When Mayor David Holt revealed conceptual renderings of Oklahoma City’s new arena July 16, it quickly became apparent the building was designed not only to meet the needs of the Oklahoma City Thunder and its fans, but major touring acts, too.
If you’re a live music fan, you likely know the frustration of your favorite bands skipping over OKC and you, as a result, driving to Tulsa or Dallas to see them. You’ll be in luck — in about three years — when the new arena opens for business and the city can better compete for concerts and other entertainment options.
Two days before the design reveal, the Thunder and Oklahoma City-based HR and payroll tech company Paycom announced their 15-year naming rights agreement formed in 2021 would expire when Paycom Center closes in 2028. The new arena is expected to open late that summer, and the Thunder will secure a new naming rights agreement.
Home court
The nearly $1 billion, 750,000-square-foot arena will be built on the site of the former Myriad Convention Center. A MAPS 4 project, the arena’s a key part of the city’s agreement with the Thunder to keep the team here at least through 2053.
At 586,000 square feet, 23-year-old Paycom Center is the NBA’s smallest arena by square footage. And it was built for hockey. Plus, the existing arena doesn’t have all the amenities today’s touring acts look for when booking venues for shows.
Circular in shape, the new arena will feature a 360-degree glass curtain wall, offering views of the city. Concourses will be placed outside the arena’s seating bowl so spectators there feel more connected to what’s happening inside. With more space, the Thunder and touring bands will have more room to sell merch.
He described the design as modern, sophisticated and cutting edge, yet classic.
While social media commenters have questioned why the city needed to build a new arena, David Manica, founder of the arena’s design architect firm, Manica Architecture, explained that of all the major sports leagues, the NBA has the most rigorous facility requirements, which it updates regularly.
His resume includes the design of sports and entertainment facilities around the world, including the Golden State Warrior’s Chase Center in San Francisco, the new Wembley Stadium in England and the post-Olympic Games redesign of the Beijing Arena.
The new design will bring fans closer to action on the basketball court than the Thunder’s current home, lowering the capacity for games by about 1,000 seats. But don’t worry; the loud cheering Thunder fans have become known for won’t get any quieter.
“Anytime you do that, you increase the density and you increase the volume, so Loud City is just going to get louder,” Manica said.
Music to our ears
In addition to helping secure a long-term future with the Thunder, Holt said the arena will also help keep Oklahoma City competitive for concerts. The new arena should have roughly the same seating count for concerts as Paycom Center, but the building will have more of the amenities large touring acts look for.
That’s not to say Paycom Center is lacking in concerts. In fact, the arena hosted 41 concerts in 2024, setting a new record and ranking 38th in Pollstar’s Top Arenas Year-End chart for the U.S. that year. ASM Global, a venue and live event company, manages the facility and has an agreement in place to manage the new arena, too.
The smaller size of loading docks at Paycom Center means that loading in and out of the arena takes longer for touring acts than at other arenas, like Tulsa’s BOK Center. At the new arena, larger loading docks will be placed underground so they don’t intrude upon the 360-view from the glass walls.
“The ability for a building to host a successful concert is dependent upon a lot of different physical things,” Manica said, “its rigging capacity, its comfort of the back-of-house areas, its ability to load in and load out quickly. And when a building gets a disfavorable reputation in the industry for being a difficult building to load, it drops off a list of tour sites.”
Acts may opt for arenas where the scoreboard can be moved away from the front of the stage or that support the type of technology used in their shows, said Christy Gillenwater, president and CEO of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce.
For Manica, that means a design that meets the needs of performers as much as fans.
“It’s about making sure that they have everything they need, that they’re comfortable, that they enjoyed their experience and they want to come back,” Manica said. “And then if they have a great time hosting a show in your building, they’ll want to come back and you get a good reputation in the industry. So all those things have been done.”
Economic impact
During Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, we heard a lot about the economic boost her concerts brought to host cities. Fans traveled from far and wide, booked hotel rooms, ate and shopped in the cities they visited.
But a concert doesn’t have to feature a musician as big as Swift or Beyoncé to benefit the city where it’s held. In its last pre-pandemic report on the economic impact of concerts in 2019, economic advisory firm Oxford Economics found that for every $100 an out-of-towner spends on a concert ticket in the U.S., the local economy benefits from another $334.92 in spending.
The report found that in Oklahoma, concerts and live events had a $948 million economic impact in 2019, generating more than 8,500 jobs and $40 million in state and local taxes across the state.
According to a study by the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, each year, Paycom Center generates an estimated $9 million for the city, $4 million for Oklahoma County and local schools, plus $17 million for the state.
“We hope the new arena will obviously generate even more, given more concerts, an updated facility and more opportunity to bring in different events,” Gillenwater said. “This really is a long-term investment that keeps Oklahoma City competitive and thriving beyond 2050.”
Paycom Center’s future
The Oklahoma City Thunder will continue playing in Paycom Center through the 2027-2028 NBA season. The agreement the Thunder struck with the city in June gives the team preferential rights to buy the site after the arena is demolished. In addition, it gives the team the right of first refusal if another entity wants to redevelop the site.
Two days before the naming rights announcement, Paycom CEO Chad Richison emailed the mayor and city council members and asked about the process for bidding on the site. According to the story broken by The Oklahoman, Richison said he was considering redeveloping the site as an individual or for Paycom to build there.
To read more about the city’s building plans, visit okc.gov.
This article appears in City crowned.