OKC voters 'get game ball' after approving funding of new Thunder arena

Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt didn’t wait for the buzzer to sound before declaring victory Tuesday night. The score was lopsided.

Oklahoma City residents, in an overwhelming 71% to 29% split, voted yes on a proposal for the city to use taxpayer funds to build a $900 million downtown arena, thus ensuring the Thunder’s commitment to play in OKC through the mid-2050s.

“Today was OKC versus the world, and we won,” Holt said from a boathouse on the banks of the Oklahoma River. “We told the nation and we told the world that Oklahoma City is and shall remain a big-league city.”

For 15 years the city has been home to an NBA team. As soon as 2029, Oklahoma City will have an NBA-caliber arena to match.

Paycom Center, which cost $89 million to build, opened in 2002 — six years before the SuperSonics relocated from Seattle to Oklahoma City, where they were renamed the Thunder.

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The modest arena, designed to hockey specifications, temporarily housed the displaced New Orleans Hornets from 2005-07, and, after several rounds of upgrades, it acted as a serviceable home for the Thunder and will continue to do so through at least the next five seasons.

The Thunder could move into its new digs as soon as the 2029-30 NBA season.

Voters approved a six-year penny sales tax that will foot at least $850 million of the bill. Thunder ownership, led by chairman Clay Bennett, will contribute $50 million — about 5.5% of the expected cost.

The Thunder has committed to playing in the new arena for 25 years, which would secure OKC’s status as an NBA city through at least 2054. Even if the Oklahoma City-based ownership group sells the franchise, “these types of agreements run with the team, not necessarily with the owners,” Holt said.

Settling on a location for the new arena is “one of the first orders of business,” Holt said. The land occupied by Prairie Surf Studios, formerly the Cox Convention Center, is the most likely location.

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While the question of where might be resolved soon, Holt said renderings of the new arena “are a ways off.”

“I think you have to be realistic that something of this magnitude will take a couple of years to design,” Holt said.

Issues for another day.

For the Keep OKC Big League campaign, Tuesday was a night to celebrate. Well, sort of.

“I think I have an appointment at 9 in the morning,” Holt said with a hearty laugh. “It’s a Tuesday. I drove my kids here, I can’t even drink.”

Holt mentioned his kids at the end of his victory speech.

“I didn’t get to grow up in a city with an NBA team, and I was darned if you kids were going to grow up in a city that lost an NBA team,” Holt said to cheers.

Holt, like a lot of voters who went to the polls Tuesday, grew up in an Oklahoma City that was void of a professional sports team.

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“We were so conditioned to playing teams from Amarillo and Wichita, and now we were standing on the court with New York and LA,” Holt said of the Thunder’s arrival. “It just changes the way you see yourself, and it still feels surreal.

“When I go to games I still pinch myself that this is really happening, and I don’t ever want to lose that feeling. But I know it’s fragile. There’s some sad sports in American history, and I just didn’t want this moment to be brief.”

On Tuesday, voters made clear their intention to keep the Thunder around for decades to come.

“The people of Oklahoma City won tonight,” Holt said. “They get the game ball.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC voters 'get game ball' for voting yes on Thunder arena funding