No matter what happens in Sunday’s Game 7 against the Nuggets, the Thunder will still have one of the more unique victories in American sports as it heads into the summer.

The team was able to get a local sales tax overwhelmingly passed in December 2023 despite no major playoff success and a poor track record for similar measures in the rest of the country in recent years.

In Oklahoma City, 71% of voters chose to extend an existing sales tax for six years called MAPS (Metropolitan Area Projects), which would have them pay $850 million of a new $900 million arena for the team. Thunder ownership will cover the other $50 million.

The city quickly became the envy of the country’s sports owners. Taxes to fund stadiums in cities such as Kansas City, Phoenix, Tampa Bay, and elsewhere have all failed, as American voters have become less pliant when teams ask for public funding.

David Holt, Oklahoma City’s Republican mayor, was the architect of the sales tax measure, but doesn’t think he cracked a code other cities haven’t, instead saying in a recent interview that he felt the Thunder had all the power.

“Cities like ours never have leverage in these situations,” he told Front Office Sports. “We in Oklahoma City haven’t had the team long enough to forget what it was like before we had the team.”

Oklahoma City is the country’s 42nd-biggest market and the third smallest in the NBA. The Thunder moved from Seattle to Oklahoma City in 2008 after Starbucks magnate Howard Schultz sold the team to investment banker Clay Bennett, and neither was able to secure public funding from Seattle for a new arena there. Bennett eventually paid Seattle $45 million in a settlement before moving the team.

Renderings for the Thunder’s new arena are expected this summer with the venue expected to open for the 2029–30 season. (It’s contractually required to open no later than June 2030.) The one-cent sales tax will begin April 1, 2028, when the current one expires. The Thunder and the city are still negotiating a lease for the new arena, but the city will own and operate it. The team currently pays $1.6 million in rent for the regular season.

Holy Cross sports economist Victor Matheson, who generally is opposed to public subsidies for stadiums, said that since 1990, the average new NBA arena has been built with 40% of public funding. The Thunder are going far beyond that. But Matheson said it’s hard to fault Holt’s approach in this case.

“This is one where the mayor is actually right,” Matheson told FOS. “The [previous] mayor talked about this 20 years ago when they got the Thunder. It was exactly the same story: ‘We want the NBA more than the NBA wants us, so we have to pony up some money here in ways other cities don’t have to.’ We basically have a $1 billion stadium with 95% public financing—which is way out of the norm—and not any public outcry.”

For more on the unique funding split the Thunder secured from Oklahoma City, read Alex Schiffer’s full story here. You can also read his full feature about the history the Thunder left behind in Seattle, and how devoted Sonics fans there remain.

Entering the 2025 season, the Las Vegas Aces lead all WNBA teams in payroll at $1.57 million, the only team above the league’s $1.51 million salary cap. The Minnesota Lynx, last year’s runners-up, are second at $1.5 million, while the defending champion New York Liberty are 9th of 13 teams after the team suspended the contract of Betnijah Laney-Hamilton ($185,400 this year) due to her season-ending injury.

The WNBA’s salary cap is expected to significantly increase next season if the league and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association agree to a new collective bargaining agreement.

The WNBA season tips off Friday with substantial momentum from last year, but a CBA negotiation looms that could shape women’s sports going forward. FOS reporter Annie Costabile explains where negotiations stand ahead of this pivotal year that could see Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever win a championship.

Plus, high school basketball star Noah Neumann joins the show to explain his viral decision to play in China instead of the NCAA, and breaks some big news about his overseas career. There’s also a secret SuperSonics museum in Seattle, and Knicks ticket prices are jaw-dropping once again.

Watch the full episode here.

Jordan Brand ⬆ Four-time WNBA All-Star Napheesa Collier has signed with the sports apparel brand. She was previously under Nike. Collier, who is also the cofounder of Unrivaled, was second in MVP voting last season and was the predicted MVP pick by a majority of the WNBA GMs for the upcoming season.

Suns ⬇ A current employee is suing the team with accusations of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation, according to ESPN. It’s the fourth time in seven months that a lawsuit has been filed against the team by a current or former employee. 

Bears ⬆⬇ As it continues to search for a home to build a new stadium, the team is “shifting focus” back to Arlington Heights, a Chicago suburb, according to the Chicago Tribune. The Bears said they will not seek state funding for the stadium. The team has received pushback from Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker for previous stadium proposals that required billions in state funding.

Anthony Hamilton ⬆ The father of Lewis Hamilton is set to receive an official role with the FIA, Formula One’s governing body, following his work as an advisor for driver development president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, according to The Times of India. The news comes soon after reports that Carlos Sainz Sr., father of Carlos Sainz Jr., whom Hamilton replaced at Ferrari this year, is considering running against Ben Sulayem for the presidency.