Carlson: OKC has had an NBA team for 15 years. Now, it's time we built an NBA arena.

Oklahoma City has had an NBA team for 15 years.

But we’ve never had an NBA arena.

Yes, the Thunder has a home arena. Sure, it plays at Paycom Center. But that arena wasn’t built for an NBA team.

It was built to lure a major-league franchise to OKC.

Mission accomplished.

The arena, then known as the Ford Center, provided a suitable nest for the Hornets when Hurricane Katrina flooded them out of New Orleans. A couple of years later, it gave the Sonics a soft landing spot when (ironically) an arena dispute pushed them out of Seattle.

And in the first decade-plus of the Thunder, what became known as Chesapeake Energy Arena was the backdrop for some of the most memorable moments in our city’s history. Shots that shook the rafters. Plays that will be part of hall-of-fame-induction videos.

Make no mistake, though: The arena was conceived to be a bare-bones facility for a hockey team. Oh, if you build an arena, you want it to be able to host basketball games, too, but city leaders in those days knew the NBA was the longest of long shots, the shrillest of pipe dreams. Then-Commissioner David Stern had made that abundantly clear. Leaders believed the NHL was the city’s only chance at pro sports, albeit a slim one, and they designed a shell of an arena they thought could be altered to suit a hockey franchise.

Instead, the NBA came calling.

Now, Oklahoma City needs to answer the call and build an NBA arena.

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On Thursday, Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt brought the issue of building a new arena to the fore again during his annual State of the City address. He used the address last summer to ask us to dip our toes in the water ― “If we want to maintain a long-term relationship with the NBA,” he said then, “we have to be proactive” ― and now, he wants us to jump in.

“For a century, our city’s arena has been the defining infrastructure piece for our city’s quality of life,” Holt said Thursday. “That journey from Municipal Auditorium to the Myriad to what we now know as Paycom Center has never been static. Never once have we said, ‘We’re done.’ It has always been a story of vision and aspiration and reinvestment and an implicit understanding that we can never stand still.”

We shouldn’t stand still now either.

Oklahoma City has a new mission ― it’s time to build an NBA arena. An arena conceived and planned and constructed around the needs of a team in the association. An arena for the Thunder.

Holt expects a plan by the end of the summer and a vote before the end of the year.

Now, some of you will never have an appetite for such things. You aren’t going to agree to this no matter what is said here or in a million-word dissertation.

Some of you are on the opposite side. You want the Thunder to stay no matter what, and you would vote yes today if you could.

But some of you are undecided for myriad reasons.

Here’s some good news for that third bunch (and for all of us, really): the two biggest concerns raised after Holt first brought up the notion of a new arena last summer should be assuaged by what he said Thursday.

First, there will be no new taxes to pay for the arena, and second, the Thunder will be involved in paying for the project.

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Nitty-gritty specifics on both weren’t revealed, but what we do know is that the funding would come from an extension of the MAPS 4 sales tax. It is set to expire in 2028, but if we vote to extend it for whatever amount of time is deemed necessary, that tax revenue would ultimately pay for a new arena.

Oklahoma City has basically had a MAPS tax in place for decades. We voted our first one into existence in 1993 ― it included the current downtown arena, by the way ― and the MAPS project have been so darn good for our city and our quality of life that we happily keep agreeing to more of them.

The MAPS 4 vote, the most recent one, passed with 71.7% of people saying yes. That was actually the biggest margin of victory for any of the MAPS votes.

And in case you’re wondering, such a thing is almost unheard of. A tax getting more popular as time goes on? That doesn’t happen.

But it happened with MAPS 4 because the first three were so darn good. We see the results, we want more of the same, and we have good reason to trust our city leaders will do right by us with these projects.

It seems fitting, quite honestly, that a new arena would be built by extending a MAPS tax.

Fitting, too, that the Thunder will help fund the new arena.

Holt said Thursday the Thunder ownership group will make a “significant financial contribution” to the building of the new arena. He didn’t give a dollar amount, and when the Thunder was asked by our man Joe Mussatto, it didn’t offer an amount either.

I’m guessing such details are still being worked out.

But the truth is, this isn’t something the Thunder had to do. Pro sports teams hold all the power in matters such as these. As Holt pointed out during his State of the City, there are literally dozens of major U.S. cities ready to do whatever it takes to get a pro franchise, including footing the entire bill for a state-of-the-art arena or stadium or ballpark.

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The Thunder could’ve demanded OKC do the same.

But the owners aren't playing hardball. Instead, they are going to ante up some of their own money, indicating they want to be part of the solution and signaling they want to help keep the Thunder here for many generations to come.

Frankly, the owners’ decision to help with the arena funding will knit this franchise even more tightly with the community.

Of course, this new arena will financially benefit those owners. Their franchise will have more in-arena amenities, more high-dollar seats, more money-making options in a new facility, and all that improves the bottom line. Maximizes it, really.

But in truth, that’s what an NBA arena should do for an NBA team.

And our NBA team should have an NBA arena.

The mayor has asked us to jump into these waters.

“It is time to plan for a new arena,” he said, “and 2023 is the year to make that commitment.”

Cannonball!

Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at 405-475-4125 or jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok or on Threads at jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC Thunder: New arena plan positives include no new tax, team buy-in