The World has an article out today that outlines the the economic impact of our new arena and how it has exceeded expectations...
The downtown arena has brought in nearly $2.3 million in sales tax revenue since its grand opening in late August.
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Studies before the arena was built estimated it would produce about $1.6 million in sales tax revenue for a full 12-month period.
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It amassed $4,880,609 in operating expenses between July 1 and March 31 for a profit of $963,215. However, the building did not host its first ticketed event until September.
Quoting BOK Center General Manager John Bolton, the article sums up my greatest fear surrounding our new arena "Obviously, we're not going to be able to maintain the activity we've had during our first year, but I see our success continuing,"While, I find the arena to be an absolutely beautiful addition to the downtown landscape, and while I'm happy the first year is going well, I remain skeptical. I'm not convinced that it will continue to operate in the black. While I hope that it continues to be a success, I fear that the after the honeymoon is over, it will serve as a drain on the City's budget and fail to be the engine for positive economic growth that it's supporters say that it will be.
I sincerely hope I'm wrong. While the Tulsa World and other arena supporters hail the BOK Center as a success, I'll take a more conservative approach; I'm willing to say so far so good but lets wait another year before we start extolling the virtues of our massive investment.
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2 comments:
Once the Ford Center resumes holding concerts again, the number of BOK events will dwindle down. We got lucky that they quit having concerts in OKC but it's only temporary.
It won't be able to hold its own.
That first year stuff is typical. One reason Wal-Mart always had astronomical year over year increases in the late 70s and 80s is because they were building 150-200 stores a year. They would go into a new market and blow the doors off for 6-8 months and then it was just regular Wal-Mart business (which is a lot, don't get me wrong.)
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