[Mussatto] OKC Mayor David Holt in his annual State of the City address: “Our arena is too small, it has too little investment in it, and it is trending towards being too old.
OKC Mayor David Holt in his annual State of the City address: "Our arena is too small, it has too little investment in it, and it is trending towards being too old.
— Joe Mussatto (@joe_mussatto) July 20, 2023
by -PredictiveTextOnly-
6 Comments
Rest of the thread:
“And on top of that, we’re the NBA’s third smallest market and there are 18 U.S. markets larger than ours that don’t have an NBA team. In the long run, this is not a tenable situation.”
“I came here today to say this to you, it is time to plan for a new arena and 2023 is the year to make that commitment.”
“We have a team that wants to be here for the long haul and our city just has to do what great cities do. We have to invest in ourselves.”
“We are close to a jointly agreeable proposal that will construct a new downtown arena that meets the modern standards of the NBA and the concert industry. We believe we can and must present this agreement before the end of summer, with an election before the end of 2023.”
“We believe our new arena can be funded without raising tax rates above their current levels. We believe we can accomplish this vital project simply by paying the exact same sales tax rate we pay today. No tax increase will be necessary.”
Important note here: “For the first time in city history, these public funding commitments will be joined by a significant financial contribution from the ownership of the Oklahoma City Thunder.”
Holt’s got jokes: “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 wraps up regarding new arena: “This is our generation’s chance to leave our legacy on Oklahoma City’s renaissance story.”
I’m so fucking happy the ownership is ponying up a lot of the money. That was my only potential gripe really.
Long live the OKC Thunder
Love it! Our city and ownership want the team here and they’re not even playing around about it. Proud Okie
Damn new stadium gonna nice
Mayor Holt is Cornett on steroids. Good thing he’s too “moderate” to be Governor, as OKC needs him badly.
This is I an important step to possibly getting an nfl team one day