One of the world’s largest tattoo and music culture events happens Friday-Sunday at Grand Casino Hotel and Resort. Ink Life Tour Tattoo and Music Festival is a three-day party that’s as close to all-inclusive as anyone could want. The casino itself includes gaming, food, drinks (lots of ’em) and a convenient place to crash. The […]
hotel
Posted inNews
Study looks at need for convention center hotel subsidies
The council heard a presentation Tuesday from Tom Morsch, managing director of The PFM Group, an investment advisory firm performing a hotel feasibility study for the city. With a new convention center planned for Oklahoma City in the coming years as part of MAPS 3, the council has discussed what tax incentives might be needed […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The director-writer’s latest, The Grand Budapest Hotel — which opens Friday at AMC Quail Springs Mall 24, 2501 W. Memorial Road, and the Moore Warren Theatre, 1000 S. Telephone Road — is quintessential Anderson. There is no attempt here to woo the unconverted. As with all his films, every detail — and some would contend […]
Posted inNews
If we build it …
Convention center exhibit hall space increased 36 percent nationally from 2000 to 2011 while attendance at convention center events fell 1.7 percent during the same time period, according to Heywood Sanders, a professor of public administration at the University of Texas at San Antonio and the nation’s leading expert on convention centers and city planning. […]
Posted inNews
Letters
These were $200 per ticket “Stage VIP, all access” passes that included entry into the Thunder player section, a meet-and-greet and champagne toast opportunities with Kevin Durant himself. But what was promised wasn’t delivered. Half of what was advertised on our ticket wasn’t offered at the event. There was no meet-and-greet, no access to the […]
Posted inNews
Another convention center?
Shadid claims city and Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce officials were not honest with voters before the 2009 MAPS 3 election, particularly with the convention center project and a related convention center hotel. The convention center could cost taxpayers an estimated $250 million, but the hotel would not receive MAPS 3 funding. Voters approved […]
Posted inNews
Another hotel and convention center?
Shadid claims city and Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce officials were not honest with voters before the 2009 MAPS 3 election, particularly with the convention center project and a related convention center hotel. The convention center could cost taxpayers an estimated $250 million, but the hotel would not receive MAPS 3 funding. Voters approved […]
Posted inMusic
Saloony tunes
Photo: Mark Hancock “It’s still one of the best rooms around to see a band because you have the balcony and the dance floor,” said Keeton, a veteran blues rocker who first played the music venue in the mid-1990s. “It’s a great bar. No place else combines that divey-ness with the ability to pull off […]
Posted inNews
The facts about a convention center hotel
Let me be specific concerning the details. First, Shadid refers to a study conducted by Convention, Sports & Leisure International for the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber. The councilmen, along with numerous members of the local media, have reviewed the full study in our offices. The study does contemplate the need for a headquarters hotel as […]
Posted inNews
Unfortunately, it’s all too conventional
In preparing the MAPS 3 campaign, those who advocated for intensive convention center expansion had two significant problems. First, polling showed overwhelming opposition of 75 to 80 percent. Second, the preposterous conclusion of a 2008 Convention, Sports and Leisure (CS&L) study (never released to the public) was that to triple our existing convention busi ness, […]