A Busy Month in Store for Downtown

OKLAHOMA CITY -- As bad as the economy is right now, many downtown businesses aren't feeling it; not at the moment anyway and probably not anytime this month.

Bricktown thrives when the Thunder is in town, when the Redhawks and Blazers are playing or when there's a big show at the Ford Center, but what's going on right now is truly music to their ears.

Reflecting on the peace and power of the Oklahoma City National Memorial Friday morning, members of the American Choral Directors Association, 7,000 of them, are in town this week for their national convention.

"And what we're hearing from all of them is what we hear from everybody, ‘Never knew Oklahoma City was this great; want to come back, it's a great place to be, thanks for the hospitality'," Mike Carrier with the Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau said.

But perhaps Oklahoma City should be thanking them for spending their money everywhere from coffee shops to restaurants.

"Actually, our directors told us about Bricktown yesterday afternoon, that it was close enough to walk, so we went down there last night and ate dinner," one visitor said.

Bricktown restaurant owners say conventions have as big an economic impact on them as anything that comes to town.

"Concerts are great, the NBA's great, but the conventions really bring a good steady stream of income for us," Charles Stout with the Bricktown Brewery said.

Officials with the Convention and Visitors Bureau echo that, citing recent studies, which suggest convention-goers spend, on average, $234 a day.

"Two hundred thirty-four dollars a day times 7,000 people, times five days, yeah, we'd love to have that coming in every week," Carrier said. "Puts money not only in the pockets of retailers, but its tax dollars that ware helping to pay for all the things we have here for the state as well as the city."

That's more than $8 million pumped into the economy by this convention, and then, next week it's the Big Twelve basketball tournament. The next week, it's the Prepaid Legal Convention, then the NCAA Women's basketball tournament. It'll be non-stop visitor traffic all this month.

Oklahoma City business leaders would like to have more conventions coming to Oklahoma so they commissioned a study looking at the need for a new, larger convention center. That study should complete in the next month or so.