Public would likely foot some of bill for potential Thunder arena

Thunder owners "aren’t going to have to foot the whole bill" for a potential new arena, since if Oklahoma City voters decide they "aren’t going to build a new arena, the franchise will have about a dozen cities that will offer to do so," according to Jenny Carlson of the OKLAHOMAN. Oklahoma City would likely be "keeping the arena downtown,” where the cost “probably won't be quite so high if for no other reason than the cost of the land won’t be as high.” Land in downtown Oklahoma City is “cheaper than it is in Philadelphia or any other big-market city.” The Pistons built “arguably the nicest of the NBA’s new arenas” at a cost of $863M, while the Kings spent $558M on Golden 1 Center and the Bucks spent $524M on Fiserv Forum. The average cost of those three facilities is $648M, which is “probably in the ballpark of what OKC will pay.” Carlson writes she does suspect the Thunder ownership group "will pay for some portion of the new arena” (OKLAHOMAN, 7/28 ).