They are pouring mud.
On Monday, July 20, 2026, construction crews started dumping tons of wet concrete into the dirt where the Oklahoma City Thunder’s shiny new playground, the Continental Coliseum, is supposed to rise. It’s been a slow crawl since they broke ground back in March, but this substructure work means the project is officially moving past the dirt-shoveling photo-ops.
The site is a familiar graveyard of local history. Nestled in the block bounded by Reno Avenue, Ron Norick Boulevard, Sheridan Avenue, and E.K. Gaylord Boulevard, the new build sits right on the bones of the old arena and convention center. If everything goes according to the city’s optimistic blueprint, the doors will slide open just in time for the 2028-2029 NBA season. Don’t hold your breath.
It is grunt work.
While the heavy mixers dump ground-level concrete, utility crews are sweating over waterproofing and burying underground electrical lines to keep the temporary juice flowing across the dusty site.
Politicians, naturally, are thrilled. Mayor David Holt called it one of the most “aspirational” projects in the city’s history, a classic bit of civic boosterism for a project funded by the taxpayers. “This first concrete placement is another milestone in the journey,” Holt boasted in a press release, promising that we will soon see the structure actually climbing toward the skyline.
Before the cement hardened, they buried some history.
A legacy capsule was shoved into the ground, packed with local relics meant to tell future generations why we spent so much money on a basketball court. Inside the box? A wooden coin from the Myriad Convention Center’s 1972 debut, a letter from Mayor Holt, a photo of the groundbreaking, and a single 2023 penny. That penny represents the year voters agreed to foot the bill for this whole circus.
There is a payoff.
Once the dust clears and the arena is finished, the Thunder will lock themselves into a 25-year lease to stay in Oklahoma City. It is a massive price tag for a guarantee, but in the modern NBA, you pay to play.
