If one were to do simple math, using a formula established by the city of Oklahoma City, the 2010-11 regular season of the NBA Thunder had an estimated $49.2 million impact spread out over 41 games. Economic impact from Thunder season extends beyond dollars and cents The same formula of $1.2 million per game would indicate another $10.8 million was brought into the local economy during the playoffs, though the author of this formula, Tom Anderson, the city's special projects manager, admits the number for such games likely is much higher

Read more: http://newsok.com/economic-impact-from-thunder-season-extends-beyond-dollars-and-cents/article/3574271#ixzz1OMYZINF9

Plus The OKC chamber could not buy this kind of PR,while the economic impact is great the image bolstering done by the NBA is much bigger imo!Great article by Steve!

Why we better hope they avoid a lockout next season...Would really sting in a lot of ways

Any idea if the 'law of diminishing returns' will blunt the local impact of the Thunder, or do you think it will only grow over time?

The team has been great the last two seasons, and I hope for greater success in the future; however, I wonder what the economic consequences may be if they were a continually-losing team...

Any idea if the 'law of diminishing returns' will blunt the local impact of the Thunder, or do you think it will only grow over time?

The team has been great the last two seasons, and I hope for greater success in the future; however, I wonder what the economic consequences may be if they were a continually-losing team...

I don't know. I think are lousy team fan turn out will do better than other lousy team fan turnout. Luckily, we should have a good 5+ years with this current team since everyone is so young.

I hope everyone is noticing the free publicity we are continuing to receive during the NBA finals. The Kevin Durant commercials prominently display OKC and the Thunder. As long as he is here we will continue to be in the forefront of publicity related to the NBA and sports. The taxpayer money spent to get our team and to keep them here is an absolute bargain. We could have spent ten times the same amount of money elsewhere trying to attract the attention of the nation with nowhere near the same results.

The NBA has a commercial that only features OKC: the one with the guy dreaming he's hitting the game-winning shot. I'm pretty astounded they chose our team to feature, but it's pretty cool to see it. And almost every other NBA commerical has at least one shot of Kevin Durant in it. Then there are the Gatorade commercials with Kevin Durant wearing the warmups with Oklahoma City on them. I agree. The amount of money our city would have had to spend to get that kind of advertising is off the charts. And, the playoffs are viewed all over the world.

youre right betts, but we dont see the American commercials though (at least not in China or Japan). ...

Hot Rod, are you no longer in Seattle?

i technically reside in Seattle, but I am mostly an expat as Im mostly in China and Japan.

I am in Seattle right now, got back last week.