NBA To Bring Its Game To Tulsa

The NBA is headed to Tulsa for an exhibition game in October at the new BOK Center.  It's the first major sporting event in the building.  The News On 6's Emory Bryan reports the arena can host lots of different events, but it was designed for basketball.

The desire to attract college games drove the planning on its size and now the first event is an NBA game very likely to sell out.

The booking of the first major sporting event at the BOK Center came after eight months of negotiations to land the preseason game.

The Houston Rockets and Orlando Magic will play October 13th, in a game that should have nearly 18,000 available seats, with tickets starting at $27.  They go on sale March 10th.

"Hopefully our community will respond and buy tickets and come out and show hey we do have an interest in the NBA in Tulsa," said John Bolton, BOK Center Manager.

The teams will play during a three month long opening at the BOK Center, a time planned so visitors can see the building used in different ways.

The Celine Dion concert will be in the round with seats on the floor, Kenny Chesney's concert will have fewer seats, with the stage at one end of the arena.  The NBA game will use maximum available seats.

"This type of set up is our largest configuration other than a center stage, where you can get more people on the floor in a center stage," said Bart Boatright, Tulsa Vision Builders.

The BOK Center construction is set to be done in time for a September first opening, with a still yet to be announced act.

The only type of event not yet publicized is a theater style setting for less than 5,000 people, but the mayor says plenty of other events will be announced soon.

"There's going to be a lot of excitement building between now and then because we'll be announcing lots of other events, lots of family programming, lots of things we've never had access to," said Mayor Kathy Taylor.

The managers of the arena promise many more announcements in the coming days, but say the opening act won't be announced until July.

2/21/2008  Kenny Chesney To Perform At BOK Center