OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (KOKH) \u2014 Continental Coliseum, the future home of the Oklahoma City Thunder and a venue planned for concerts and other events, broke ground Thursday as leaders, staff, and fans gathered for a ceremonial start to the project. <\/p>\n
The arena is set to open in late summer 2028.<\/p>\n
Several Oklahoma leaders attended the groundbreaking, including Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt, Continental Resources founder and chairman Harold Hamm, and Thunder general manager Sam Presti. <\/p>\n
The event comes just days after Tuesday\u2019s announcement of a 15-year naming rights partnership for Continental Coliseum between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Continental Resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, we break ground on what will be one of the greatest arenas on the planet. Today, the people of Oklahoma City make a statement,\u201d Holt said. \u201cIts beauty and magnificence will speak to the city that we wish to be, the city that we are. Great cities build great buildings. Rome has the Colosseum, and now so will Oklahoma City.\u201d<\/p>\n
The groundbreaking marked the next step in the billion-dollar arena project, with construction expected to start soon.<\/p>\n
Presti said the project reflects the fans and community that have rallied behind this organization. <\/p>\n
\u201cOklahoma City and Oklahoma is home for an NBA basketball team.” Presti said. “It doesn’t happen without that kind of support, their belief. They have invested in us, and it allows us to invest in this and them.”<\/p>\n
Fans also turned out for the ceremony, including John Bling, also known as \u201cThunder Boy Wonder,\u201d who said the moment was meaningful after years of following the team. <\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve been through the tears and the fears, the ups and the downs and the turnarounds and the leaving and the coming and the not having and not making,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Bling said the arena will have an impact beyond basketball. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re breaking ground for Continental Coliseum, which is going to be very great for Oklahoma City, not only just for the Oklahoma City Thunder, but for tourists,\u201d said Bling. \u201cSo, I can’t wait to walk in the door in 2028.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for funding, Oklahoma City taxpayers are covering a large portion of the $900 million bill through a sales tax approved by voters in 2023. <\/p>\n
With inflation and construction costs rising, FOX 25 asked Mayor Holt whether there are guarantees that the price tag will not increase.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can give you a stone-cold guarantee, we have no more resources for this financially,” Holt said. <\/p>\n
Holt told Fox 25 they would start finding ways to cut back on the project without necessarily disappointing the users and the fans.<\/p>\n
Holt also said the arena\u2019s late-summer 2028 opening will be after the Summer Olympic events in Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (KOKH) \u2014 Continental Coliseum, the future home of the Oklahoma City Thunder and a venue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3783],"tags":[7,6,310,475,179,3966,3965,312],"class_list":{"0":"post-681319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oklahoma-city-thunder","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-oklahoma","11":"tag-oklahoma-city","12":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","13":"tag-oklahomacity","14":"tag-oklahomacitythunder","15":"tag-thunder"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116299079626404673","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}