The Mothership.

Some call it an expensive roll of duct tape, others call it ugly, but there are very few structures on earth that can compare to the BOK Center, right here in downtown Tulsa.  

I joke about "living" in this building and indeed, the time I have spent within the vast expanse of concrete, stainless steel and plate glass in the last five years is quite impressive.  Most of the time I have spent in this building has been in pursuit of my "Walter Mitty" dreams of being a sports journalist, but I have partaken of events in this building where I was just a spectator and that effectively makes my use of this building complete as one who assisted in it;s construction by paying taxes.

Despite it's grandeur as an iconic structure downtown I fear it is being under-utilized as an event venue and as a bargaining chip for getting new tenants in sports.  One of the main complaints people expressed before the BOK Center was built was that when it came to big name entertainment Tulsa was being bypassed in favor of the larger cities that had larger venues.  After Oklahoma City completed the Ford Center/Oklahoma City Arena/Chesapeake Arena that was made worse by the fact that their venue instantaneously began attracting  large venue entertainers like Paul McCartney, Britney Spears, and Cher, among others.  

Tulsa was relegated to the casino acts, and entertainers who either had to cancel shows in other cities or had to fill out their touring contracts or who were giving their fans a break.  That all changed when the BOK Center was completed in August 2008, and since then we have seen Sir Paul twice, The Eagles twice, KISS twice, Bruce Springsteen, Metallica and AC/DC.  Recently Cher played the room, and in the summer Bruno Marrs and Dave Matthews will play the arena.

The shows were all outstanding in their own way, but at the same time...for all of the greatness achieved by bringing these acts to Tulsa the one thing that stands out is that they are all basically "safe" acts.  That is, they are acts that with notable exceptions can be viewed by all ages.  (Yeah we had a former Disney Channel star-turned uber-whore Miley Cyrus, whatever Lady Gaga is, and Katy Perry, but again, those are the few aberrations in this case).  Why is it that arena management is not trying to book acts like say...Iron Maiden, or Pharell Williams or P!nk, perhaps?

It may be a farfetched notion for the arena to try for the Rolling Stones or Madonna or U2 but to that I say you don't know if you don't try.  Maybe they would like to exapnd their audience or, in the case of the Stones or U2, return to play again for nostalgia's sake (The Stones played the old arena in the Cox Business Center in the 60s and U2 played the Brady theater in the early 80s).  Sure, BOK Center isn't large as some buildings but they are almost a guaranteed sellout if they do come.

As for sports, when the arena opened it had two minor league sports tenants, the Tulsa Oilers hockey team and the Tulsa Talons arena football team.  Within two years they were joined by the Tulsa Shock of the WNBA and the Talons were promoted out of the minor league end of arena football and into the major league version of the AFL. The definition of "major league" being, for the purpose of this writing as when teams from major cities like Chicago, Dallas and Cleveland come to play in Tulsa, and not when teams from say...Cedar Rapids, or Topeka come to play.  

As of today only the Oilers and the Shock remain.  While the Shock play in the WNBA and they do indeed play teams from Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, the WNBA's unfair designation as a minor league when compared to the NBA gives it a minor league status of sorts.

As a sports writer I am sometimes asked why Tulsa does not have a major league sports team like an NBA or NHL team.  Well, the NBA team is easy to explain because the Thunder have the market in terms of basketball and after four years and a Finalks appearance they deserve it, but what is holding Tulsa back from making a run for a possible NHL team?  If it's arena size, the Winnepeg Jets play in a smaller arena...and yes it's in Canada but the BOK Center seats 16K and change and the MTS Bank Arena seats a shade over 15K for hockey.

Next season the New York Islanders will move from the Nassau Coliseum to Barclays Center in Brooklyn, which is primarily a basketball arena for the Nets, but it too, when configured for ice hockey will seat 15K and change.  The BOK Center, when fitted out, (and sold out), for hockey can seat 16,606.  There would have to be more improvements to the arena...like adding suites and other amenities to the arena, but it could conceivably be done.  To say nothing of the fact that if these new amenities are added and the NHL rejects Tulsa they would be in place as something that made the BOK Center that much nicer.

In short, a win-win proposition.

Anyway, that's what is kicking around in my head with about an hour and a half before game time.