State Fairgrounds

[Pete]

They said today in the MAPS 3 board meeting that substantial completion will be in about 5-6 weeks.

[Bill Robertson]

They said today in the MAPS 3 board meeting that substantial completion will be in about 5-6 weeks.

That would eliminate the Fall Affair Of The Heart. Unless they have some non-regularly scheduled event use it before February that would leave the "spring" Affair Of The Heart as the first to use it. The Fairgrounds coordinator we talked to in March seemed to want the first event there to be something large and well attended.

[bombermwc]

My only complaint is that they went with using support columns that cut up the open floor plan. When i saw Expo Center, I immediately thought it would be more like Expo Square in Tulsa. Google that to see what i mean about what's possible when you dont have columns in the way. So what we have now is a large building to consolidate the crappy other buildings, but all it can hold is tradeshows. BIG FAIL if you ask me....and MAJOR loss of opportunity.

[Pete]

For the new fairgrounds arena...

The Oklahoma State Fairgrounds staff selected four consultants for detailed review and consideration on this project. The Consultants were interviewed on September 16, 2016. Following the interviews, the committee evaluated each and ranked them in the following order for negotiations:

1. ADG, PC / Populous, Inc.
2. Populous, Inc. / Studio Architecture, P.C.
3. C. H. Guernsey & Company / GH2 Architects, LLC / ZFI Engineering Co.
4. GSB, Inc. / Populous, Inc.

[Spartan]

What funds are they using to hire a design team?

[Pete]

Almost complete:

[warreng88]

Drove by two nights ago and they had green exterior lighting going. It looked pretty cool.

[Pete]

New fairgrounds expo center to open by Christmas
By: Brian Brus The Journal Record November 1, 2016

OKLAHOMA CITY – Event promoters have been looking for new groups to make use of the city’s largest contiguous trade show event space, which is slated to open before Christmas, city officials confirmed Tuesday.

The expo building, recently renamed in honor of past State Fair chairman Clay Bennett, is a 279,000-square-foot building that features its own box office, kitchen and the latest electronic amenities expected by the convention industry, Vice President Scott Munz said.

The Bennett Event Center was built on the site of the former Travel & Transportation Building and Carriage Hall, which had less than a third of the total exhibition space. The new center will also provide parking for more than 2,000 automobiles.

The building was funded by the MAPS 3 initiative, a temporary, 1-cent sales tax to support $777 million in lifestyle projects such as a 77-acre park, river sports activities, and a convention center.

The MAPS 3 budget for Oklahoma State Fairgrounds improvements was set at $54 million, with 80 percent of that dedicated to the expo building handled by Atlas General Contractors.

Mike Carrier, Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau president, said the building was necessary to grow with some of the city’s regular events as well as to lure new business.

“The amenities in the new building are much different than anything we had available out there,” Carrier said. “We’ve had conversations, for example, with people such as Caterpillar or John Deere or other heavy equipment manufacturers who are interested in the building.”

Vehicle event organizers are attracted to the driving space in the fairgrounds to test new products, he said. Expos also tend to have short turnaround times on space reservations because of market release deadlines, so some of them have said 2017 could be a good year to come to Oklahoma City, but they haven’t pinned down times.

“I’m not worried about bookings for the expo building. It will attract events,” he said. “There have been discussions with potential clients, although none of them have announced a decision to come here yet.”

[Pete]

They had the ribbon cutting for the Expo Building this morning, now named the Bennett Events Center.

[HOT ROD]

not to take away from Clay B but wasn't that a MAPS funded building?

Is he/his family/org paying naming rights?

[John]

not to take away from Clay B but wasn't that a MAPS funded building?

Is he/his family/org paying naming rights?

I don't view it any different as naming the State Fair Arena after Jim Norick after the first round of MAPs...

[Laramie]

I don't view it any different as naming the State Fair Arena after Jim Norick after the first round of MAPs...

Agree!

Clay Bennett is responsible for OKC's first major league franchise. He & Ron Norick led a delegation in 1997 to acquire an NHL franchise for our city. Unfortunately, Oklahoma City & Houston were left out in the cold as the NHL approved Nashville, Atlanta, St. Paul & Columbus.

The Atlanta Flames ('72-'80) & Thrashers ('99-'11) were failed attempts for the NHL to penetrate our country's 9th largest metropolitan city.

The Ron Norick Downtown Library & Mat Hoffman Skate Park are other projects that didn't require contributions for naming rights.

Save the pay contribution naming rights for the big projects like the arenas, auditoriums & stadiums etc...

[HOT ROD]

IMO, Norick was a city leader who was elected to office. Bennett is a local businessman who (while has done awesome for the city and I personally love him for all that he does) - he isn't OLD or 'dead' to have something named after him nor was he elected. I don't believe anything is named after Larry Nichols but I'd rather if we had to name the center we did it after him because A) he also was a civic minded businessman who B) is no longer in business - retired and who C) is now old.

Bennett is still young and likely may continue to do much more for OKC; he's still working so it seems strange to name something being rather young unless it is naming rights. My opinion.

I know Clay has some things at Casady named after him but I'm sure those were due to his alumni contributions; I think after he retires or finishes working - the city could name a street or anything much bigger after him. Again, my opinion.

And Larry slight correction btw - Clay was responsible for the city's 2nd (and 3rd) major league team and it was the New Orleans/OKC Hornets back in 2005-2007. The first for the city was the Oklahoma Wranglers of the AFL; to my knowledge Clay was not part of that. The current OKC Thunder NBA team that Clay owns is OKC's 3rd major league team. ..

[Laramie]

Why wait until a person is dead to honor them, let him/her know that they are appreciated.

[Bill Robertson]

I hope they have a couple large events before March so the Auto Show doesn't end up being the first test.

[Pete]

I hope they have a couple large events before March so the Auto Show doesn't end up being the first test.

The first event will be the Home & Garden show Jan 20-22:

[Bill Robertson]

The first event will be the Home & Garden show Jan 20-22:

Excellent! They'll use all or at least most of the floor power connections and that's our concern.

[Bellaboo]

not to take away from Clay B but wasn't that a MAPS funded building?

Is he/his family/org paying naming rights?

News reported he has worked on the fair board for 30 some years, thus the naming.

[HOT ROD]

yes you're right. I did see that in the reports.

My apologies - I didn't mean any harm only that I had thought Clay was a little young and probably has much more to contribute to OKC. But yes, he has been integral to the fair (better or worse) and for that yes, does deserve the recognition.

I just hope he does continue to build OKC and this isn't his last hurrah. ...

[Laramie]

Many new structures will have glitches to work out upon opening of which the fairgrounds is no stranger.

I remember as a child attending the CHL Oklahoma City Blazers opening game vs. Houston Apollos at the Fairgrounds arena, the ice looks like a frozen dirty ponds. They eventually had to encase the pipes beneath the arena floor in concrete instead of sand.

The Bennett Events Center will have some initial concerns they will have to work out. As far as when those glitches will have to be addressed, it could happen on the first event or some event down the line. You just never know or can you predict about these things.

[Pete]

The Bennett Center is officially open so I decided to go check it out during this weekend's Home & Garden show.

Well, it's big.

But it's also unimaginably plain.

You can see from the photos it's the most bare-bones type of facility possible. Hate to be negative but I found the place depressing. Not one tree or bit of landscaping and it already seems dated.

Reminder that they made a bunch of cuts once the construction bids came in.

And I must say, for all the money that has been poured into the fairgrounds over the last few decades, the entire area is just so run-down. The Cox Pavilion (the next biggest building) is really ugly and has a rusty roof, the rest of the buildings are as bad and the grounds have broken pavement and are poorly maintained.

Why oh why do they let people park in grass fields along 10th Street when there is now oceans of parking where the old grandstand and ballpark used to be? So incredibly trashy and there is no reason for this.

Also, they have interior roads blocked off so the north half of the grounds (near the old ballpark) and the south part (arena, main buildings and now the Bennett Center) are completely cut off from each other. There is actually a dedicated on-ramp to I-44 that goes under 10th but you can't get to it unless you park at the old ballpark area, which few people do other than for horse shows.

Just goes to show how incredibly bad things were before all the more recent improvements were made.

[Pete]

After looking at the fairgrounds a bit further I believe I can answer why the north part of the complex -- and all direct freeway access -- is completely cutoff from the main facilities.

The parking area on the site of the old ballpark seems to be blocked off for horse trailers. There are barricades all around that lot and the two road blocks do not allow ingress / egress from the rest of the site.

So what seems to happen is that people turn off into the north area of the fairgrounds (the first entrances you see as you come off of I-44, which is likely the majority) find the paved parking area is blocked off and then park in the muddy fields. The only other option is to go completely back out to 10th, go right on May and then find the new parking areas near the Bennett Center and where the old grandstand stood. And absolutely nobody is going to do that.

So, not only is that north paved parking not available to the public, people can't even drive through there from the south / main fairgrounds to get out to the interstate or access the main parking areas.


They seem to have created this protected area for horse trailers and completely jacked up the traffic flow and caused people to needlessly park in muddy fields that are further away than the thousands of newly paved spaces to the south.

So yesterday when those lots right near the Bennett Center were only about 1/4 full, I noticed tons of people still parked in those fields off 10th Street.

[bradh]

Sounds like some signage is in order, simple fix.

[Pete]

They would also have to close off those fields to parking.

[SOONER8693]

They would also have to close off those fields to parking.

I agree with you 100% about parking and driving on grass. It looks cheap, trashy, and classless. However, most Oklahomans and Texans consider it a God given right to park and drive on grass and off road. That way they can get "a little mud on the tires".