MAPS 4 Stadium

[Pete]

I'd be shocked if the stadium doesn't end up at OKANA.

[Laramie]

That was my next question, about the OKANA site since there will be some structured parking. On a budget of $ 41 million, you're not going to be able to build any kind of stadium without something supported with parking.

[smitteebc]

I'd be shocked if the stadium doesn't end up at OKANA.

Do you think the Chickasaw Nation would partner with the city in any way to make the stadium larger or more fan friendly (shade structures)? Also, would a tribe ever get involved in ownership for a soccer team?

[Pete]

Do you think the Chickasaw Nation would partner with the city in any way to make the stadium larger or more fan friendly (shade structures)? Also, would a tribe ever get involved in ownership for a soccer team?

I believe the Chickasaws would give the City a great deal on the land, provide parking and amenities as well as ingress/egress and perhaps invest in the stadium with its own money.

Not sure about team ownership but the stadium is going to happen completely independent of that. The City doesn't have an operating team right now and the stadium project is still moving forward.

[Canoe]

one of the best sites for a major league stadium near downtown is the area encompassing the strawberry fields proposed development.
one of the main issues would be the adjusting the city's street grid; but between walker and shartel and between sw 3rd and sw 7th streets you
can fit a 25K seat stadium that can be expandable even beyond 40K seats if ever needed. an incorporated into the stadium parking garage,
multiple points of access mainly through okc blvd, and a grand main entrance/fan zone just a block from scissortail park. in my opinion, if mayor holt and the city
are really serious about turning okc into a major league city they should seek out the private investors and developers to make it happen.
if major league soccer smells the money in the air they would not hesitate to expand to this market as long as the vision, leadership and the business plan is
solid. i think it is also worth noting that since major league soccer games run mostly throughout the summer it would complement instead of compete with
nba basketball in the city for major league sporting events downtown and therefore have year round activity. the demographics also point to a slow but steady growth
in the interest for the sport amongst the newer generations so looking into the future the city may ride that wave of new and greater demand for live major league
sporting events and entertainment. another site with potential but accessibility challenges is wheeler park between i-40, the river, western and lee.

I would be in favor of this idea if the Strawberry Feilds group broke even or lost money on the sale. Overpaying for land and sitting on it for decades should not be rewarded by the public.

[Jake]

I believe the Chickasaws would give the City a great deal on the land, provide parking and amenities as well as ingress/egress and perhaps invest in the stadium with its own money.

Not sure about team ownership but the stadium is going to happen completely independent of that. The City doesn't have an operating team right now and the stadium project is still moving forward.

I have a feeling the Chickasaws don't do any half-measures, especially if it's connected to OKANA. I think the stadium would have a better chance to be properly invested in here than some other location.

[chrisTOEpher]

If the Chickasaws do it, you know they will do it well. They dont half-butt any project they do. I would consider that a pretty significant win for the city over some of the private options that have been tossed around.

[Pete]

Reminder the entire budget for this project is $41 million.

To pay Strawberry Fields anywhere near what they already have invested in their land would take the majority of that budget. IMO, this is not even close to a workable alternative.

The land near Farmer's Market might work. Producers Coop might cut them a deal because development opportunities are completely passing them by.

But I'm pretty darn sure it is going to be located at OKANA.

[john60]

Do the Chickasaws own land adjacent to OKANA where the stadium could go, or would they need to acquire more land?

[Pete]

Do the Chickasaws own land adjacent to OKANA where the stadium could go, or would they need to acquire more land?

They own everything between the First American Museum and I-35.

The presumption is that the stadium would be placed there as part of a future phase of OKANA.

[Richard at Remax]

They own everything between the First American Museum and I-35.

The presumption is that the stadium would be placed there as part of a future phase of OKANA.

Does the city have a deal with the Energy that if a stadium is built, they are the tenants, or get first right of refusal? I hope not. The city should stay clear of anything associated with the Funks after what they did with the Barons and the Energy.

[SEMIweather]

Does the city have a deal with the Energy that if a stadium is built, they are the tenants, or get first right of refusal? I hope not. The city should stay clear of anything associated with the Funks after what they did with the Barons and the Energy.

The issue is that Prodigal still owns the USL franchise rights to OKC. We could probably get someone to bring a NISA (third-division) team here, but the quality of play wouldn't be nearly as good as the USL, not to mention that most of the clubs in that league have next to no fan support. MLS is still an option as I feel they're likely going to expand to 40 teams over the next decade or two, but it would take some very deep pockets.

[Dob Hooligan]

Does the city have a deal with the Energy that if a stadium is built, they are the tenants, or get first right of refusal? I hope not. The city should stay clear of anything associated with the Funks after what they did with the Barons and the Energy.

I don't know the Funk organization, but I have a couple observations about the Barons and Energy.

Hindsight suggests the Funks were sold a bill of goods when they got into the hockey business. Right after they gave up and wrote off their millions of dollars in losses, the NHL decided they were moving toward having their highest (AAA for lack of a better term) level teams closer to the east and west coasts, and/or having those teams closer to the parent than OKC was to Edmonton. TBH, OKC just didn't (and doesn't) fit into what the NHL is doing with their affiliates.

I don't see anything about the USL complaining about how the Funks are handling the situation in OKC. I don't see anyone with money stepping up to buy the team and do something different. I don't see Chad Richison say that he wants "his" stadium at UCO to be modified and used for USL Soccer. I don't see any other stadium "owners" offering to fix this situation.

[jedicurt]

I don't know the Funk organization, but I have a couple observations about the Barons and Energy.

Hindsight suggests the Funks were sold a bill of goods when they got into the hockey business. Right after they gave up and wrote off their millions of dollars in losses, the NHL decided they were moving toward having their highest (AAA for lack of a better term) level teams closer to the east and west coasts, and/or having those teams closer to the parent than OKC was to Edmonton. TBH, OKC just didn't (and doesn't) fit into what the NHL is doing with their affiliates.

as someone who sat on the barons season seat holder advisory board, i can tell you first hand that the issues were more with prodigal having no idea what they were doing, or how to run an organization. even simple things that should have been easy to work out that were brought up regularly, seemed like impossible tasks for them to implement. from what we heard from Edmonton, i think they would have kept their AHL team here, had it been more successful, and a vast majority of the reasons it wasn't was solely on prodigal focusing on trying these major big promotions and car giveaways, but not actually fixing the many game day operations issues that made many not come back after their first game.

i think edmonton ended up deciding they had to move the team once the Energy was announced, and prodigals focus clearly became soccer, and they basically just gave up on the Barons the last two years.

[SEMIweather]

as someone who sat on the barons season seat holder advisory board, i can tell you first hand that the issues were more with prodigal having no idea what they were doing, or how to run an organization. even simple things that should have been easy to work out that were brought up regularly, seemed like impossible tasks for them to implement. from what we heard from Edmonton, i think they would have kept their AHL team here, had it been more successful, and a vast majority of the reasons it wasn't was solely on prodigal focusing on trying these major big promotions and car giveaways, but not actually fixing the many game day operations issues that made many not come back after their first game.

i think edmonton ended up deciding they had to move the team once the Energy was announced, and prodigals focus clearly became soccer, and they basically just gave up on the Barons the last two years.

You already know this since we've talked about it in person before...but this is a very similar experience to the one that those of us who cared about the Energy have had over the past 5-6 years.

[Richard at Remax]

The issue is that Prodigal still owns the USL franchise rights to OKC. We could probably get someone to bring a NISA (third-division) team here, but the quality of play wouldn't be nearly as good as the USL, not to mention that most of the clubs in that league have next to no fan support. MLS is still an option as I feel they're likely going to expand to 40 teams over the next decade or two, but it would take some very deep pockets.

Do the rights expire? I wonder when that is. Esp if the club is dormant.

[SEMIweather]

Do the rights expire? I wonder when that is. Esp if the club is dormant.

I don't believe that they expire. I assume that Prodigal is probably paying some amount of money to the USL every year in order to renew the rights, and as long as they keep doing that, the USL doesn't really care if the club stays dormant.

[Laramie]

Taft Stadium is not an option, or getting OKC to the next level. Funks will never bring MLS to OKC, the MLS franchise fees are now $500 million.



Our city should build nothing less than a $150 million American football/soccer size 20,000 seat expandable stadium on city-owned land to accommodate USL or a future spring football league like the XFL or USFL

[OKC2017]

the issue i see with the okana site is the fact that the stadium would not be close enough to downtown to make it pedestrian friendly with multiple
means of access. if the purpose of the stadium is to host professional sports teams and a live entertainment venue it'd be best to be in downtown.
it is a requirement for major league soccer teams to build their stadiums in downtown or the immediate urban core in light of making the clubs
financially sustainable over time. in my opinion it would be a good idea to bring the chickasaws along as partners and investors; san diego was granted
a major league expansion franchise just two months ago, paying $500 million!!! for their expansion fee in a deal between a native american tribe, an
international billionaire private investor and the city as partners; the city already built and owns the stadium they will play in.

another question i have is how much is too much money to pay for a plot of land to build the stadium on and complement it with mix use development?
i remember drawing a diagram of a hypothetical proposed site next to the southern half of the scissortail park by walker and the river. if you measure the distance
from okana to downtown you get about two miles but from the river and walker site you get about half a mile and it allows for a pedestrian friendly atmosphere with
multi modes of transportation. what's interesting is that most of that land is for sale, it is being marketed by a real estate company called verbode and the asking price
for it is below $10 million (last time i checked). so i just wonder if the right team that includes a partnership with a local native american tribe, deep pocketed private investors,
developers and the city could make financial sense to build the stadium there and bring a major league team to the city? the private investors part is critical in my point of view
because even though the city has the obligation to lead the project with a vision for the future and make reasonable concessions here and there such as long term land leases,
permits, provide multi modes of public transportation and accessibility, etc. at the end of the day it should be the private owners who foot the bill of the stadium construction,
the franchise expansion fees and the operating costs of running the team. right now it takes about $1 billion to get into the MLS (stadium + expansion fees) and
it would be hard to find such investors with deep enough pockets to foot those bills, but there are some out there, the city and all the interested parties just have to seek them out.

[OKC2017]

[Laramie]

A nice 20,000 seat riverfront stadium, yes indeed. . .

[Dob Hooligan]

I don't believe that they expire. I assume that Prodigal is probably paying some amount of money to the USL every year in order to renew the rights, and as long as they keep doing that, the USL doesn't really care if the club stays dormant.

This is not meant to be smart aleck.

The USL is a soccer league, they want and need teams playing soccer. I'm sure they would be thrilled if someone were offering to fix the stadium issue and buy the team. I don't think anyone has a desire to spend what it takes. If they did, I think there would be leaks in such a way as to pressure the Funk's to get off high center.

[Canoe]

I kind of like it.

[Mr. Blue Sky]

So much unrealized potential with a stadium on the river. Though, nothing less than 20,000 capacity. I became a believer after hearing the details of the very busy year-round schedule for Frisco’s Toyota Stadium… it’s also the home of Dallas FC (MLS), home to the Division II National Championship, The Frisco Bowl (FBS), etc. A new and improved Toyota-like facility along the river in OKC would make a perfect fit, imo.

[Thunderbolt]

Love the concept and location, but a reminder that the budget only has $41 million. That sounds like a lot of money, but if you need to buy land it's going to be a very "bare bones" stadium. That's why folks specualte/dream of a partnership with the Chickasaws, where they chip in the Okana land and offer to add their own dollars to make it a $100+ million project.