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[Emerson College Polling] Residents Not Sold on New Oklahoma City Thunder Stadium, 53% Oppose It



[Emerson College Polling] Residents Not Sold on New Oklahoma City Thunder Stadium, 53% Oppose It

by LoxDnw

33 Comments

  1. asstasticjourney

    It would be worth building a new stadium just to keep shai

  2. jbrunsonfan

    The people don’t want to pay for a sub .500 team when the city needs so much more work

  3. SEAinLA

    Good. Vote it down. Make the owners fund or finance it themselves.

  4. KasherH

    Good. Owners have enough money to build them themselves. It shouldn’t be on taxpayers.

  5. doordaesh

    they already paying on the SALT tax or whatever that municipal thing is anyhow

  6. vwb2022

    It’s good, but I’m more concerned about why 47% think this is a good idea. Giving public money to teams worth billions of dollars is obscene and never has produced a return on investment for the community.

  7. If the city funds it do they keep ownership?

  8. GeneralLou15

    Let us improve this head line. “The ten richest guys in okc need a public handout to buy themselves a new home.”

  9. nowhathappenedwas

    The headline makes it sound like the poll was close. It wasn’t.

    Only 22% of OKC residents support the sales tax to fund the stadium.

    > Oklahoma City finalized plans last month to build a new downtown arena for the NBA team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, and plan to hold a citywide vote in December. Voters across the state were asked if they support or oppose a one percent sales tax for Oklahoma City residents to fund the new stadium.
    >
    > A quarter of Oklahoma residents (25%) support this measure, 42% oppose it, and 34% are unsure or have no opinion. In Oklahoma City, approval is lower: 22% support the measure, 53% oppose it, and 25% are unsure.
    >
    > “While the sample of Oklahoma City residents is limited, the results are clear: 53% oppose the 1% sales tax to fund the $900 million stadium, versus 22% who support the plan – a 30-point margin against the tax,” Matt Taglia, Senior Director at Emerson College Polling noted. “Statewide, Republicans are overwhelmingly opposed, 46% to 25% in support, while Democrats are less vocal in their opposition at 36% to 31% in support.”

    Worth noting that the OKC subsample is just 82 people, which is tiny and subject to a huge margin of error. The sample for the full state was 495 people.

  10. crs7117

    seems like okc probably won’t have a team in a few years.

  11. panickedwaddle

    This is a small, statewide poll of 447 registered voters with only 82 of them being OKC residents. If it were a statewide vote, it would definitely not pass. As someone who grew up in rural Oklahoma, I can tell you a lot of people in rural parts wouldn’t be able to name 5 current NBA players. And they have no grasp on what the Thunder have done for the economy of OKC, nor would they care. What they do care about is the players wore messages of equality on their jerseys in the bubble and they think the players need to “just shut up and play basketball”. So yeah, they’re definitely going to oppose an arena in the conservative parts of the state.

    Luckily, this isn’t a statewide vote. And I’m pretty confident the people in OKC will vote in the interest of their city and get this done.

  12. T-Weed-

    Welcome to the NBA, the Seattle Thunder Socks.

  13. ElLibro42

    They only asked 82 people from OKC, which has close to 700k residents. Way too small of a sample size to draw any sort of meaningful conclusion.

    From someone that lives in OKC, I would definitely expect the motion to pass.

  14. jtr6969

    The upcoming expansion works in the city’s favor to play hardball. Looks like Seattle and Vegas are getting new teams anyways so the usual relocation threats will be emptier than usual.

  15. rumblegod

    Yep Oklahoma will stay a trash state.
    Anyone saying good to this is an idiot.

    Anyways if we lose the team, as long as it’s not Seattle 🤣

  16. DubsFanAccount

    I took a class in college a long time ago where we did a week on public funding of stadiums. This was a big deal at the time bc the Padres were opening up Petco. Basically every conclusion is that a team added at best, essentially zero, economic value to a region and the only reason to publicly fund a stadium is just civic pride.

    Here’s an old one but a gated [article](https://www.jstor.org/stable/976884?typeAccessWorkflow=login&seq=4) I remember reading. You can still see the abstract. If you’re going to do it, the article says to make sure multiple teams are sharing a stadium so there’s extra use and, if you do need public funding, a special tax district is maybe the best idea since it’s just the small region around the stadium that gets any benefit at all. Don’t know how much of this still holds up. Just triggered a memory and thought I’d share.

  17. Will_Explode8

    Ownership boutta say fuck it let’s move the team again and fuck over another city of loyal fans

  18. roastedhambone

    This poll question was garbage, and was quite misleading about the actual situation. It’ll pass pretty easily, as every MAPS tax extension has passed easily for the last 30 years

  19. KiritoJones

    Billionaires using the public to fund these stadiums should be straight up illegal

  20. _Jetto_

    It’s tough to get taxpayers to want their money going to a new stadium im not sure why you would it’s not like it’s going to create that many new jobs from what I think. I’m surprised if taxpayers ever vote yes to soemthing like this unless there’s huge incentive to

  21. IdealEquivalent6260

    Would the new arena be in downtown?

  22. Timely_Airline_7168

    Why would you ask taxpayers to foot the bill instead of the billionaire? This is rare in football.

  23. culturebarren

    The sowing was fun but the reaping, ah the reaping

  24. ishouldgetoutside

    Those people will be mighty upset when the team leaves then

  25. PeanutButterOtter

    Thunder back to Seattle confirmed.

  26. falconsheat11

    Back to Seattle the Thunder go!

    Edit: SuperSonics (?)

  27. okokokok999999

    Then they can lose their team, there are many cities willing to pay for a basketball team

    People only regret when they lose it, ask any Seattle fan

  28. JJiggy13

    47% is too high. Don’t give sports your tax money

  29. Perfect! Hope the team moves.

    Signed: a completely not bitter Sonics fan

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