Steve, you said, “Define Major League City.” Here’s my definition:

1) Promotional Phrase. The term is/was a promotional phrase used by Oklahoma City, particularly the Chamber, to persuade citizens to approve the sales tax measure to be utilized for the improvement of the then Ford Center Center and the addition of an NBA level practice facility to the end that Okc would at long last gain a major athletic franchise, in this instance, an NBA team, should Oklahoma City get to have such a thing.

This is not intended as a knock … I fully bought into that phrase during the time of the vote, and I don’t regret it now. I badly wanted the city to be in a position to be in an opportunistic position to take advantage of the shortcomings/failures of Seattle in that slice of history, and I proud that we did exactly that! Woo hoo … go Thunder!

But, there’s not a good reason for the aggrandizement/expansion of a political phrase to mean more than it actually is and was. The phrase was literally about OKC gaining a major professional sports franchise, nothing more. That happened, and that’s great. But now that that’s happened, it might be a good time that the phrase be dropped and relegated to a part of our history successfully gone by.

Maybe there is another of the 100 or so metropolitan areas that uses such a phrase “major league city” today, but I wouldn’t know the names of any such American cities. As far as I’m aware, “Major League City” is a parochial phrase which is limited to Oklahoma City in its usage in its efforts to obtain an NBA franchise, although I may be mistaken.

2) “Major City.” The above says what the “Major League City” expression means for me. But a better and more meaningful question might be, “Define Major City” (without the “League”). Without the “League” part of the phrase, we’re no longer talking about one or more major league athletic franchises in a city. Certainly, a “Major City” label is a much grander thing for OKC to aspire to be than simply a “major league city” connotes, especially since that goal has already been accomplished.

3) Being a “major league city,” which we already are, is only a step in the evolution of Oklahoma City, in taking the next step to become a “Major City,” without qualification.

That accomplishment will take a lot more effort and development than merely being the host of a major league franchise. A USA “Major City” we are yet not. So, it could be our new goal, a much better and larger goal than “Major League City,” which we already are.

All that said, what you showed was a cool video and makes our city proud.

i dunno, doug. houston is the 4th largest city in the nation, and incredibly important to our economy, but i wouldn’t want to live there. another expression is “the big leagues,” which i would equate with major league city. simply put, if you don’t have a major league sports franchise of some type, it is very difficult to attract positive attention to your city. we have now arrived, and that is a good thing.

i know it’s just semantics, and i share your view that we still have much to accomplish. by the same token, i hope that future growth comes in increased density, not sprawl. i hope our transportation system doesn’t become clogged and dysfunctional. i hope that as we grow, we DO NOT lose sight of just how bad things were, and for how long. i would like for us to be a great city, not merely a big one.

A major league city is a city that doesn’t have to tell the rest of the world it’s a major league city.

Houston is not a preferred place for me to live, either, but I don’t understand how that relates either to Steve’s query, “Define Major League City,” or my inferentially suggested substitute, “Define Major City.” I wasn’t intending to knock Oklahoma City at all by recasting the question, but was simply posing a broader question, and wondering out loud, but without any suggested answer, as to how our city might become a “major city,” without qualification, and without speculation as to what that might mean or how it might be accomplished. My point was more a matter of identifying a broad city goal than it was how to accomplish the same.

It could not hurt to be the “hub” and not the end of a “spoke” in an airlines system. Sadly this WILL NEVER CHANGE. Some, very few actually, major league cites are a spoke but ALL hub cities are by definition a Major League City.

Not sure he’s reading the comments but it’s still an
interesting discussion!

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