Mayor David Holt

@NWSFlashFlood Thank you.

Got these in the mail from my friend Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird of Lincoln, NE. If you weren’t downtown during the NCAA men’s basketball Tournament last month, this may be hard to understand, but those three days in OKC were nothing short of magical for 15,000 Nebraska fans. Oklahoma City will always be a part of their most treasured memories.

Most Fridays during the school year, I visit a public elementary school in OKC and read “Goodnight OKC.” Thanks to Junior League’s donation, I leave the book behind. Today was West Field Elementary in Edmond Public Schools in far North OKC! Go Wildcats! #1OKC

Chag Pesach Sameach and Happy Passover to our Jewish friends and neighbors across our #1OKC!

@LRMurphh Was my post helpful?

@davidfholt plz post tips for purchasing Olympic tickets on Thursday lol. And prices if you’re feeling generous 💀

This week commences the Olympics ticket presale that is available only to Oklahoma City and Los Angeles residents. Those who entered and won the draw are getting their notification emails this week. There will ultimately be approximately 200,000 tickets available for Oklahoma City events, and they will rank with NBA Finals tickets as the hottest tickets in our city’s history. For those about to enter the presale experience, I wanted to share some highlights of the schedule, from an OKC perspective. Our Olympic journey will include nine days of canoe slalom followed by seven days of softball. Each canoe slalom ticket will admit you to a full daily session. Put another way, each day of canoe slalom will include one session and will require one ticket. In contrast, much of the softball schedule will include three games a day, and each game will be a separate ticket. Here is how it breaks down. You may want to take a look at this before you enter the presale. Canoe slalom: July 14-22 Softball: July 23-29 Friday, July 14 - The first Olympic event in Oklahoma City history will commence this day. This will also be the only sporting event of the Olympics this day. In the evening will be the Opening Ceremonies in Los Angeles. July 15 - The first Olympic medals in Oklahoma City history will be awarded this day. July 16 - More medals awarded this day. July 17 - Competition, but no medals today. July 18 - Medals are awarded this day. July 19 - Medals are awarded this day. July 20 - Competition, but no medals today. July 21 - Competition, but no medals today. July 22 - Canoe slalom closes with a day of medals. July 23 - The first softball games of the tournament, and this continues through July 27. July 28 - The Bronze medal game. July 29 - The Gold medal game and the final event of the Olympics in OKC. Best wishes as you embark on your ticket journey!

Great dinner at The Crown tonight under the direction of Chef Eric Smith! We live in a remarkable era for OKC’s food scene and we have the best food scene in the nation for a city our size. On that note, two OKC chefs and one OKC bar were named finalists for James Beard Awards today. Congrats to Chef Jeff Chanchaleune (Bar Sen) and Chef Zack Walters (Sedalia's) for being named finalists for Best Chef in the Southwest, and congrats to Later Bye for being named a finalist for Best New Bar in the nation!

Things cost what they cost. And of course all our projects are subject to competitive bidding, which in theory keeps the cost as low as the market will bear. It certainly is important for residents to have a realistic understanding of the high costs of infrastructure. And keep in mind, just general American inflation is something like 40% over the last 15 years, and that’s not even as high as construction-specific inflation. To answer your last question, I would say our infrastructure was never well-built or maintained until the last quarter-century, so I think that’s your answer to some extent. We didn’t do a good job.

@davidfholt Why does infrastructure cost so much? It's a beautiful fire station.... but 8 million? Roads are close to a million per mile per lane. How did this city get built in the first place by a comparatively poorer society?

Oklahoma City is served by 38 fire stations. Our existing stations require a regular schedule of reinvestment. And in 2017, the voters of OKC committed to a new Station 31 at 720 N. Rockwell, at a cost of $8.1 million. Today, we cut the ribbon on that beautiful, state-of-the-art fire station. We have the best fire department in the country because of the well-trained men and women in our department, but also because of the willingness of our residents to invest in their equipment and facilities. Congrats and thank you to everyone who worked to bring our new Fire Station 31 to reality!

NBC’s national audience checking in on our new arena…

The city needs both facilities because they serve very different purposes. The facility at the fairgrounds is booked most of the year with horse shows, and then of course the state wrestling and basketball tournaments, as well as the Youth Expo. The downtown arena is the home of the Thunder and concerts.

@davidfholt Why does OKC need another coliseum? And I can't be the only one that can't spell "Continental "or "Coliseum " without looking it up. The ConCo is born.

Today, we broke ground on Continental Coliseum. The construction of our city’s new arena is officially underway. For the next two years, this reflection of our city’s ambitious aspirations will rise into the Oklahoma City skyline. Linked here are the comments I shared today at the ceremony: facebook.com/story.php?stor…

@BranyanValerie You are referencing the OG&E Coliseum.

@davidfholt I thought the Coliseum just opened and replaced the Big House. Didn't they just have State playoffs?

@SeaGypsy1111 nba.com/thunder/news/r…

@davidfholt When does the Continental naming rights agreement end?

Oklahoma City is unquestionably one of the paddlesport capitals of the world. Of course, we are the host of the six canoe slalom events in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, and we are also the host of the 2026 International Canoe Federation Canoe Slalom World Championships. (Put that on your calendar - July 20-25.) This weekend on the whitewater course, OKC has been hosting the international time trials, with over 170 athletes from 20 countries. Here I’m with reigning world champ Klaudia Zwolinska of Poland and Evy Leibfarth of the United States. During this event, Team OKC and RIVERSPORT have also had great discussions about 2028 with our partners at LA28 and the ICF.

It was great to have Mayor Ron Norick and Mayor Mick Cornett at our arena groundbreaking Thursday. This picture captures at least three of the special ingredients in the Oklahoma City renaissance: 1) Visionary leadership. Once elected to executive positions, you can just manage the crisis of the day if that’s how you want to spend your time. Or, you can proactively push the community to new heights. 2) Continuity in leadership. Our city has had just four elected mayors since 1987 - a span of four decades. And not only that, but each of us has simply passed the baton to the next. No mayor in our modern history has wasted one second of their precious time undoing the work of their predecessor. 3) Investment in ourselves. Mayor Norick championed the passage of MAPS in 1993, which deployed about $365 million to improve our quality of life infrastructure, and set the tone for the decades that have followed. Mayor Cornett championed MAPS 3, Big League City and two bond issues, for a grand total of $3 billion in improvements. And the new community infrastructure commitments made in my mayoral tenure now total $5 billion. My gratitude to those who built the foundation upon which we build!

We definitely don’t currently have the smallest arena by seating capacity and I don’t know anyone who has ever said that. It looks like there are 11 arenas with fewer seats than our current arena. Considering the average attendance through the years, there is no particular need for more seats. In 2024, the Thunder averaged 17,451. There’s no need for more empty seats.

@davidfholt I heard the new arena will have less seats. I've heard we had the smallest arena as in the number of seats. I believe it makes sense to increase the seating to accommodate more fans and the current pricing. Couldn't the arena be built to accommodate, maybe build it higher?

I’ve certainly never talked about seating capacity as being an issue, nor do I know anyone who ever cited that as an issue. It certainly isn’t an issue for the team. The square footage is what I’ve constantly talked about since 2022 because that is so critical to the users of the arena and has been a challenge for us in our current arena. We have the smallest in the NBA. But most new arenas are generally in the 17,000 range for seating capacity. And our new arena will have larger seats than we currently have, and that obviously impacts capacity.

@davidfholt Mayor Holt, so why will the new Continental Coliseum have less seats than the Paycom Center? I believe the goal is to provide more seats than the Paycom Center to seat more fans. It seems like it is going in the wrong direction for fans which means a higher cost per ticket.

@kat72746 No they aren’t. Continental Resources is very much in Oklahoma City.