The official name of the arena that will turn sixty years old next year on the OKC Fairgrounds is the Jim Norick Arena- but most folks out across Oklahoma know it as the Big House. It has housed hundreds of horse shows, events annually at the State Fair, high school basketball and wrestling and of course, livestock events. For the past twenty years, it has been a key part of the “world’s largest livestock show” otherwise known as the Oklahoma Youth Expo. And it has been the main show arena for what was become the largest Purebred Beed Cattle Show in the US- Cattlemen’s Congress.
But it’s time will soon be done. The shows will continue here in 2024 and likely in the first few months of 2025 before the New House (what OYE’s Tyler Norvell called it when we talked about the transition back during the 2024 Cattlemen’s Congress) takes its place.
There will almost certainly be one more Cattlemen’s Congress in the Norick Arena and very likely one more OYE- but then it’s hello New House- which was given a name this past week. For the first ten years of it’s use starting later in 2025- the Maps 4 Arena at the OKC Fairgrounds will be known as the OG&E Coliseum.
The gift is being given by the OG&E Energy Corporation Foundation- and they cut a deal with the City to make it a “Undisclosed amount” as far as the gift that provides naming rights for the next decade and helps finish the $126 million dollar project. The project is funded through MAPS 3, MAPS 4, hotel tax revenue and other funding sources.
When all is said and done, the new coliseum will have between 7,000 and 8,500 seats. The new building will include a lounge, suites and a full service kitchen.
