The Oklahoma Thunder are not a good basketball team. They aren't even a mediocre basketball team. The are terrible. ESPN is tracking them against several of the worst teams of all time. They are drawing well in their first year in Oklahoma City. Being that this blog is all about viewing the sports landscape outside of the prism of television, I haven't seen the Thunder play. But having been to Oklahoma City several times for work, I can't get my head around why any team would choose to relocate there.
When I arrived in Oklahoma City for the first time, the Sonics were still in Seattle but the owners were actively trying to move them to their hometown. My first thoughts as I was walking through the airport on the way to baggage claim was "They want to put an NBA team in this city? This airport is tiny." Here some things about Will Rodgers International Airport (the largest of the airports in the Oklahoma City metro area) that I have found interesting in comparison to the airports of other cities with NBA teams that I have found myself flying into for work.
Number of Gates:
There are 24 gates in Will Rodgers Airport. This is total gates, not the number of gates in one of the concourses. This is far fewer than the airports of Houston, Memphis, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Denver, Salt Lake, Atlanta or Chicago.
Size of Airplanes:
Of the 8 times that I have flown into or out of Oklahoma City from various airports, I have yet to fly on anything other than a regional or a commuter jet. Nor can I recall seeing even a 737 parked at a gate. Thus Will Rodgers Airport is seemingly not much more than a regional airport.
Food:
The only places to eat in the Oklahoma City Airport are Sonic, Schlotsky's and 2 airport bars. This pales in comparison to the Memphis airport where the entire place smells like barbecue.
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