Peter Tamura

What monumental event could singlehandedly rivet the nation's attention on Tulsa, OK?

The icestorm? No, that's history

The lowest gas prices in the nation? Yes, that usually makes national news but that's not what I'm talking about here.

YES, you guessed it, it's the beautiful BOK Center designed by the renowned architect Cesar Pelli (designed the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, the tallest building in the world from 1998-2004).

Well, last Wednesday RE/MAX Executives was lucky enough to go on a group tour of the work in progress. Here are some pictures and comments, enjoy!

Two of our members were not allowed to go on the tour because they were wearing open toe shoes. You can see that there are lots of people working on the Arena as we are touring, on any given day there are 650-700 people working on the job site. You can see some of the 25,000 stainless steel plates, adding the curves and the metallic element that Cesar Pelli is renowned for. The plates toward the bottom have blue tape to prevent damage during construction.

Did you see the photo in the Tulsa World that showed the view from the Suites? It looked like the basketball court was already complete. How did they do that? Well, the answer is that a mock suite with a simulated view of the Arena was actually built in the TulsaVision Building. The rooms is not quite as wide as the real suite but most other things are to scale including the view. The suites are on the exclusive second floor and offer a remarkably intimate view of the court. If you are thinking about getting a suite but haven't done so already, forget it. They are all sold for a five year commitment at $40,000 and up per year! It's a reflection of how excited Tulsans are about the BOK Center.

Our fearless group leader Rick Cole. Note the eye protection and the hard hats. This is in a suite on the second floor, perhaps the last time that I get to set foot on the second floor, unless I make some quick friends with some suite owners!!

The state of the art sports and entertainment venue has a seating capacity of 18,041 according to the information on BOKCenter.com, the opening is fall 2008 and is currently on schedule! Thanks, Rick for the tour, can't wait until the grand opening.

Some crane operators hard at work. You can truly see the scale of the building from this picture. The BOK Center is owned by the city of Tulsa and was part of Vision 2025. It will add to the quality of life of Tulsans for years to come as the beautiful building will attract world class sports and entertainment.

I went to Memorial High School in '85, left and went to and lived in various places like Arizona (went to ASU), California (Fremont) and Tokyo. When I came back to Tulsa last October after about twenty two years, I found a lot of interesting things to do outside of work.

I have always believed in my motto that I could live anywhere if there's a soccer field close by. By all accounts, the Tulsa soccer scene is alive and thriving. I will provide all the information here to hook you up!

pickup games- The only ones that I am aware of are at TU by the rugby pitch off of Harvard, on Wednesday evenings around 6:45P-7PM and Saturday mornings at 9AM. The only thing to watch out for is that the location sometimes changes if the fields are reserved. Then they move usually south of the fitness center which is the next street over west of the rugby pitch.

When I came back in October, it was week three of the NEOASA soccer season. (Northeast Oklahoma Adult Soccer Association). Neoasa.org The lady in the office emailed my info to all the Master's leagues teams, Master's is forty and over by the way, and FC Dynamos was kind enough to email me back and say that I could play on their team. You pay $65 per season, they give you a pass with your picture on it, and you pay twenty dollars or so for the team shirts.

As Tulsa got colder toward the end of the year, the soccer action moves indoors. There is a great facility called Soccer City, which is close to 61st and Garnett. SoccerCityTulsa.com. Basically, if you are going east on 61st, you go past Garnett to the first light, turn left and go about 150 yards and then make a right down a long driveway toward the facility. It's a building with two well maintained indoor fields that seem to get use around the clock. You can get indoor shoes, or you can play with your regular outdoor cleats here. I played on two separate teams, Thursday nights and Saturday nights. The scheduling is pretty nuts sometimes, we had games scheduled to start at 12:30AM and 1AM in the morning! The cost depends on how many players are signed up for your team but it's around $55 an eight week season. You can sometimes just go there and ask teams to let you play if they are short. Usually, the later the game, the higher the likelihood that a team is short. Usually, a lot of players play two eight week seasons here and head back outdoors as it warms up, but they do have spring leagues as well. For indoor, it's a different type of fitness, the game is much quicker and the halves are twenty minutes each. It's six aside in the leagues that I was in, so nine on the team with frequent subs was a good number.

There you have it, this is not comprehensive, but hopefully enough to get you started. Enjoy Tulsa!