Tulsa City Council Approves Cost Cutting Bid At The BOK Center

Friday, August 4th 2006, 6:14 am

By: News On 6

The Tulsa City Council has approved another major bid on the BOK Center. An almost $8-million bid for concrete was part of a plan to save money by changing some of the specifications for the arena.

Here is a look at the price cutting. It includes using refurbished seats, cutting 4 feet off the glass icon wall. It also calls for cutting 5 feet off the buildings parapet making it look shorter, and eliminating a double roof that would have made it look better from the air. Combined, all of the ideas will save an estimated $11.5-million.

Bart Boatright with Tulsa Vision Builders: "many of the items are luxuries that we know we would like to have but can't always have so we've had to scale back on those but for the most part the basics of this building are the same as when we started."

The skeleton of the arena is taking shape but what you can see now is only the inner circle of what will be a much larger structure. What's there now is really just the bottom - and the bowl - of the building.