2) Because of how few outdoor shows OKC's downtown has had. The ballpark? Maybe 1 or 2 a year for 25 years. So you want to say that based off what, that the venue will be used a bunch for concerts? Ok then.

3) Again, there is nothing that says the stadium will be used for concerts. Especially a downtown one. Consistent outdoor concerts haven't worked in OKC. The reason DSG Park works is because it is in a suburb, and also holds almost 30k for concerts. You really are comparing a potential 10k stadium to one of the best MLS stadiums in the country? Good for you.

I am done on this track. Ir isn't about the Zoo Amp now, so I will refrain from any OT posts going forward.

1) You are making up statistics to prove your point. You and your buddy have no idea what it will cost to book the stadium here. The stadium will be built to be able to hold ticketed events year round…the park wasn’t built to hold ticketed events ever without setting up a ton of infrastructure to do it. Who cares if it was built specifically to hold concerts? Was the ford center built specifically to host concerts? It will be fine for the few events per year require more than 7,000 seats. It will also likely be over 10,000 for concerts if Dick’s stadium is any indication as their capacity for soccer is 18k and 27k for concerts.

2. The ballpark downtown has an anchor tenant that has it locked up far more often than a tenantless soccer stadium and I have nothing to back this up but it doesn’t seem like baseball stadiums nationally host concerts as much as soccer stadiums do. Even if Energy FC fires back up, that’s a 28 total game season vs 150 games in AAA baseball. Frisco’s soccer stadium is another example of one that hosts a bunch of concerts. And also…the lack of outdoor concerts around downtown would seem to indicate that the market for 10k capacity concerts isn’t what you suggest because nearly every outdoor show that’s come through OKC has gone to the zoo amp instead of seeking a larger outdoor venue. The Lakes was an attempt at a larger outdoor concert/festival only venue near downtown that failed pretty miserably. The airpark hosted a few prior to the wheeler district being developed and clearly there wasn’t enough need or interest to try to continue it after that ran its course.

3) what does being in a suburb have to do with anything? As long as there is adequate parking, why does it matter? Being downtown and in the middle of the metro should help, not hurt, the stadium’s ability to hold concerts. Also you act like DSG is in the middle of nowhere. It’s 9 miles by car from the center of downtown Denver, that’s about 3 miles further away than the zoo amp is from downtown OKC (or almost exactly the same distance if you take the highway). It’s 15 minutes from downtown to the zoo amp vs 18 minutes from downtown Denver to Dicks. Again, you’re just making assumptions to back up your argument.

You have an odd fascination with 10k capacity venues that doesn’t seem to be backed up by anything other than “a guy I know said so”. There has been nothing to indicate that the zoo amp isn’t a large enough venue or that there is a high demand for a larger venue. Maybe sunset actually happens and works but it just doesn’t seem like something for which there is the massive demand you seem to think there is.

[BoulderSooner]

It's too small. It holds 7k. Most festivals and summer tours need 10k to make money. That's from a music buddy of mine.

And there is a hard limit on events allowed at the Zoo Amp. That's how you know it was never meant to be permanent.

so 100 years is temp to you??

and the hard limit is like 26 events .. IIRC

[Pete]

The Zoo Amp just announced a bunch of concerts for this summer, including Blues Travelers, Howard Jones, and Cake:

https://www.prekindle.com/events/zoo-amphitheatre

[Urbanized]

^^^^^^^
Complete line-ups are pretty cool:

• Legends of Hip Hop featuring Ice Cube, E-40, and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony (I've never seen Cube and would like to, but have seen Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and they're pretty good live in my experience)
• Blues Traveler with Big Head Todd and the Monsters (have seen both bands and they were both great live when I saw each of them)
• Howard Jones, ABC, Haircut One Hundred (I def want to go to this one)
• Slightly Stoopid, Dirty Heads, Hirie, The Expendables (I'd like to see Dirty Heads but not very dialed in on the other acts)
• An evening with Cake (saw them years ago, would go again if I didn't have anything better to do that night)

[Bill Robertson]

I hope I can talk my wife into an August concert. I'd love to see Blues Traveler and Big Head Todd and the Monsters.

[TheTravellers]

^^^^^^^
Complete line-ups are pretty cool:

• Legends of Hip Hop featuring Ice Cube, E-40, and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony (I've never seen Cube and would like to, but have seen Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and they're pretty good live in my experience)
• Blues Traveler with Big Head Todd and the Monsters (have seen both bands and they were both great live when I saw each of them)
• Howard Jones, ABC, Haircut One Hundred (I def want to go to this one)
• Slightly Stoopid, Dirty Heads, Hirie, The Expendables (I'd like to see Dirty Heads but not very dialed in on the other acts)
• An evening with Cake (saw them years ago, would go again if I didn't have anything better to do that night)

Howard Jones show should be good, some nostalgia in it for me since I saw him open for Eurythmics at the Zoo back in 84. I tend to only go to shows like this if the bands are pretty close to the original lineup, which Jones and Haircut 100 are (Jones was only Jones when I saw him, so that one's easy to check ). ABC, however, looks like it's probably Martin Fry and yer granny on bongos, but I'll probably still go.

[Urbanized]

Howard Jones show should be good, some nostalgia in it for me since I saw him open for Eurythmics at the Zoo back in 84. I tend to only go to shows like this if the bands are pretty close to the original lineup, which Jones and Haircut 100 are (Jones was only Jones when I saw him, so that one's easy to check ). ABC, however, looks like it's probably Martin Fry and yer granny on bongos, but I'll probably still go.

That's usually my philosophy too, but I give some grace to acts that largely revolved around a vocalist who is still present, or in some cases a specific musician who was recognized as THE driving force in the band. I will say that in recent weeks I've seen a couple of bands with original line-ups largely intact; Living Color at Beer City and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy at Tower. LC's lineup is the same as it was in the early 90s; only the bassist was different from the band I saw open for the Rolling Stones in 1989. BBVD remarkably had 100% of its original lineup intact, 30+ years later. They were tight as hell.

In a few weeks I'm going to live by that other rule and see Heart at BOK. I think only Ann and Nancy are the only original members, but they're who I'm there to see anyway.

[mugofbeer]

In a few weeks I'm going to live by that other rule and see Heart at BOK. I think only Ann and Nancy are the only original members, but they're who I'm there to see anyway.

Coming from a classic rock POV, I don't think any other original members of heart have been around for a long time. I read an article about the negotiations between the sisters for this tour. They had some disagreements which caused some problems between them. One has her own separate band and the other wanted other musicians. I'm not sure how it turned out but at least they are touring again.

[TheTravellers]

For the Flaming Lips shows, we got reserved seats, and it says there's a separate entrance (which we've never heard of or used). From looking at the overhead, it looks like there's an entrance on the south side of the amphitheatre near the front where the seating is. Can anybody confirm/deny, and if confirm, do you know if there's still a bunch of steps to get to the seating (looks like there might be, but tree shadows are in the way)? Wife has knee problems (that's why we got seats, that and we don't feel like getting there early enough to get a good spot for GA) and is wondering... Thanks for any info.

[unfundedrick]

For the Flaming Lips shows, we got reserved seats, and it says there's a separate entrance (which we've never heard of or used). From looking at the overhead, it looks like there's an entrance on the south side of the amphitheatre near the front where the seating is. Can anybody confirm/deny, and if confirm, do you know if there's still a bunch of steps to get to the seating (looks like there might be, but tree shadows are in the way)? Wife has knee problems (that's why we got seats, that and we don't feel like getting there early enough to get a good spot for GA) and is wondering... Thanks for any info.

You might try this if you don't get a response from anyone here.

https://okczooamp.com/contact/

[TheTravellers]

You might try this if you don't get a response from anyone here.

https://okczooamp.com/contact/

Yep, that was my next stop. I usually ask things like this here first because sometimes I get some additional useful info (you can park at blahblah if you use that entrance, etc.).

[caaokc]

Did anyone go to the show last night? If so, what improvements did they make?

[TheTravellers]

Did anyone go to the show last night? If so, what improvements did they make?

Heard from someone who was at Blues Traveler that it's mainly new restrooms made out of steel and air conditioned. New beverage/food stands too, I think. Not sure if there's more of them or not.

[PhiAlpha]

Heard from someone who was at Blues Traveler that it's mainly new restrooms made out of steel and air conditioned. New beverage/food stands too, I think. Not sure if there's more of them or not.

You of all people didn’t go to Blues Traveller(s)?!?