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Tulsa Drillers: Empty seats at ONEOK Field

It's a paradox: The Tulsa Drillers, our city's minor league baseball team, appear to be in the best financial shape they've ever been and setting attendance records every year. But when I've attended games in recent years, I've been surprised at the large numbers of empty seats. Below is a...

Posted by Michael Bates on August 19, 2017 11:51 PM

Why did Lamson sell his Drillers stake?

Chuck Lamson, majority owner of the Tulsa Drillers since 2006, has sold his ownership shares back to longtime owner Went Hubbard. Hubbard owned the team from 1986 to 2006, retained a minority interest after selling to Lamson, and now has sole ownership once again. Lamson played for the Drillers in...

Posted by Michael Bates on December 27, 2010 11:45 PM

Ballpark assessment plaintiffs petition for summary judgment

It's opening day for the Tulsa Drillers at Oneok Field, and some of the downtown property owners who are forced to pay for its construction filed a petition today for summary judgment in their lawsuit to overturn the assessment for the Tulsa Stadium Improvement District. The case against the ballpark...

Posted by Michael Bates on April 8, 2010 9:58 PM

ONEOK Field: Only premium seating

After a brief visit to a nearby church's Easter egg hunt (where we bumped into Tasha Does Tulsa and her family, and where my four-year-old picked up only one blue egg and decided he was done, and my nine-year-old decided she was too old to participate), we headed downtown for...

Posted by Michael Bates on April 3, 2010 11:48 PM

Drillersfest -- ONEOK Field open house Saturday

ONEOK Field, the new home of the Texas League's Tulsa Drillers will be open for Drillersfest from 10 am to 2 pm, Saturday, April 3, 2010. From the TulsaNow mailing list: DRILLERS FEST - Sat. April 3 (10:00 AM- 2:00 PM) This will be the first opportunity for Drillers' fans...

Posted by Michael Bates on April 2, 2010 9:04 PM

Feedback wanted: PLANiTULSA, Driller Stadium

The PLANiTULSA draft vision document, which will serve as the foundation for a fully-elaborated comprehensive plan for the City of Tulsa, is online. You can read it online as separate web pages, or download the "Our Vision for Tulsa" PDF. It's only 50 pages long (with lots of photos), so...

Posted by Michael Bates on September 16, 2009 9:37 PM

Too-busy-to-blog links

I'm in the throes of a major effort at work and only have time to throw you a few links to good reading elsewhere: For your viewing pleasure, Tulsa TV Memories links to the Life archive and photos from February 1952 of KOTV general manager Helen Alvarez. Besides photos of...

Posted by Michael Bates on June 10, 2009 8:18 AM

Roemerman on the ballpark assessment

I've got some thoughts about the Council's 5-4 vote to approve the assessment roll of the Tulsa Stadium Improvement District -- the controversial funding mechanism for funding the Tulsa Drillers new downtown baseball stadium -- but no time right now. Watch for something Monday morning. Steven Roemerman has posted some...

Posted by Michael Bates on June 6, 2009 4:29 PM

Running out the clock on ballpark assessment protests

Tulsa City Councilor Rick Westcott emailed me a short time ago to point out the bind into which downtown property owners have been put by Mayor Kathy Taylor's administration's insistence that owners had only limited rights to protest the assessment for the new Tulsa Stadium Improvement District, which will finance...

Posted by Michael Bates on May 28, 2009 12:58 PM

The luxury box bubble bursts

The Wall Street Journal reports that the economic downturn is hurting corporate sources of revenue for sports teams and venues, including luxury boxes, club seats, naming rights, and other forms of sponsorship: In a case of monumentally bad timing, this year three of the biggest names in pro sports --...

Posted by Michael Bates on March 6, 2009 11:13 PM

The old Tulsa ballpark

An e-mail from Tulsa baseball history expert Wayne McCombs led me to this Digital Ballparks feature on Oiler Park, home of Tulsa minor league baseball from 1934 to 1976. It's a sequence of historic photographs accompanied by text setting out the history and highlights of the park and the players...

Posted by Michael Bates on December 30, 2008 12:36 PM

The fate of disposable public architecture

This is what Tulsa will do to City Hall in a year or two and in 20 years or so to the BOK Center and to the new downtown ballpark as well, assuming the current design concept is used: RCA Dome, 1984-2008, rest in pieces. Meanwhile, Wrigley Field, age 94,...

Posted by Michael Bates on December 22, 2008 12:04 PM

Inside baseball

A surprising item in today's Whirled: The Tulsa Stadium Trust received only one bid Monday to construct a nearly $40 million downtown baseball stadium and no bids to finance $25 million of its cost. The construction bid came from Tulsa Stadium Construction Co. LLC, which guarantees that it will build...

Posted by Michael Bates on December 2, 2008 11:49 PM

Stadium trust on tonight's Council agenda

I've been seeing e-mail traffic urging people to show up at tonight's City Council meeting in support of the Tulsa Stadium Trust. I understand that Bank of Oklahoma and other downtown employers are trying to pack the council chambers tonight. Those who show up should remember that the vote isn't...

Posted by Michael Bates on September 11, 2008 12:13 PM

Can we trust the Tulsa Stadium Trust?

Some wise words in a letter from retired architect Bob Sober to the members of the Tulsa City Council, regarding the proposed Tulsa Stadium Improvement Trust indenture, on the Council's agenda for Thursday night: Councilors, The Mayor has asked you to approve the Trust Indenture in this Thursday's Council meeting...

Posted by Michael Bates on August 25, 2008 8:39 PM

Downtown Drillers ballpark and the Tulsa Stadium Trust -- quotes of the day

From "Floyd," on TulsaNow's public forum, regarding the Trust Indenture for the Tulsa Stadium Trust: Sigh. If they had just decided to build a stadium and then created a set of special design codes for the stadium district, they could be moving dirt soon. But they can't help themselves from...

Posted by Michael Bates on August 18, 2008 7:07 PM

Tulsa Stadium Trust on Council committee agenda

The agenda for tomorrow's Tulsa City Council Urban and Economic Development committee includes a discussion of a draft of the Tulsa Stadium Trust indenture, the Title 60 Trust that will get to spend the money raised by the downtown assessment district the Council approved last month. The proposal creates a...

Posted by Michael Bates on August 11, 2008 6:26 PM

The real NIMBYs

Ruth Kaiser Nelson was, for all practical purposes, my first Latin teacher. When I was an eighth-grader, our scheduled teacher, Bill Bippus, took a semester's leave of absence, and Mrs. Nelson taught us instead. Because the class occurred during the girls' PE period, it was an all-boy class, and Mrs....

Posted by Michael Bates on August 8, 2008 10:22 PM

TDA breaks its word, dumps Lofts @ 120

What a day. We learned a lot. We learned that when the Tulsa Development Authority approves an exclusive negotiating period, it's not necessarily exclusive -- they'll shove you aside if a more powerful suitor comes along -- they may not negotiate in good faith, and the period may be terminated...

Posted by Michael Bates on August 7, 2008 11:36 PM

How much should a ballpark cost?

Note: I've received word that Thursday morning's Tulsa Development Authority meeting involving Will and Cecilia Wilkins and Novus Homes LLC's exclusive negotiating agreement has been moved to the 10th floor of One Technology Center (the new City Hall). One of the questions raised in my column this week is about...

Posted by Michael Bates on August 6, 2008 11:28 PM