Residents turn out to celebrate the beginning of a key Vision 2025 project. The arena is planned to open in 2008.
Donning hard hats and clutching
shiny ceremonial shovels, dozens of
city and county officials dug in
Wednesday for the groundbreaking
of Tulsa's arena.
"We are building Tulsa's future,"
Mayor Bill LaFortune said. "You will
be able to see it take shape right
here, before your eyes, from this day
forward."
More than 400 people turned out to celebrate the beginning of the
arena's construction, which will
take 30 months. It is supposed to
open in April 2008.
County Commissioner Bob Dick
said that walking to the center of
the downtown site for the ceremony gave him a real sense of how
massive the 18,041-seat, 550,000-square-foot facility will be.
Matrix President Steve Alter,
who heads up the architectural
and engineering team, highlighted
the arena's functional and iconic
design by architect Cesar Pelli.
"We will not have just another
events center," he said. "We will
have the greatest architecture and
a new paradigm in events centers
in the nation."
Two years ago, Tulsa County
voters approved the Vision 2025
sales tax initiative that provided
$141 million to build the arena.
"With their approval, they recognized we had to do something
big and bold to move Tulsa forward," LaFortune said. "They recognized we had to do this for our
children and grandchildren."
In recent years, other cities
have "left Tulsa in their construction
dust," the mayor said.
"But today I say 'No more!' " he
said defiantly. " 'No more' to Oklahoma City, 'no more' to Omaha
and 'no more' to Des Moines.
Tulsa is alive and well."
Retired radio figure John Erling, acting as the event's master
of ceremonies, quipped: "This is
the day the taxpayers have made.
Let us rejoice and be glad in it."
The public was treated to hot-air balloon rides, music by the
Booker T. Washington High
School marching band and miniature pecan pies.
Although the ceremony started
at 9 a.m., one of the marching
band members fainted, overcome
by the blistering heat, but was
quickly revived.
Ellen Stanley was first in line
with her five children for rides in
the hot-air balloon, which remained tethered to the ground,
only rising up about 30 feet.
"I think it's wonderful they are
doing this," said the Tulsa woman, who had been up in a balloon
once before. "It gives you an opportunity to look at things from
another perspective."
Stanley said she was not a supporter of the arena in its early
stages but is starting to look at it
in a different way, too.
"You have to be positive now
that it's being built," she said. "I
really hope it will have the impact
they're saying it will."
The project is expected to produce wide-reaching economic benefits, not just to the downtown area, but to the entire region.
City officials are in the process
of raising private funds through
the sale of the naming rights and
other sponsorship opportunities to
enhance the arena's budget by
$20 million or so.
Hamp Howell, whose Cleveland,
Ohio,-based Sports Facilities Marketing Group has been hired for
the task, said he expects a naming-rights partner to be announced by the end of the year.
His company has opened up an
office at Second Street and Cheyenne Avenue, where they will focus on that issue and selling the
arena's premium seats and executive suites.
Brian Barber 581-8322
brian.barber@tulsaworld.com
Tulsa’s arena
will have:
A maximum of 18,041
bowl seats
Over 550,000 square feet
A 90-foot high ceiling
Three concourses
33 public restrooms
15 concession stands
Seven locker rooms
34 executive suites
20-inch minimum seat
width
For more
information
Those who want to track
the progress of the arena can
use the live Web cam pointed
at the construction site at
www.vision2025.info.
