Oklahoma is the home of the world's first parking meter. I know this because a billboard about an hour north of the Texas-Oklahoma border apparently wants me to know this. Having grown up in Oklahoma, though, I'm fully aware that a little history nugget like being the first to charge people for a 300 square-foot parking space is kind of a big deal in the Sooner State. Right up there with (at one point) housing the largest free-standing McDonald's and sicking Hanson on you.
But now there's the Oklahoma City Thunder, which in four years since coming over from Seattle has become the state's signature point of relevance. A team that, more than anything, serves as validation for all those years Oklahomans begged for a professional sports team--imploring anyone who would listen to just give us a chance, and we'd prove it would work.
And great Harden's beard, it's working. So well, in fact, that Oklahoma is forging a national reputation as the loudest, most supportive fan base in the NBA.
When OKC eliminated the Lakers from the playoffs, Bricktown wasn't the entertainment hotspot I frequented to escape an Orwellian college that tried to convince me instruments in religious music were evil. No, this was Radiohead at Bonnaroo. About ten thousand fans watched the game outside Chesapeake Energy Arena -- for a second-round playoff game, no less. That doesn't happen in Oklahoma, not even for a free Carrie Underwood-Blake Shelton concert (both born in Oklahoma, by the way).
In three-time reigning scoring champ Kevin Durant, All-NBA second-teamer Russell Westbrook, and Sixth Man of the Year James Harden, the Thunder have their own version of Miami's Big Three. But, unlike the Heat, the Thunder bothered to fill out the rest of the roster sheet. Particularly, with hard-nosed big men Serge Ibaka, Kendrick Perkins, and Nick Collison, who are providing the type of post defense that historically wins championships (the last 13 NBA champions all had dominant defensive post players). Who knows, perhaps it's the Thunder who are more likely to win not one, not two, not three or more championships. Oh, what a crap-storm that would create in Miami.
But, that's not even the point. The point is the experiment worked. Oklahoma proved it can successfully back a professional sports team.*
*Technically, the temporary relocation of the New Orleans Hornets to OKC after Katrina was Oklahoma's first shot at an NBA franchise. And, it worked well. But, there was no way the Hornets weren't coming back to New Orleans, even if it made more fiscal sense to stay in OKC. Consider the Hornets a pilot-run to see if Oklahoma actually cared about owning an NBA team.
The Thunder sell out home games (62 straight and counting), pump money into the local economy ($1.3 million per home game), and move product (seventh highest merchandising revenue in the NBA). "Thunderup" is more than the annoying bandwagon post that shows up on my Facebook newsfeed about 50 times a day. It's the rally call of a disenfranchised piece of the country that's accustomed to going on the defensive about its cogency.
And, if little old Oklahoma City (which, along with San Antonio, is part of Charles Barkley's "Call a Town Boring, Hack-off a Mayor" circuit) can support a team in a league based on mass urban appeal, it makes sense that it can do the same for another major professional sport--most likely baseball*, which is soaked in Midwestern charm. There's a reason Field of Dreams was set in Iowa.
* In terms of the NFL, the path would be an arduous one for Oklahoma. The Dallas Cowboys cornered the market long ago, and have shown no signs of relinquishing its fan base despite one playoff win since 1996.
Somewhere there's an owner of an attendance-starved MLB club taking note of the meteoric rise of Thunder fandom and secretly toying with the idea of moving to Oklahoma. There just so happens to be an owner in Tampa predicting the "vaporization" of his own team because the locals don't show up for home games. And, no amount of Rays' locker room disco-dancing or Ken Rosenthal nerd-dressing can mask the reality that Tampa is a dead city walking when it comes to baseball.
Come to think of it, the Rays would be a great fit in OKC. They're exactly the kind of fly in the ointment to big market teams that would resonate with Oklahomans-what, with the Rays making a habit of upstaging the deep-pockets in New York and Boston on a budget less than Jeter, Teixeira and A-Rod's annual salaries combined. If we've learned anything from Thunder fans after OKC dispelled the likes of Dallas and Los Angeles in the playoffs this year, it's that they take extra pride in pie-facing the big boys.
As hypothetical as this all may sound right now, it doesn't even warrant a conversation without the Thunder. They are to professional sports in Oklahoma what Bugsy was to entertainment in Vegas, creating a market out of a mirage in the desert.
And, that's what the Thunder really mean to Oklahomans: an opportunity to create the professional sports hub they've fantasized about for years. Just give 'em a shot, and they'll prove it'll work.
Again.
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