USL Feature

Friday, April 17, 2015

As fans made their way through downtown Oklahoma City - up May Avenue or down NW 27th Street - to visit Taft Stadium, the venue’s iconic wall would almost certainly be the first thing to welcome them to a night of entertainment.

Located on the east side of the stadium, the brick facade was the biggest part of the WPA project when it was completed in 1934, and its place in the history of the city made it the most important part of the restoration project that began last year.

“That wall is an iconic piece of Oklahoma City,” said OKC Energy FC owner Bob Funk Jr. this week. “It’s been around for many decades, and a lot of people have a lot of history tied to it. There are a lot of stories, experiences, people’s lives were impacted in that stadium, so many memories that were built, so I think having that as a tribute to that history and that heritage in Oklahoma City was important, so I’m pretty excited that we’ve been able to preserve that, and been able to preserve the building period.”

On Saturday night, Taft Stadium will again welcome fans as Energy FC hosts its home opener at the historic venue.The club hopes the restored venue, much of which has been rebuilt from the ground up, will provide the same kind of memories for the city’s current residents as it did for those who attended football games and stock car racing in the last century.

Mark Pritchard was one who was part of the previous era as a player. Now Energy FC’s Director of Partnership Sales, Pritchard said Taft was a part of his upbringing, as he played both high school and college football at the venue.

“I played four high school football games along with a college football game at Taft Stadium,” Pritchard said. “Just because it was Taft Stadium, it seemed as though there was always a lot more fans that attended the games.It was an old stadium but it was still a classic venue to play in.

“As a youth, I remember that Taft Stadium was the biggest stadium in town and that all of the events in Taft Stadium were a big deal. I remember going to some semi-pro football games at the stadium and it felt like there were thousands of people there. My dad told me that he attended stock car races back in his younger days that drew several thousand people.”

After attracting over-capacity crowds last season at McGuinness Stadium, Taft will offer twice the capacity for Energy FC fans to see their team in action. Not all of the construction is fully complete, but Funk is looking forward to seeing how fans react to the new amenities that will be available when the stadium re-opens, and during the season as the club continues to grow.

“Hopefully our fans will embrace it and be willing to take the ride with us as we start this new venture at our new stadium,” Funk said. “I’m very proud of the work that’s been done here, both by our staff and the Oklahoma City Public Schools, and the [Metropolitan Area Projects] office, to get the stadium where it is today, and could not be more happy with the effort that’s been put forth to make [Saturday] come to fruition. It’s very exciting; I think it’s going to be a new age for soccer in Oklahoma City, and another step along the ladder to getting us to our overall goal.”

That step, of course, could not have been taken without the partnership forged between Funk and Tim McLaughlin, who joined Energy FC’s ownership group last year. When the two biggest proponents for professional soccer in the city teamed up, everything came together.

“[Tim] wanted to operate Taft, and when he and I were able to partner up, and were able to have that ability to bring the components of Taft and the team together, it really symbolizes what this sport is about, and what soccer in Oklahoma City is about,” Funk said. “It’s really about unification, and unification on all levels across demographics with our fan base, unification of all of the soccer fans in Oklahoma City, and unification of Tim and I’s collective interests and values and what we want to do for the community in Oklahoma City.”

When the team got to work, it was Director of Operations Jeff Kretchmeyer who was tasked with leading the rebuilding project. Well aware of the history of the stadium, and the wall in particular, Kretchmeyer said his biggest goal was to modernize the stadium but maintain the character and warmth that had made it the institution it is.

“Oklahoma City is in an era of revitalization,” Kretchmeyer said. “We know that a renovated Taft Stadium will bring new life and business in to an area that is wanting to grow again. We are lucky and proud to be part of that growth now and in the future.”

Some of the other new features Kretchmeyer and his team were able to include are a new high-definition video board, and a section that includes OKC acronym in white among a sea of green across 3,000 seat-backs. New corporate suites have been included in the north stand, behind one of the goals, with more additions to be made as the season goes on.

“They’ve really built a new stadium from the ground up,” Funk said. “It looks great, and as we continue to finish the construction and certain other items like the press box and box office, it’s just going to add to the look of it, the feel of it, and the overall newness of the stadium as a whole. I think it will be exciting and invigorating to see.”

The stadium’s new features should keep the fans coming back for more, as should an entertaining side that will enter Saturday’s contest undefeated after a draw against Tulsa and win against Colorado Springs. What may bring the fans in for the first time, though, is the feeling of nostalgia the history of Taft brings to the people of Oklahoma City that made it an integral part of the city’s history.

“I believe that everyone that has a story about Taft Stadium will be drawn back to the stadium to see the new look and to experience some of those old memories they had from days past,” Pritchard said. “The stadium will be able to capture multiple events for the Oklahoma City school system which will make it a marquee venue for championship soccer games, football games, track meets and a host of other state final events.”

And as the club continues to grow, and continues to climb the ladder toward its ultimate goal of bringing Major League Soccer to the city, the re-opening of Taft represents a major step forward for Energy FC and its fans.

“We have a beautiful new stadium, we’ve doubled our capacity, we have a lot of added features, and we’re just going to grow on that as the franchise grows,” Funk said. “Getting into Taft and getting the chance to prove ourselves from an attendance and revenue-generating perspective and a competitive perspective of wins is that next step on the ladder for us. In order to achieve that goal of getting MLS, this is where we have an opportunity.”