Oklahoma City leaders shared updates as the city prepares for the 2025 Champions Parade on Tuesday, which will celebrate the Thunder’s first NBA Finals since coming to Oklahoma.
>>OKC Thunder Parade: City leaders provide updates for Tuesday celebration
First up to the podium was Mayor David Holt, who congratulated the team and the entire Thunder organization.
Below is a full transcription of Mayor Holt’s remarks on Monday:
Our team has achieved sports immortality, and that opens doors for us as a community that we’ll be walking through, not just for years to come, but decades to come. That’s what was really accomplished last night for Oklahoma City, you know.These last few weeks, I’ve said something similar, relative to being in the NBA Finals, that win or lose, this is such a platform. There are hundreds of people here covering this from around the world, every conversation for the next five years will start with the thunder because of this opportunity. Win or lose, but win extends that opportunity really into perpetuity, because now you’re a champion city, and that can never be taken away from you. So it’s just an amazing moment, and we’ll certainly try to capture some of that tomorrow.I just want to congratulate everybody for planning this in just a few hours, I’m kidding, this has not been planned in just a few hours, as [Pacers] coach Carlisle pointed out yesterday, apparently, but the reality is, this is a Herculean effort, especially if you want to do it right. There probably has been a community that’s planned this in 48 hours, but it probably didn’t go as smoothly as I hope tomorrow will. So, too many names to mention, but so many amazing people have been working on this for weeks, and they had to. That’s just the reality of it. We understood that it might not happen, and that’s part of the deal. We certainly didn’t ever want to step on what the team was doing, but we wanted to celebrate this in appropriate fashion, and to do so, we had to plan. There’s a lot of city staff involved in this, and that’s what you see, obviously represented up here, but certainly much credit to the team and the Chamber of Commerce, Downtown OKC, lots of entities in our city have pulled together to make this possible. What this is is merely the biggest event in the history of Oklahoma City.This is going to be unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Somebody told me yesterday that OU’s 1985 football championship team had a parade in downtown … I was told that the Blazers, I think maybe, had something, so there’s some precedent. Obviously the numbers are going to be staggering tomorrow, and that’s exciting, and I’m not trying to diminish them. I will say here at this podium today, I want to invite all the residents of our city, that’s 712,000 people, all the residents of the metro area, that’s 1.5 million, all Thunder fans across the state and across the world to come.I recognize that everybody will, or is interested, or is physically able, but you are welcome if you want to be here; this is the moment you’ve been waiting for. Interestingly enough, people have talked to me, literally, about this for two years. It’s like, people really are into parades, as it turns out, and they’ve been waiting for this. So here it is. So come.Along those same lines, and I don’t do this lightly, I understand what I’m about to say puts pressure on employers, but I wouldn’t do this under any other circumstances. I do encourage the employers of Oklahoma City to accommodate the attendance of their employees, and those who are in charge of anyone’s schedule, whether you have a meeting, whether you have a gathering of any kind, I apologize for the inconvenience. These moments only come along once in a lifetime, and I say that I hope that we’re on the start of a dynasty, but you only get your first championship once, and it truly is once in a lifetime for our city. I hope that, to the greatest extent possible, people can allow anyone whose schedule might be a little bit in their control to come and participate in this.So having said that, having just encouraged basically four million people to come to Downtown Oklahoma City, tomorrow, I now want to ask everyone who does come for your patience, for your grace and for a full understanding that, though what we may outline today is maybe a couple hours of programmin, this is an all day affair. If you want to come to this, the ingress and egress are going to be ours. I mean, where would you even park all these people? Think about the things that we have here of the greatest magnitude, things like the Kings of Leon concert that had, I think, 30,000 people, things like our games that have 18,000, and then obviously multiply that times many multiples; we’re just not built for that. We’re not going to be able to build for that in the next 24 hours.What will parking be like in Downtown OKC?
Mayor Holt addressed the impact on commuting through Downtown Oklahoma City, saying to expect a significant lack of parking and to expect travel delays.
Things that you may have thought were once absurd, like parking your car in Paseo and walking to downtown, are things you have to consider tomorrow. Obviously, public transit is something we want to strongly encourage, and we’re going to have our public transit director talk about that in a moment, but expect lots of walking, expect lots of time, and just be ready to show grace to each other, exhibit the Oklahoma Standard tomorrow, and bring water. That’s critical. Bring some water, bring a bottle that you can maybe refill, and I think we’ll speak to that probably in a few minutes as well.
Holt then shared additional details on what the events planned for Tuesday will look like, including in-person events and a broadcast-specific event to be shown on screens along the parade route and in Scissortail Park.
Now, let me give you a little bit more detail about what we’re even talking about. So there are really two main components open to the public, and a third component that’s more of just a television event. Let me lay all that out. Starting at 9 a.m., there will be some programming inside the arena that is not open to the public, but that will be broadcast on television, and that will be broadcast on the screens around the parade route and in Scissortail Park. Encouraging people to get going early, though the parade starts at 10:30 a.m., you shouldn’t be trying to arrive in downtown at 10:30, you should be trying to arrive much, much earlier. I guess I can tell you, you will be entertained as you stand there waiting for this to begin, because there will be some programming on the screen starting at 9, the public event that is.What will happen during the OKC Thunder Parade?
Afterwards, Holt provided a brief description of the planned route for Tuesday’s parade.
>> Oklahoma City Thunder: 2025 Champions Parade announced in OKC
Everyone is invited to commence at 10:30, which is going to start on Northwest 10th and North Harvey, that will head south on Harvey, then west on 5th Street. There’s a map of all this, you know, but just for a verbal description, you’re going to go so down Harvey from 10th Street, then you’re going to turn west. We’re going to turn west on 5th Street, we’re going to go south on Walker to Oklahoma City Boulevard, and then we are going to go east on Oklahoma City Boulevard, and then turn on Robinson, and the parade will end at Southwest 6th Street.The parade lasts, we think, an hour and a half for everything to get through, and then there will be a closing event and some remarks at Scissortail Park. There are kind of two components, the parade and the closing event, but you can watch the closing event on the screens that will be displayed throughout the parade. You just kind of have to make choices. I mean, some people will have the physical ability to sort of follow the end of the parade if they want down to Scissortail Park, but that’s not for everybody, and some people may want to just park down here, park themselves, not their car there. I would say this, Scissortail Park area will most likely be, by far, the most crowded part of this whole place. If you actually want to see anything, you might want to be on 10th Street, or you might want to spread yourself out up on Harvey. Think about how hundreds of thousands of people spread across … A mile, two miles. Two miles sounds like a long way, but dropping hundreds of thousands of people along that is obviously going to create situations where it’s many people deep. Your strategy, your parade strategy, is probably best executed by trying to be in some of the places farther from Scissortail Park, that’s just my thought. Obviously, have to make your own decisions about where you want to be, so all of these details and more, I think we’re going to be continuing to enhance some of the information available at the website in the hours ahead. OKCparade.comStreet closures are starting to happen now, so it’s already getting a little rough in downtown, and that brings me to a point I made last night that I want to reiterate today. If you have a downtown business or entity, normal operations are not possible tomorrow, and I apologize for that, but analogize it to a weather closure like an enormous snowstorm, or something. I’m the dean of a [UCO] Law School downtown, so I’m actually dealing with this this morning. We’re closing like, it’s not possible to continue functioning on Tuesday. There’s the ask of employers across the city to allow their employees to participate, and then there’s the reality of, if you are downtown, you cannot, you simply cannot, continue your normal operations on Tuesday, and you will have to probably act accordingly.How many people will be at the parade?
In terms of safety, Holt said the expected number of visitors for the parade far exceeds the capabilities of cellular service in the downtown area, and asks those in attendance to form plans to adapt to a possible lack of phone service.
Additionally, Holt said the sheer number of crowds expected may make finding opportunities to purchase items such as water to stay cool difficult, and encouraged guests to bring water and bottles to refill whenever possible.
A few tips to enjoy, in addition to what I’ve already said, arrive early. Obviously, the 10:30 a.m. parade start, but you should be thinking, I mean, it’s up to you. You might use your own judgment, but I think if you’re not thinking about getting down here by 8 or 9 a.m., I think you’re putting yourself in a challenging situation, and you may want to get here much, much earlier than that. That’s up to you, the parade route will be blocked off, so just think about that. It’s kind of like the marathon; if you’re on the wrong side of something, you won’t be able to get to the other side of it. So if you park on the west side of the parade route after 8:30, you will not be able to get to the east without going very far north or south, so make a plan on that. Again, just be ready for inconvenience. Cell service, our cell infrastructure of downtown Oklahoma City … 80,000 people is what we generally have our downtown built for on a standard work day. Imagine that times many multiples, right? So have a plan, have a meeting place. Have other ideas for how to communicate with people. Cell service is going to be very, very difficult, and so maybe set up some meeting places with anyone that you have to separate from.Again, bring your own water bottle and snacks, food and water. I’m sure there’ll be as many opportunities as people are going to try to provide for you, but again, just with the sheer magnitude of the numbers, it’s going to be challenging if you didn’t bring your own. There will be three viewing screens along the route. So screens are places where you can see that 9 a.m. programming we talked about, and where you can also watch what’s happening elsewhere in the parade. Those are at Bicentennial Park, where a sign language interpreter will also be placed at Together Square. Not everybody’s familiar with that, that is where the basketball courts and futsal are just west of Myriad Gardens.Safety is the number one priority, of course, and safety in every which way. Everything from heat safety to public safety. So I certainly want to thank all the police officers, the firefighters, EMSA workers, Public Works and utilities employees, and everyone else who will be keeping us safe tomorrow. These are people who obviously don’t get to get off work tomorrow to come to the parade. They will be at the parade, but they will be working to protect us and to support us, and we’re so grateful for that.
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Mayor Holt then allowed Oklahoma City Police Chief Ron Bacy the opportunity to speak.
Additional OKC Thunder Parade Coverage
OKC Thunder Parade: Mayor Holt provides latest planning details
OKC Thunder Parade: Police Chief outlines safety measures
OKC Thunder Parade: Fire Chief urges safety, hydration ahead of festivities
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