Thunder moving 66ers from Tulsa to Oklahoma City

[LeGenDz]

Looks like OKC "Seattled" us too

The Oklahoma City Thunder will move its minor league basketball team, the Tulsa 66ers, to Oklahoma City for the start of next season.

The 66ers, which have been in the Tulsa area since being established in the 2005-06 season, most recently played in the SpiritBank Event Center in Bixby. Owners of the center recently announced that it would no longer hold major events.

The Thunder attempted to find another venue in Tulsa but was unsuccessful, according to a Thunder press release that announced the move.

"Our two seasons in Bixby were successful, and we were pleased to be there. But circumstances beyond our control made it necessary to look for a new home for our development league team," Danny Barth, executive vice president and chief administrative officer of the Thunder, said in a statement issued by the team.

The 66ers are owned by the Thunder and play in the D-League, a development league for players trying to rise to the NBA. The Thunder often would assign players to Tulsa and recall them from Tulsa during the course of a season.

The minor-league team's move to Oklahoma City doesn't reflect a change in the Thunder's commitment to Tulsa or northeast Oklahoma, said Dan Mahoney, vice president of Corporate Communications and Community Relations for the Thunder.

"This doesn't change that at all," Mahoney said in a telephone interview. "We had no choice. We would have loved to stay in Bixby."

The Thunder has a preseason game scheduled for Oct. 19 in the BOK Center against Minnesota. The team's last two preseason games in the BOK Center were sellouts.
"We have great support in Tulsa," Mahoney said. "We know that through TV ratings, through ticket sales, through merchandise sales and through social media following."
In addition to playing seasons in the SpiritBank Event Center, the 66ers also played their home games in Expo Square Pavilion and downtown in what is now known as the Cox Business Center.

"We explored several potentially viable options, but were unable to find a facility in the Tulsa area that meets all of our business and basketball needs, so we made the decision to bring the team to Oklahoma City," Barth said in a statement issued by the team. "We offer our sincere thanks to the communities of Tulsa and Bixby, and to all of the 66ers fans and sponsors in the area for their loyal support over the past few years."

In June, the SpiritBank Event center publicly announced it would no longer seek events for the 4,500-seat main arena, although it planned to continue booking smaller events within the main part of the center.

The facility is owned by SpiritBank, which acquired the center in lieu of foreclosing on Remy Cos.' $28 million debt in 2009.
In 2010, MacPot LLC purchased the center for $19.25 million. The next year, SpiritBank re-purchased the facility for $19 million.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/thunder/thunder-moving-ers-from-tulsa-to-oklahoma-city/article_ab1a48df-b3c5-5276-b9aa-61a9f9e59f64.html

Really? Two successful seasons and they couldn't find a venue to fit their "needs"? Looks like the "need" we couldn't accommodate was that it wasn't in OKC.

[Hoss]

Looks like OKC "Seattled" us too

Really? Two successful seasons and they couldn't find a venue to fit their "needs"? Looks like the "need" we couldn't accommodate was that it wasn't in OKC.

??  Apples and oranges.  OKC owns that franchise and it is a farm club.  How is that getting 'Seattled'?  Not comparable.

[DTowner]

I thought OKC was a major league city?

[Conan71]

No sweat off my nose, but I don't get the point in moving the D-league team to the parent team's home town.  Seems like a really diluted market with the Thunder, OU, and OSU all being good basketball options if you live in the OKC metro.

[brettakins]

They could not find a facility???

How about giving the Cox Business Center,



The Pavillion





or Donald W Reynolds Center a chance

[SXSW]

Did they attract more than a couple thousand, if that, to any of their games?  Hopefully those that went will now go to TU basketball games.  The team is finally much better and the new conference will offer more exciting match ups.  The Reynolds Center is a great place to watch a game.

[Snowman]

No sweat off my nose, but I don't get the point in moving the D-league team to the parent team's home town.  Seems like a really diluted market with the Thunder, OU, and OSU all being good basketball options if you live in the OKC metro.

It is not like they were selling a tons of tickets, if they are going to play in a mostly empty arena, might as well at least make they way they develop players easier and streamline operations. This will allow development coaches to talk face to face more frequently with OKC coaches and basketball operations people. Plus easier for them to have OKC based staff analyze the players and work with them when on what they sent them down to the d-league to improve on. It also means the rookies doing the rotating have to travel less, there were some that would be driving down and back dozens of times in a season for 48 or 72 hour stents to play starter minutes in the d-league then turn around to play backup minutes in the NBA, I swear they must have the record for most times an individual planer is transferred in  a season and most collective transverses in a season. It also allows them to not have costs with housing athletes on short rotations or maintain separate offices.

[dbacksfan 2.0]

It is not like they were selling a tons of tickets, if they are going to play in a mostly empty arena, might as well at least make they way they develop players easier and streamline operations. This will allow development coaches to talk face to face more frequently with OKC coaches and basketball operations people. Plus easier for them to have OKC based staff analyze the players and work with them when on what they sent them down to the d-league to improve on. It also means the rookies doing the rotating have to travel less, there were some that would be driving down and back dozens of times in a season for 48 or 72 hour stents to play starter minutes in the d-league then turn around to play backup minutes in the NBA, I swear they must have the record for most times an individual planer is transferred in  a season and most collective transverses in a season. It also allows them to not have costs with housing athletes on short rotations or maintain separate offices.

Sorry, not buying into keeping the teams close together. The Orlando Magic D-League team is in Erie PA, and some D-League teams are run buy three to five NBA teams.

http://www.nba.com/dleague/2012_map.html

[davideinstein]

Sorry, not buying into keeping the teams close together. The Orlando Magic D-League team is in Erie PA, and some D-League teams are run buy three to five NBA teams.

http://www.nba.com/dleague/2012_map.html

Thunder uses their NBADL team more often.

[swake]

According to this the 66rs averaged 2300 "fans" a game.

http://sportsfranchises.sportsblog.com/posts/285337/attendance_tracker_mls_nll_afl.html

I've never been, I don't know that I have ever heard of anyone going either. I don't even recall them being covered regularly on the news. They were like a ghost team.

[Snowman]

Sorry, not buying into keeping the teams close together. The Orlando Magic D-League team is in Erie PA, and some D-League teams are run buy three to five NBA teams.

http://www.nba.com/dleague/2012_map.html

Affiliation is neither the same as owning or running, it will affect play style of the d-league team but after that operations is handled by the actual team owner not the NBA affiliate. Most of the recent ownership changes have been NBA teams buying a team and moving it closer to their operations, a couple making the distance from Tulsa/OKC look far.

Between how thin the crowds looked and that the venue was making statements like it does not have an interest in hosting 'larger' events (which I take as we are loosing money for the season and want to spin it positive as possible on any way to get out of that), it seems the only real benefit the owners have had is complete control over development, which would have less logistical hassles keeping that in OKC.

Ironically the best attendance to a 66ers game was in OKC (around 6x the average attendance in Tulsa), also setting the d league record, when they partnered with local schools to allow kids pay like ten dollars to go to a game. That seems like a good use of it they will probably repeat, I would not be shocked to see discounts packs or free nights offered for people who have season tickets with the thunder. It could also provide a cheaper ticket option for families just wanting to take young kids out, which could expand their future ticket base after they grow up verse if the kids had grown up only watching on TV.
 
They no doubt weighed if they were burning Tulsa fans and sponsors, maybe they try it in Wichita or NW Arkansas in a year or two, I just do not see them moving back to Tulsa.

[Snowman]

According to this the 66rs averaged 2300 "fans" a game.

http://sportsfranchises.sportsblog.com/posts/285337/attendance_tracker_mls_nll_afl.html

I've never been, I don't know that I have ever heard of anyone going either. I don't even recall them being covered regularly on the news. They were like a ghost team.

After looking at these numbers the sales in Tulsa are worse than advertised. Of the 50,058 total tickets; 11,423 were from one game in OKC, not far from a quarter of all attendance for the season. Putting the average closer to 1840 per game in Tulsa.

[heironymouspasparagus]

It is not like they were selling a tons of tickets, if they are going to play in a mostly empty arena, might as well at least make they way they develop players easier and streamline operations. This will allow development coaches to talk face to face more frequently with OKC coaches and basketball operations people. Plus easier for them to have OKC based staff analyze the players and work with them when on what they sent them down to the d-league to improve on. It also means the rookies doing the rotating have to travel less, there were some that would be driving down and back dozens of times in a season for 48 or 72 hour stents to play starter minutes in the d-league then turn around to play backup minutes in the NBA, I swear they must have the record for most times an individual planer is transferred in  a season and most collective transverses in a season. It also allows them to not have costs with housing athletes on short rotations or maintain separate offices.

Seems a stretch.  L. A. Angels farm team is in Little Rock, AR.  And the Drillers....??

[TulsaRufnex]

According to this the 66rs averaged 2300 "fans" a game.

http://sportsfranchises.sportsblog.com/posts/285337/attendance_tracker_mls_nll_afl.html

I've never been, I don't know that I have ever heard of anyone going either. I don't even recall them being covered regularly on the news. They were like a ghost team.

They didn't make the "A-list" this year either....
http://www.tulsapeople.com/Tulsa-People/June-2014/The-A-List-Fun/

Sports Team

Tulsa Drillers
www.tulsadrillers.com

Oklahoma City Thunder
www.nba.com/thunder

Tulsa Oilers
www.tulsaoilers.com

Tulsa Athletics
www.tulsaathletics.com

Tulsa Shock
www.wnba.com/shock

[DowntownDan]

Not even a blip on the local sports radar so not a big deal to lose.  But why the contrived "can't find a facility" excuse?  The old convention center arena and Expo pavilion could host them.  Any of the new high school gyms could host them too considering the attendance numbers.  I just don't get the excuse.  If attendance stinks, just say attendance stinks.  TU and even ORU do better than the NBDL.  They even get to play on TV sometimes.