Going to the Tulsa BOK Center? I Feel Sorry for You!

Never mind the fact that Tulsa already has numerous comfortable, professional facilities to host events. After all, apparently the Tulsa planning commission found it necessary to turn up their noses and build their OWN version of an event center, and they called it the BOK center. While building the center, numerous historic and heirloom landmarks, buildings, restaurants, and businesses were demolished or uprooted, many to their demise. In their place, a huge eyesore of a building was erected, one that I predict will soon become the state's largest flea market unless something is done about the seating and the parking!

If you plan to go to a show in the BOK center, I feel sorry for you! If only I had been able to warn you ahead of time, perhaps you could have been able to avoid an entire evening of discomfort. However, hind's sight is always 20/20, and you will have to learn for yourself why buying tickets for ANY event at the BOK center is a huge mistake.

If you have not bought tickets, you are in luck! I would pat you on the back, if only I could reach that far!

The seating in the BOK center crams average sized people in like sardines, literally. Your knees will scrape the ears of the person in front of you. There is absolutely, positively no room whatsoever to stretch your legs. If you are overweight at all, you will not be able to squeeze your backside into the child sized seats. Plan to bring at least fifty dollars with you just for food and drinks alone, because there are no water fountains and you cannot bring in any food or drinks with you. Plan to be on your feet for a good two hours before the event actually starts, and another hour or more of sitting in your seat before the event too. There is no seating in the concourse, and you cannot go to your seat to sit down until they are good and ready to let you do so! There are no cup holders, the arm rests are teeny tiny, and you can;t stick anything on the floor between your feet because there is no floor to put things! You can expect your feet and legs to cramp up as you sit there in the tiny seats. Heaven forbid if you try to get up and go to the bathroom, the entire row will have to stand up and let you sqeeeezzzeeee your way by, and hopefully you don;t fall over onto the people in the row in front of you. You had better be sure that you have very good balance before visiting the BOK center too, just for this reason.

Before you reach the event center, make your peace with God, because there are only two emergency exits for these thousands upon thousands of visitors. There is very little security too, so if an emergency happens or a psycho lets loose, well...

The BOK center does not have any of its own parking whatsoever. A private, small parking lot across the street will charge you $15 to park there, even though their sign says the price is $5. They will block you in until you pay them the difference, unless you want to bust down their baracades and go to jail for vandalism. The convention center to the south has a huge parking garage, but they will not open it for BOK center visitors. Another garage three blocks away has no security at all, not even cameras, a perfect free for all for any criminals that might be about or who come along to take advantage of the situation.

Get ready for a total disappointment as you get real friendly, real quick with whomever you are sitting by, get robbed for a drink of water, and walk to kingdom come for your vehicle, if its not stolen or broken into by the time you get there!

So in other words, if you have not bought your tickets yet... run!

How do I know all these things to be true? Because I just visited there for my first time tonight, and I must say it will be my last. We were so disappointed, we wished we had never come! I went there to surprise my family with Monster Jams tickets, and to tell you the truth, I would have rather driven all the way to Texas to see a good show in a comfortable seat than to suffer through what we had to at the BOK Center!

I learned the hard way, but you don't have to! But, if you fail to head my advice and buy tickets anyway, and you see for yourself that it is miserable, don't say that I didn't warn you!