Paycom Center
Located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Stadiums Oklahoma Paycom Center

The Ford Center was owned by Oklahoma City and was opened on June 8, 2002, three years after construction began. The original Ford Center name came from a naming rights deal with the Oklahoma Ford Dealers group which represented the marketing efforts of the state's Ford dealerships, rather than the Ford Motor Company itself. The facility was the premier component of the city's 1993 Capital Improvement Program, known as Metropolitan Area Projects (MAPS), which financed new and upgraded sports, entertainment, cultural, and convention facilities primarily in the downtown section with a temporary 1-cent sales tax assessed. Despite the "metropolitan" moniker of the improvement program, the tax was only assessed inside city limits. Originally billed and marketed as a "state-of-the-art" facility, Oklahoma City Arena was actually constructed to minimum NBA and NHL specifications. The arena was built without luxury amenities because of local concerns on expenditures on an arena without a major-league tenant, with the ability to create "buildout" amenities and improvements to the arena if a professional sports team announced it would relocate to the city. A plan for such buildout improvements began in 2007 in the wake of acquisition of the Seattle SuperSonics by an Oklahoma-City based ownership group in October 2006. Originally, city officials had hoped to include Oklahoma City Arena buildout improvements as part of a planned 2009 "MAPS 3" initiative. However, given the impending relocation decision of the Sonics ownership group in late 2007, the City Council of Oklahoma City placed a sales tax initiative on the city election ballot on March 4, 2008. This initiative was passed by a 62% to 38% margin, and extended a prior one-cent sales tax for a period of 15 months in order to fund $121 million in budgeted improvements to the arena, as well as fund a separate practice facility for a relocated franchise

The Ford Center was owned by Oklahoma City and was opened on June 8, 2002, three years after construction began. The original Ford Center name came from a naming rights deal with the Oklahoma Ford Dealers group which represented the marketing efforts of the state's Ford dealerships, rather than the Ford Motor Company itself. The facility was the premier component of the city's 1993 Capital Improvement Program, known as Metropolitan Area Projects (MAPS), which financed new and upgraded sports, entertainment, cultural, and convention facilities primarily in the downtown section with a temporary 1-cent sales tax assessed. Despite the "metropolitan" moniker of the improvement program, the tax was only assessed inside city limits. Originally billed and marketed as a "state-of-the-art" facility, Oklahoma City Arena was actually constructed to minimum NBA and NHL specifications. The arena was built without luxury amenities because of local concerns on expenditures on an arena without a major-league tenant, with the ability to create "buildout" amenities and improvements to the arena if a professional sports team announced it would relocate to the city. A plan for such buildout improvements began in 2007 in the wake of acquisition of the Seattle SuperSonics by an Oklahoma-City based ownership group in October 2006. Originally, city officials had hoped to include Oklahoma City Arena buildout improvements as part of a planned 2009 "MAPS 3" initiative. However, given the impending relocation decision of the Sonics ownership group in late 2007, the City Council of Oklahoma City placed a sales tax initiative on the city election ballot on March 4, 2008. This initiative was passed by a 62% to 38% margin, and extended a prior one-cent sales tax for a period of 15 months in order to fund $121 million in budgeted improvements to the arena, as well as fund a separate practice facility for a relocated franchise

Arena Details

Name Paycom Center

Style Enclosed Arena
Retro-Classic Architecture

Capacity 18,203

Location 100 West Reno Avenue
Oklahoma City, OK 73102

Architects Sink Combs Dethlefs
Benham Companies

Owner City of Oklahoma City

Links

Find stadium collectibles on eBay

Known As

Paycom Center 2021‑2024

Chesapeake Energy Arena 2011‑2021

Oklahoma City Arena 2010‑2011

Ford Center 2002‑2010

Loud City (nickname)

The Thunderdome (nickname)

Teams

Thunder (NBA) 2008-2021

Hornets (NBA) 2006-2007

F i l t e r & S o r t

Arena Details

Name Paycom Center

Style Enclosed Arena
Retro-Classic Architecture

Capacity 18,203

Location 100 West Reno Avenue
Oklahoma City, OK 73102

Architects Sink Combs Dethlefs
Benham Companies

Owner City of Oklahoma City

Links

Find stadium collectibles on eBay

Known As

Paycom Center 2021‑2024

Chesapeake Energy Arena 2011‑2021

Oklahoma City Arena 2010‑2011

Ford Center 2002‑2010

Loud City (nickname)

The Thunderdome (nickname)

Teams

Thunder (NBA) 2008-2021

Hornets (NBA) 2006-2007