Arena vote is about ‘the show'

Roy Williams looks at the upcoming vote for a temporary 1-cent sales tax to pay for Ford Center improvements differently from MAPS or any other vote the city has seen recently.

Williams, president of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, said those votes were about setting the stage. This one is about putting on the show.

All the details haven't been worked out, but the city expects a tax lasting about a year will raise about $100 million for Ford Center improvements. The tax would kick in the day after the 1-cent MAPS for Kids sales tax expires, meaning the sales tax rate would remain the same.

The city's sales tax election will come a month before NBA owners vote on an application by the Seattle SuperSonics to relocate to Oklahoma City.

Williams said voters should look at the proposal as a way to capitalize on the investment they've made in the city through the Metropolitan Area Projects vote and its sequel, MAPS for Kids.

"This is why you do these things — to position your city so that when opportunities like this come along, you can get them,” he said. "This is why we've done all this. This is why we've built all this infrastructure.”

There are tangible benefits. The chamber estimates the Hornets had an economic impact of $66 million the first year the team played the majority of its games at the Ford Center.

"We did not do a study on the second year, but you could anticipate things were probably very similar,” Williams said.

That money went to retail expenditures, salaries for Hornets employees, restaurants, hotels, office rental and anything else visitors or the team paid for while they were here.

But there are other benefits, too, many of which can't be measured.

Mayor Mick Cornett said getting an NBA franchise raises the city's status in the eyes of employers, tourists and anyone who follows sports.

"On a very superficial level, what cities your team plays in the world of sports reflects on your status as a community,” Cornett said. "If our companies are trying to recruit talent from New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Boston, it helps if our sports teams are playing teams from those communities.”

City leaders believe an NBA franchise would be a major step toward making Oklahoma City more than it has ever been.

Ask someone from another part of the country what they think of Oklahoma City, and you might not get much of an answer. The chamber has been asking that question, and they hope the NBA can be part of changing the answers they have heard.

"In study after study and poll after poll we do, we continually see a lack of image about Oklahoma City,” Williams said. "It's not a bad image, they just don't know who we are.”