Category: OKC Energy FC

The Oklahoma City council voted unanimously yesterday to approve using $30 million in tax money to pay for cost overruns on a new Energy F.C. soccer stadium, which isn’t exactly surprising since the council already discussed doing this two weeks ago. There are several amazing bits, though, that are worthy of note:

• Amazing quote #1: “In the original plan for this stadium, there was no provision for land or funding for land, and we have a unique opportunity right now,” said Kenton Tsoodle, president of The Alliance for Economic Development of Oklahoma City. I’ve read this five times now, and can’t interpret it as anything other than the initial stadium plan neglected to budget for either land or the actual cost of stadium construction, now the public has the rare opportunity of being allowed to contribute another $30 million, which only really makes sense as an infomercial pitch.
• Amazing quote #2: “We’re siting the stadium, which had no funding in MAPS, and we’re doing so with a donation, which is much appreciated and we thank the team for that pledge,” said OKC mayor David Holt. Thanking team owners for contributing anything to the cost of their own stadium is fresh rhetorical ground, but then this is the same guy who touted a plan to fund a Thunder arena with a $780 million “sales tax that will not raise taxes,” so words truly mean different things to Holt.
• Amazing rendering #1:
  
  Why are they building a soccer stadium with a double deck at the end line, and only a tiny single deck along the side, where fans actually want to sit? Also why is one guy on the white team standing in an offside position way down the pitch, and does it have anything to do with the fact that it seems like three of his teammates have been red carded, leaving the team with only eight players on the pitch? And why does this entire design bear zero resemblance to:
• Amazing rendering #2:
  This looks a little more like soccer at first glance, but there’s still a lot of weirdness: the number of people (mostly women) who are paying no attention to the match, the four women in identical red floppy hats and green scarves standing in the same row at lower right, the fact that one of the teams pictured on the video board (in black) appears not to be either team playing in the actual game (which features blue vs. white with a diagonal red stripe).

Taken together, this all looks like OKC officials throwing out a whole lot of half-assed justifications and quarter-assed clip art in defense of spending $71 million on a stadium for a minor-league soccer team that hasn’t played in two seasons and only drew 2,200 fans per game the last time it did. Surely once they have a 10,000-seat stadium they’ll fill the place, at least once Holt gets funding approved for his floppy-hat clone army.

When I relayed the news last week that Oklahoma City’s fourth iteration of its MAPS sales-tax hike was being eyed to fund upgrades to the Thunder‘s arena that was already built and upgraded with previous MAPS sales-tax hikes, I neglected to note that USL team OKC Energy F.C. also wants some tax money for a new soccer stadium, because why wouldn’t they? Their existing stadium was entirely rebuilt way back in 2015, which is a lifetime if you’re a stadium or a mayfly.

Team co-owner Bob Funk, Jr. had this to say about why he’d like between $37 million and $72 million in public money for a new stadium for his minor-league soccer franchise:

“This is an opportunity to once again set our city on a global stage. It will connect and unify Oklahoma City’s diverse cross-section of cultures and provide a powerful economic boost to our urban core.”

Note that Oklahoma City already has a USL team, so that’s not enough to set it on a global stage. (Nor is the presence of the Thunder, apparently, though that “once again” implies that global stages expire about as often as mayflies.) Moving the soccer team from one stadium to another, though, would be a powerful economic boost, something that KFOR explains thusly:

The first option represented a $37 million to $42 million investment for an 8,000-seat stadium that would accommodate soccer, high school football, rugby, lacrosse, concerts and festivals.

Organizers believe it could host more than 60 events each year, which would bring $60 million annually to the city.

The second option was a $67 million to $72 million investment with 10,000 seats, shade structures and other amenities to improve the fan experience. Additional restrooms would be included, along with a larger stage and secondary stage. Organizers say this venue could host more than 80 events each year, which would bring over $79 million to the city.

Okay, so, just no. There is no way that the city is going to earn $79 million a year in rent (or sales taxes or whatever) on 80 events a year at a 10,000-seat stadium — that would be $100 a ticket, which would be a somewhat hefty fee for a team or stadium operator to pay.

Presumably what the “organizers” (which seems to mean Funk and a would-be stadium developer, though the article never says outright, because that would be committing journalism) mean here is $79 million a year in economic impact, which is a completely different thing adding up all the dollars spent in a region connected with a development project. That number is still almost certainly inflated — people attending minor-league soccer matches are unlikely to spend $100 total in the local economy, and even if they do they’d likely spend it just the same if the Energy F.C. were in their old stadium, or didn’t exist at all, because there are other things to do in Oklahoma City other than watch soccer — but saying “in economic impact” would have been at least marginally less misleading than “bring over $79 million to the city.”

Anyway, here‘s some vaportecture of the proposed stadium, which will apparently be used to watch dangerously over-capacity concerts involving fireworks displays at night, and to watch invisible football teams while wearing identical red floppy hats by day. Bonus points if you can spot any diverse cross-section of cultures getting unified!