CAA ICON consulting on Oklahoma arena

Image: Paycom Center (Facebook)

Oklahoma City Council has approved CAA ICON to provide professional consulting services for the design and construction of the City’s new arena for the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder.

OKCFox said the group has previously worked on the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, the new Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee, and helped renovate the Kaseya Center in Miami, home of the Miami Heat.

CAA ICON, a division of CAA Sports, is a strategic management consulting firm for public/private sports and entertainment facility owners and operators, professional franchises and leagues. The company has offices in Denver, Charlotte, Manhattan and London.

Dan Vaillant, president of development of CAA ICON, said, “These buildings are very complicated and there are lots of different technologies that go into them.

“Take all of the good things in those buildings and combine them into this building so you can get the latest and greatest and best possible design solution for your budget.”

City Director David Todd said, “The construction of the arena is an extremely important four-year-long project for the City. It requires more manpower and specific expertise in professional event facility design and construction than what the City has.”

The City is expected to select an architect for the arena this fall. The arena will be built on the City-owned site where Prairie Surf Media, formerly known as the Cox Convention Center is located. The existing building is expected to be demolished in 2025.

In December 2023, Oklahoma City voters overwhelmingly (71%) approved a penny sales tax to build a new, publicly owned arena.

In May 2024, the Oklahoma City Council approved a development agreement for the City’s new arena between the City and PBC Sports and Entertainment, owners of the Oklahoma City Thunder and affiliate Oklahoma City Blue.

The new arena will be funded by a 72-month, one-cent sales tax that will start when the MAPS 4 tax ends and will not increase the sales tax rate. The arena will also be paid for with $70 million in MAPS 4 funding and $50 million from the Oklahoma City Thunder ownership group.

MAPS 4 is a debt-free public improvement program funded by a temporary penny sales tax that will raise a projected $1.1 billion over eight years.
 
The $900 million arena will be at least 750,000 square feet and be built to:

• Benefit the residents of Oklahoma City.
• Meet NBA specifications and requirements.
• Maximize team revenues, ensuring the sustainability of major league professional sports in Oklahoma City.

 
The City will own and be responsible for maintaining and operating the new arena, which will be home to the Oklahoma City Thunder NBA team.

The Thunder will continue to play home games at the Paycom Center until the new arena opens, with a target completion date of June 2028 and a contractual obligation to open the new arena by June 2030. The Thunder’s 25-year commitment to remain in Oklahoma City begins when they move into the new arena.

The 18,203-capacity Paycom Center is an arena located in Downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States. It opened in 2002 and since 2008 has served as the home venue for the National Basketball Association’s (NBA’s) Oklahoma City Thunder.

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