The first wave of Ford Center renovations will begin in June, according to Oklahoma City officials, while construction of the NBA practice facility is much further from breaking ground.
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The entire project, however, is scheduled for completion before the start of the 2010-11 NBA season, the latest possible season the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics could relocate to Oklahoma City.
Construction of the downtown arena's recently approved $100 million improvement project will be done in three segments.
The building's interior is slated to undergo renovations in June, but the project's two biggest makeovers — a new grand entrance on the southwest side of the building and a southeast expansion — won't begin until early 2009.
"We're going to focus on the interior improvements that would be noticeable to the patrons and try to enhance the facility so that it meets NBA standards as they're defined today,” said Assistant City Engineer Laura Story. "And some of those upgrades are pretty significant.”
Story said the interior work includes the construction of the arena's bunker suites, loge boxes and renovated club suites as well as improved bathrooms and finishes to the 100 and 300 levels' floors and walls.
Of the project's other two segments, construction of the grand entrance likely will begin next January. The southeast expansion project, which calls for repositioning the arena's loading dock, is tentatively scheduled to begin in June 2009 with the projects taking up to six months for completion, Story said.
Because The Benham Companies, the architect firm that developed the preliminary renderings of the proposed Ford Center project, was initially hired by the city to only form concepts of arena upgrades, the firm, in conjunction with Denver-based Sink Combs Dethlefs, still is designing blueprints for the arena.
"What we had in the conceptual renderings was nothing close to a designed-level detail needed by a contractor,” said Oklahoma City Special Projects Manager Tom Anderson. "So the architects are in the process now of creating that detailed-level design process. And that will probably take a matter of months before they complete that task.”
Even then, Story said, work likely will be slowed because of the need to keep the Ford Center open while working around scheduled events.
"Whenever we develop the plans then we look and see which can be installed around existing events,” Story said. "Our major construction time will likely be from June to August and into September, because that's when it's the off-season for all of our heavy use of the Ford Center.”
Story said the city hasn't made plans for the $20 million off-site practice facility, which will be developed by the architect firms C.H. Guernsey and HOK. The city is waiting on a ruling from the NBA that the Sonics can relocate to Oklahoma City.
The NBA Board of Governors will consider the team's relocation request during league meetings in New York City on April 17 and 18. The owners will then vote on the application no sooner than seven days and no later than 30 days after a recommendation is made at the league meetings. A majority of the league's 30 owners is needed for final approval.
"When we receive positive information as far as an NBA team coming to Oklahoma City, we will gear up with (the practice facility) consultant and do the same process with it,” Story said.
"But there's plenty to consume our time right now with the Ford Center. But by the time the practice facility issues get here we'll have some of these other details with the Ford Center ironed out and it'll be down to a smooth process and we can gear up for the practice facility and get our act together on that.”
If the NBA approves the Sonics relocation, Story said, the site selection process for the practice facility will begin.
"We would be looking for a facility location that everybody feels is a good match for the team and for the city to own a facility at,” Story said. "And once you have the site located you can begin design. But it's not real prudent to begin that design until you know what your site is.
"And I haven't heard a word of what that might be. It's not a secret. We just haven't given it that much thought. We're really pretty swamped with what we're trying to get going right now. But we're plugging right along, and we're trying to do it according to how it was passed by the voters and we want to do a good job with it.”
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Roger wrote: "...our major projects normally come in pretty close to budget..." What is your definition of "pretty close to budget"? MAPS projects were so over budget that there was serious talk in canceling the Ford Center completely. Instead the original MAPS sales tax was extended for 6 months to pay for it.
Tell me something 007...what did I post there that wasn't the absolute truth? Please, Please, please refute my statements and show them people out there that I'm wrong about this state...
Face reality, 007....this is the way it is in this state. I can't help it if the state is financially and morally bankrupt and is unwilling (read that ashamed) to have the condition of the state known throughout the country..........all I do is tell it like it is here..............
For you guys up in Seattle who want to see what this state is all about..check out bubbaworld.com...nothing but factual tidbits from around the state....check out the section about the one judge....
"Local politicians do us right" ?? Really? In what manner? They're improving the Ford before the taxes are started to be collected, incurring a debt (loan) which I'm sure is going to have an interest rate attached..nothing mentioned of that before the vote, right?? Where is the plan for improvements that was supposed to be released BEFORE the vote anyway? Hmmmm...as far as the people in Seattle...this state is basically bankrupt. The Governor just approved an emergency payment to the schools so they can keep operating, and today he announced some 20-24 million dollars to keep the department of corrections going, plus theres all sorts of talk about road jobs that might have to be delayed due to budget defecits, PLUS the environmental hazards published here yesterday, PLUS, the lottery is producing about 15% of anticipated profits(mainly due in part to the lowest payout in the States), they're scared Arkansas is going to get a lottery, fearing that will hurt the Okie lottery, but they're still paying the lottery commissioner $15,500 dollars monthly to ruin this sinking ship, PLUS, Okie just spent 6.5 million on a new crapper out on the panhandle and allocated $250,000 for artwork on the turnpikes in this state, (which were supposed to be toll free a couple years ago)...they've underestimated maintenance costs on the practice facility(seems they allocated 20 thousand a year, so you see what kind of people they plan on hiring for those jobs) and some guy on here says the local politicians "treat us right"...Boy, I'd hate to see what they'd do if they decided to shaft you....
"The taxpayers are on the hook for a 100% public funded, blank check. There is no cap on costs, no private commitment for cost overruns, and the team gets to make any changes to the facility they want. You not only are getting scammed on the funding end but you are getting it on the revenue end as well"...Sorry sonics dude...Aside from Larry most of us actually trust our local politicians to do us right...May not work that way up there but our major projects normally come in pretty close to budget...Also did you notice that you posted 7 straight times w/o a reply?
Oh oh, already trouble on the horizon... "Reported today in Oklahoma’s Tahlequah Daily Press, State Senator Jim Wilson, Representitive Mike Brown and Representitive John Auffett, spoke last Friday on their “Legislative Focus”, while speaking about a variety of other subjects at the Tahlequah High School library. Oklahoma has a tax deferral giving to businesses as an incentive to attact commerce to the state. All three state representives are preparing to say no to the Sonics. They have higher priorities at the state level." --- "Simply put, gives $60 million in tax-deferred credit to the team. Brown and Wilson said the deal isn’t helping most Oklahomans.
“It’s something I couldn’t support,” said Brown.
“This is a tax break for those who have millions of dollars,” said Wilson. “This is for 2,000 people in the whole state, and not all of them agree [they should be paying less taxes].”
And members of the Sonics team, since they won’t be residents of the state, won’t be paying their income taxes to Oklahoma, said Brown."
Larry: Good points. Welcome to being a "Big League City". You are being lied to and scammed. The taxpayers are on the hook for a 100% public funded, blank check. There is no cap on costs, no private commitment for cost overruns, and the team gets to make any changes to the facility they want. You not only are getting scammed on the funding end but you are getting it on the revenue end as well. They are rushing to make these changes now but the facility won't have the NBA until the 2010-2011 season unless a deal is cut to bring a different team there sooner. That means a huge revenue hit to the facility. They have no choice but to clear the schedule for the potential of the NBA and with most events booking a year in advance you will have little chance to fill in those dates at the last minute. This means losses for the city that will come right out of the taxpayers pockets. Ford Center and Key Arena were both built to "NBA Specs" recently and in no time at all they are no longer acceptable. If you think that they won't be back to the well in another few years think again. The lease is being written to give the team an "out" so they can hold you hostage again. This is a never ending process.
To address the further court actions... Once Stern and the Owners end up on the witness stand they will have one of two choices. 1) Tell the truth which will end up with them getting anti-trust charges filed against them or 2) Lie and find themselves up on fraud and purjury charges. Lose, lose for the league. Plus why would the owners want to go to court and have their business model put on trial just to support Clay? The state would also be able to pursue fraud charges against Clay for attempting to defraud the state by claiming that there was huge economic benefits to having the team here when he wanted $500 million in public money and then filing court papers that state there is no financial impact to having a team here. This will be shreaded in court and then end up with potential criminal charges. Next up would be a Congressional investigation into the league. The states congressional delegation would step up to get themselves on record going against the NBA. Then comes the class action lawsuit that is pending against Clay. This is where you will see the region get to keep the name and legacy of the team. Rather than take a double digit judgement the fans would negotiate that away by accepting the name, colors, awards, etc. Should that fail then comes the Emminent Domain case. With 41 years of history the region can make a good case that the team is part of the regions culture and taking it can be justified for the public good. At worst the region would end up with the name and legacy and at best they would end up with the team. The league would never allow this to move forward because if they ever control of a team to Emminent Domain they would never be able to hold another city hostage for public money again. You think none of this will happen? Think again. If the league is going to take the position that the City will never get another team then they have no choice but to take this all the way to the end.
" At that point if the Sonics are forced to continue to lose money over two more seasons in Seattle, there won't even be the hope of a future team. The NBA will be done with you. Face it. It's over."
Hardly. All it takes is Steve Ballmer doing exactly what Clay Bennett is trying to do. Should Clay somehow get away with moving this team there is no way the league could prevent Ballmer from buying the Knicks or any team that comes on the market. Once he owns them he can move them at will because the league would be sued if they allowed a team to move from a #12 market to a #45 market and tried to deny a team being moved under better conditions. This is another reason the league won't let Clay force a move. They will negotiate a settlement so that they can control the terms by which teams move. If they refused to keep the team here now that there is an ownership group and an arena deal, and allowed Clay to go to court to force a move, they would never get another city to step up and build a new arena since they would see that in Seattle they didn't honor their commitment. The league has everything to lose and nothing to gain by letting this get into court.
*IF* this does end up in court the team won't be moving anytime soon. The odds are 99% that the city of Seattle will win (there is no legal basis for Clay's attempt to break the Use Agreement). With any case a lawyer will tell you it is never 100% going into court even on open and shut cases like this one. Should Clay get lucky take a look at the timeline. June 16th start of trial wrapping up at the end of the month at the soonest. The Judge deliberates which can take weeks. Assume two weeks which is a safe bet. Mid July. The loser has the right to appeal and they have 60 days to do so. If if the city loses they file 59 days later. Now mid september. Should they decline to file and for some bizzare reason you now have 2 weeks before training camp starts. Too late to set a schedule and sell tickets. That means the Sonics are here for 2009-2009 season no matter what. Appeals can take years, at the least it is likely they would not have a decision before it is too late for the 2009-2010 season and if they did the City would take it up to the next level, starting the clock again. Even if he did win the money damages would be huge, more than he would want to pay. If he were a smart businessman (and he has proven he is not) he would show some integrity and drop the court case and agree to honor the lease terms. Doing so would prevent all the rest of the legal actions from occuring...
"Your city has two choices. Settle out of court and
accept the offer on the table to pay off the lease and keep the teams' name and history in Seattle for a future team. Or you can choose to not settle and keep the team in Seattle for two more seasons and then when they move to OKC they will bring their name and history with them, leaving absolutely nothing in Seattle."
You don't get it. This isn't going to trial. David Stern, the league owners, and elected officials in OKC DO NOT want to drag their butts up to Seattle and have to testify under oath about the broken NBA business model and the third party interference in a contract that can result in anti-trust charges being filed. This lawsuit isn't the end of the story it is the start. I'll expand next.
Joshua, I'll handle these one at a time. "Save our Sonics, open your eyes. It's over. The Sonics are gone. They are not for sale."
Sorry to burst your bubble but they are not gone. I know OKC is new to this game so they don't know the drill but in Seattle this is the same thing we went through with the Mariners and Seahawks and they are still here.
Not today, but that will change. The Mariners were not for sale, the Seahawks were not for sale, and the Storm was not for sale. All three of those teams were sold very shortly after their owners said they wouldn't sell. The team is not for sale TODAY because there is no reason to be. However after the league gives its conditional approval for relocation there will be some serious negotiating to prevent the trial from happening. During this period you can expect to see a settlement worked out that gets OKC a team and leaves the Sonics here.
It will be interesting to see how much they can get done before the team begins play here in November. This is a very exciting time to be living in OKC.
"We're going to focus on the interior improvements that would be noticeable to the patrons and try to enhance the facility so that it meets NBA standards as they're defined today,” Doesn't sound like a very good plan, after all the Ford was built to NBA/NHL standards just 5 to 7 years ago, now it needs $100 million in improvements? Put that off as long as you can...at least wait until you start collecting the sales tax (which doesn't happen until next year).
Hmmm...weren't we told that this was supposed to be "debt-free" (paying for it as we go)? Yet before the vote even happened the City spent $250,000 on the study to see what NBA improvements were required (if any). By the way, where IS that report? Was supposed to be to the Council 4 days before the vote with cost breakdowns etc...never saw a thing about it. Now they are already spending money by getting a line of credit (debt that has to be paid back) from a tax that they don't start collecting a single penny on until January 1st of next year?
Save our Sonics, open your eyes. It's over. The Sonics are gone. They are not for sale. Your city has two choices. Settle out of court and accept the offer on the table to pay off the lease and keep the teams' name and history in Seattle for a future team. Or you can choose to not settle and keep the team in Seattle for two more seasons and then when they move to OKC they will bring their name and history with them, leaving absolutely nothing in Seattle. At that point if the Sonics are forced to continue to lose money over two more seasons in Seattle, there won't even be the hope of a future team. The NBA will be done with you. Face it. It's over.
While an excellent story it does have one flaw mentioning that 2010-2011 is the latest possble season the Sonics could relocate.
This is flawed for a couple reasons:
1) It assumes the Sonics will relocate which is far from certian. The NBA will most likely give conditional approval in April but those conditions will involve settling the lawsuit. The NBA Owners do not want to be added to the lawsuit so it is unlikely they will give firm relocation approval.
2) It assumes that there is a chance that a court ruling would allow the team to move this upcoming year. A simple look at the timeline would tell you that is impossible. Calculate the time for a trial, for the judge to deliberate, the 60 day waiting period for an appeal, and the length of time a appeal takes it is pretty clear that the court case will drag on longer than the lease.
3) It presumes that there will not be a negotiated settlement. With Ballmers group willing to buy the team and pay half of the cost of the arena solution it is most likely that a deal will be negotiated that leaves the Sonics in Seattle and gives OKC another team. That is the only way to get the city to settle the lawsuit out of court and most likely what will happen.
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Leave a comment. Log in below or sign up (it's free).Editor's note: It is not our intent to offer comments on crime or fatality stories.
“It’s something I couldn’t support,” said Brown.
“This is a tax break for those who have millions of dollars,” said Wilson. “This is for 2,000 people in the whole state, and not all of them agree [they should be paying less taxes].”
And members of the Sonics team, since they won’t be residents of the state, won’t be paying their income taxes to Oklahoma, said Brown."
Hardly. All it takes is Steve Ballmer doing exactly what Clay Bennett is trying to do. Should Clay somehow get away with moving this team there is no way the league could prevent Ballmer from buying the Knicks or any team that comes on the market. Once he owns them he can move them at will because the league would be sued if they allowed a team to move from a #12 market to a #45 market and tried to deny a team being moved under better conditions. This is another reason the league won't let Clay force a move. They will negotiate a settlement so that they can control the terms by which teams move. If they refused to keep the team here now that there is an ownership group and an arena deal, and allowed Clay to go to court to force a move, they would never get another city to step up and build a new arena since they would see that in Seattle they didn't honor their commitment. The league has everything to lose and nothing to gain by letting this get into court.
accept the offer on the table to pay off the lease and keep the teams' name and history in Seattle for a future team. Or you can choose to not settle and keep the team in Seattle for two more seasons and then when they move to OKC they will bring their name and history with them, leaving absolutely nothing in Seattle."
You don't get it. This isn't going to trial. David Stern, the league owners, and elected officials in OKC DO NOT want to drag their butts up to Seattle and have to testify under oath about the broken NBA business model and the third party interference in a contract that can result in anti-trust charges being filed. This lawsuit isn't the end of the story it is the start. I'll expand next.
Sorry to burst your bubble but they are not gone. I know OKC is new to this game so they don't know the drill but in Seattle this is the same thing we went through with the Mariners and Seahawks and they are still here.
Not today, but that will change. The Mariners were not for sale, the Seahawks were not for sale, and the Storm was not for sale. All three of those teams were sold very shortly after their owners said they wouldn't sell. The team is not for sale TODAY because there is no reason to be. However after the league gives its conditional approval for relocation there will be some serious negotiating to prevent the trial from happening. During this period you can expect to see a settlement worked out that gets OKC a team and leaves the Sonics here.
This is flawed for a couple reasons:
1) It assumes the Sonics will relocate which is far from certian. The NBA will most likely give conditional approval in April but those conditions will involve settling the lawsuit. The NBA Owners do not want to be added to the lawsuit so it is unlikely they will give firm relocation approval.
2) It assumes that there is a chance that a court ruling would allow the team to move this upcoming year. A simple look at the timeline would tell you that is impossible. Calculate the time for a trial, for the judge to deliberate, the 60 day waiting period for an appeal, and the length of time a appeal takes it is pretty clear that the court case will drag on longer than the lease.
3) It presumes that there will not be a negotiated settlement. With Ballmers group willing to buy the team and pay half of the cost of the arena solution it is most likely that a deal will be negotiated that leaves the Sonics in Seattle and gives OKC another team. That is the only way to get the city to settle the lawsuit out of court and most likely what will happen.