The Oklahoma City Thunder have built a team projected to become one of the NBA’s best in the years to come. OKC Mayor David Holt wants to ensure it all happens within his city.
Holt, in his State of the City address held Thursday, made a call for a new arena to be built in order to house the Thunder for decades to come.
“Our arena is too small, it has too little investment in it, and it is trending towards being too old,” Holt said, via Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman. “Obviously, we want a long-term relationship that secures our Thunder for a generation, but we can’t accomplish that without a modern NBA arena.”
Thunder home games are currently held in Paycom Center, the smallest arena in the NBA at a relatively modest 586,000 square feet. For the sake of comparison, Crypto.com Arena, which houses the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers, is nearly double that size at 900,000 square feet. Even other small-market teams such as the Milwaukee Bucks and Utah Jazz, play in arenas well over 700,000 square feet.
The Thunder franchise is no stranger to the threat of relocation, having been the beneficiary of the second-most recent NBA move in 2008. Back in 2006, the Seattle Supersonics franchise was sold to a group led by Oklahoma City native Clay Bennett in part due to the lack of state funding for a new arena in Seattle.
The Sonics’ relocation serves as a cautionary tale that Holt wants to prevent from repeating itself.
“We will secure this team for such a span of time that I can tell you today that a superstar who will play for our city, in this new arena, in the next lease term, isn’t even born yet. And yet, Sam Presti is probably already holding the draft pick to get him,” Holt said while holding back his smile.
Holt assured Oklahoma City citizens that there would be no tax increase in order to fund the arena. In addition to public funding, the Bennett-led Thunder ownership group will also provide a “significant financial contribution” toward the project.
Holt anticipates that a concrete plan for a new Thunder arena could be ready by the end of the summer.
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