New Stadium, Entertainment District Are Last Puzzle Pieces for Downtown Oklahoma City

March 13, 2025/Ben Johnson/Urban Land Magazine.

Ben Johnson is a freelance writer based in Atlanta and has more than 35 years of experience in commercial real estate communications and publishing.

A major investment in the long-term future of professional soccer is set to dramatically transform the last major land parcel in downtown Oklahoma City. Thanks to a successful public/private partnership, America’s 20th-largest city is seeing a continued resurgence in its downtown.

A new $71 million multipurpose stadium, funded by a temporary one-cent sales tax as part of the city’s successful Metropolitan Area Projects (MAPS 4), is set to break ground in the third quarter of 2025, with completion scheduled for March 2027. Since its inception in April 2020, MAPS 4 has committed about $1.1 billion in investment over eight years in 16 major citywide projects.

The OKC Entertainment District: A Hub of Connectivity

Designed by architecture firm Populous, the new stadium will be the centerpiece of a 60-acre (24.3-hectare) development currently referred to as the OKC Entertainment District. When it opens, the stadium will accommodate more than 12,000 fans and connect with several major venues: the city’s new convention center, which opened in 2021; Riversport OKC, which will host the 2028 Summer Olympic Games canoe slalom event; and a new $900 million arena for the OKC Thunder National Basketball Association team opening in 2028. The development will also sit adjacent to the downtown area known as Bricktown.

“The collaboration among private developers, investors, and the city underscores the importance of public-private partnerships in bringing ambitious visions to life,” said David Chapman, professor of real estate at the University of Central Oklahoma. “With the right mix of thoughtful planning, strategic investment, and community engagement, OKC is demonstrating how a well-executed stadium district can redefine a city’s identity and long-term economic trajectory.”

Mark Beffort, CEO of local real estate firm Robinson Park, has seen firsthand the evolution of downtown OKC over the past 30 years. He was an early pioneer in bringing residential condominiums to downtown in 2010 with the conversion of the top seven floors of the 1930s-era City Place office building. More recently, in 2022, a local group led by developer Gary Brooks converted the city’s iconic First National Center office building into mixed uses, including retail, food and beverage establishments, luxury apartments, and a hotel

Now Beffort is partnering with local investment firm Echo Investment Capital to develop the 51 acres (20.6 hectares) surrounding the nine-acre (3.6-hectare) stadium site. The plan calls for a dense, mixed-use urban node with hotel, residential, retail, and entertainment components. “We’re wanting to create a very vibrant community where it doesn’t matter your demographic,” said Beffort. “This is a place where everyone wants to come because this is the connecting puzzle piece for unlocking the future of downtown OKC.”

“We are thinking of this as an experience economy,” said Megan Gelmers, director of investments and development at Robinson Park. “We need to stop creating islands and instead create a destination and environments that connect to the core of downtown. This site is all about creating density so people have everything they need right in those 60 acres.”

The key to the district’s success, she added, is connectivity. “Ensuring we are all working together to successfully build OKC for the next 20 or 30 years is critical.”

While the Thunder organization has been the biggest sports game in town for the past 20-plus years, a new player recently entered the fray in the form of Echo. Founded by entrepreneur Christian Kanady, Echo purchased a majority interest in the OKC Energy soccer franchise in August 2024, and is driving the OKC for Soccer movement to reimagine professional soccer. Although the team is currently on hiatus, the club plays in the United Soccer League, one tier below the top-ranked Major League Soccer (MLS) division.

In addition to its significant land donation, Echo hired U.S. soccer industry veteran Court Jeske to run the new division as president. Jeske had launched the Nashville Football Club in 2016, after leaving the administrative offices of MLS, and helped that city build the country’s largest soccer-specific stadium, with more than 30,000 seats.

Building a Community Asset: Leadership and Rebranding

“We achieved that by letting the community build the club with us,” said Jeske. “At the end of the day, sports teams are community assets, we’re just the steward for a temporary period. As long as we keep letting OKC and their passion for sports drive the conversation, we’re going to be very successful.” A major rebranding is now underway for the Oklahoma City club.

When completed, the stadium will double as the largest concert venue in Oklahoma, with approximately 20,000 seats including those on the field.. While men’s and women’s soccer will drive much of the project’s focus, its multipurpose design will offer ample flexibility to host other entertainment programming. “We really want to think about it not as a stadium from the ’70s, ’80s or ’90s,” said Jeske, “but more of a community center that happens to have a field in the middle of it and is going to be a hub of activity for the city.”

While the ultimate goal for the professional soccer team may be to join the top-tier MLS, Jeske said sights are set on the here and now. “We’re focused on the acronym that matters most, which is OKC,” he said. “We do think the power of men’s and women’s soccer together creates more of a holistic opportunity, not only for the club but for the community. By performing at a high level in both USL and women’s soccer, the opportunity to compete across the world in competitions or leagues will present itself at that point.”

To ensure ongoing community collaboration, more than 30 influential community leaders are providing input through the OKC for Soccer/OKC es Futbol Committee, which includes the governor of the Chickasaw Nation, the state lieutenant governor, women’s athletic directors from the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University, and representatives from the local Triple-A baseball Comets, as well as the NBA Thunder.

Ultimately, the latest breed of entertainment-related projects puts a premium on synergies. “It’s a very complicated puzzle, and it’s going to be imperative that we work together to get it right,” said Beffort. “The connectivity piece from each venue is going to be really important, from a walking standpoint, two-wheel standpoint, four-wheel standpoint, rail, all of those things.”

To help align stakeholders’ interests and produce the level of connectivity that is required, Mayor David Holt and the city are hiring a consulting firm to produce a coordinated plan by year-end 2025. “The city is very progressive and taking a global perspective in ensuring we don’t make mistakes other cities have across the country,” said Beffort. “We ought to learn from those.”