Convention Center Plans Changed

City leaders are changing the plan for the Convention Center upgrade, but they say it's for the better. The original plan was to put a ballroom in the Convention Center's old arena. Now they say

Tuesday, July 31st 2007, 9:44 am

By: News On 6

City leaders are changing the plan for the Convention Center upgrade, but they say it's for the better. The original plan was to put a ballroom in the Convention Center's old arena. Now they say it might be a good idea to keep the old arena. The News On 6â€™s Steve Berg reports at first, nobody thought there was a need for two arenas downtown, but the recent Big 12 basketball tournament in Oklahoma City has changed that.

Tulsa officials started having second thoughts about ditching the old arena after they made their pitch for the Big 12 basketball tournament. It went to Oklahoma City, which has two arenas across the street from one another, one for the men and one for the women.

"We felt like we might have been discounted by not having the arenas adjacent to each other for the men's and women's, because we do know that has become more of an important factor for them,â€ said Vision Builders director Bart Boatright.

Boatright told the city there's a way to keep the old arena and still get a new ballroom at the same price. He says not tearing out the arena will save a lot of money.

"There was a lot of expense in taking the arena out as well as building a new floor system in there, and it was a much more complicated method of construction than just extending the exhibit hall out to the north,â€ Boatright said.

Originally, the plan was to put new ballroom space in the existing convention center arena. Instead, they will keep the arena in place and put the new ballroom into part of the existing exhibit hall space. Of course, they don't want to lose too much exhibit hall space, so they will build a completely new structure in the adjacent parking lot to replace the two exhibit halls.

"The exhibit hall is a very low cost type of space being built, all open, very minimal finishes,â€ said Boatright.

They're also saving money by dropping the expensive glass entrance from the plan, but substantial interior upgrades are still in place.

"I'm glad they brought this forward before they spent millions of dollars tearing out those seats that we could have never replaced, so I think it's a good option,â€ Mayor Kathy Taylor said.

They say having the old arena will also attract events and groups that donâ€™t need to or can't afford to rent out the much larger BOK Center.

Another plus, the Tulsa Talons can still play at the Convention Center while work is being done. They were going to have to move, and they didn't have a place to go. So, that problem is solved.

Watch the video: Upgrades To Convention Center Changed