Arena vote is about ‘the show'
Arena vote is about ‘the show'
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60
By Bryan Dean
Published: December 23, 2007
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.
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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.”
It's not just about what other people think of Oklahoma City. Williams said it's also about what Oklahoma City residents think of themselves.
He saw pride in city residents as the Hornets brought Oklahoma City to a national stage that had nothing to do with cowboys or tornadoes or a terrorist attack.
"All of a sudden people realized we are a much bigger city than we think,” Williams said.
Cornett, an avid sports fan who missed only a few of the Hornets' home games in Oklahoma City, said the team also helped bring the city together.
"It was fun to have a team that was ours,” Cornett said. "It was the most inclusive thing we ever had in this community. Everybody felt like they were a part of that franchise, and we can bring that back.”
Williams is confident voters will support the sales tax. He said getting an NBA franchise, while not the end goal of MAPS, was a possible outcome that many quietly dreamed about.
They were quiet to avoid being called crazy.
Jill Adler of Oklahoma City said she was a Hornets fan and she would love to see the Seattle SuperSonics move to the city permanently.
She was one of those quiet dreamers who hoped the Ford Center could lead to an NBA franchise. Her son thought she was nuts. He doesn't now.
"We were driving past the arena when it was under construction, and I looked over and said ‘Do you ever think we could get an NBA team?'” Adler said. "He laughed at me and said, ‘No we aren't getting an NBA team.' I'm already talking to all my friends and telling them they need to go vote.”
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A great source of info on the Crosstown replacement project which I dub the "Riverside Freeway" is on Wikipedia: --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_Crosstown ---
Oklahoma City's own website --- http://www.okc.gov/planning/coretoshore/background.html --- states that the new replacement expressway is on track to completion in 2012. The "Core to Shore" project will revamp some of the area about which Don and his wife were concerned, if public and private funding can be allocated.
Click on this link for tickets to the Sonics. No doubt the prices will go way down when they get here.Lots of $10.00 tickets Ha Ha! I think many are missing thr point, it's not that we don't want OKC to be a fine city but we need to be more than a glitterdome. Pull off the decorated lid and see whats underneath. MAPS is for all the people with improvements for schools etc. Not for a private profit making business. If thats the case then I would like for an additional sales tax to fund for me the finest restaurant and hotel in the USA so I may make a lot of money. Thats not going to happen for me or anyone else. A while back my wife and I took a nostalgic trip around the city where we grew up many years ago. After going from SW 29th. to NW 10th and around the downtown area, I looked over at her and she she had tears in her eyes. She said " It's a shame that this city has not done much since the 1950's. for most of the city". Well Cale just study the history of this area and many other places. It's all been said before and an NBA Franchise is not going to solve the cities or the peoples problems. But it will, with your help, make the rich get richer. I'll say no more here but be sure I will cast my ballot against.
But now, with some creative investments in our city, we now have many beautiful new facilities, new schools and new recreation areas. These are the things that attract people to a city and make them want to live here and bring up families here. We still pay less than about 3/5 of the cities in a 51 city CNN/Money survey -- and we have lot of great amenities.
If you lived here you would know that being a federal highway I-40 that is because if you knew that you would understand that it is a federal project, not just a city project. So it takes a longer time to plan, purchase and move citizens, to do the ground work and now we can see that all the planning and work is being seen.
What you fail to understand about OKC is that we believe in our city and changing the image from the thought that we are just a sub par place to live to a world class city. If you look at everything that is happening from the recent Head of OKC a "world class rowing event" that got world attention and was talked about in how great it was from were OKC was before to now.
And btw, if you live in Yukon for your information you will be paying on this tax just because alot of the growth areas in Yukon might say Yukon but it is actually OKC. So no matter what you think those of us who don't mind paying improvements will thank you for you contribution. Oh and a side note if you are talking about all this money did you even know that BOK Arena in Tulsa is $183 million and it is smaller.
paul, yukon - Dec 23, 2007 12:13 PM
Just thought I might remind you of your words. I am done. Just throwing my opinion out there. Have a nice life, hopefully here in Oklahoma. We like your tax dollars. LOL.