For nearly 30 years, thousands of Tulsans packed Drillers Stadium at the southwest corner of East 15th Street and South Yale Avenue for minor league baseball games and sold-out concerts from artists like Bob Dylan and The Beach Boys.
A stone’s throw from the Tulsa State Fairgrounds and across the street from the Centennial Plaza shopping center, the site is now vacant and has been since the stadium was demolished in 2019. Leaders at Expo Square and Tulsa County say the property is being used for storage and parking for now.
However, many Tulsans believe it could become much more.
“The highest, best use of that land isn’t parking for two weeks out of the year,” said Chris Cook, a program director for the Tulsa Debate League who has a master’s degree in urban planning. “There is no urban design principle that would say that’s an efficient use of land, especially in midtown.”
Cook remembers when Garth Brooks played five shows in five nights for sold-out crowds at Drillers Stadium in 1997. He also recalls Bell’s Amusement Park, a beloved family-owned park adjacent to Drillers Stadium that operated at the fairgrounds from 1951 to 2006, which he noted was also shuttered in favor of more parking.
“If you look at a Google Map [of Expo Square], it’s almost like a desert [of pavement] in the middle of the city,” Cook said. “It’s the most valuable land, the most densely populated and it does nothing. When you have that much land in the heart of the city, you should be using it all the time.”
A deal to make Expo Square the BMX national headquarters — featuring an Olympic motocross training facility on the old Drillers Stadium site — collapsed in 2017 owing to disagreements on soda sales, according to The Frontier. Before the plan fell apart, Tulsans voted to allocate $15 million for the project as part of the Vision Tulsa sales tax package in April 2016.
Many Tulsans believe now is the time for Tulsa County, Expo Square and the Tulsa County Public Facilities Authority — the public trust that manages fairgrounds activity — to reimagine the site into something greater.
The Flyer asked Tulsans what they would like to see at the old Drillers Stadium. Some Tulsans proposed massive developments. Others recommended subtle changes.
Here are three ideas to reimagine the old Drillers Stadium.
Go commercial: Create an entertainment district or mixed-use project
Amanda Blair, vice president and chief operating officer for Expo Square, said her organization would be interested in a hotel or entertainment district at the northeast corner of the fairgrounds.
“We would love to have a potential hotel partnership,” Blair said. “We would also explore an entertainment district. There’s definitely ideas on the horizon, but we’re just trying to figure out funding and partnerships with the county and the Tulsa County Public Facilities Authority.”
Over at Mi Pueblo — a Tex-Mex restaurant at 1941 S. Yale Ave. that serves strong margaritas — store manager Jorge Serna says an entertainment district where pedestrians could shop and watch a show or sporting event would be great for the business.
“Maybe a spot to have concerts in, or a sporting event or something where the community can come out and get involved in,” Serna said. “They could come over and pre-game before a concert. That would definitely drive business over here.”
Beyond Mi Pueblo, Serna says it’s sad a space with sentimental ties to the community sits empty.
“It is just sad that we have that space available and that we don’t have anything to show for it,” Serna said. “It’s been vacant for so long. You think they would have already thought of something.”
Vicki Thorne, a resident of the Lortondale neighborhood just south of Hoover Elementary School, would love to see a mixed-use project with commercial and residential properties.
“I’m an affordable housing advocate, and I would just love to see some mixed-use complex like they’ve done down on 11th and Lewis,” Thorne said. “We just want something to be useful down there.”
Build FC Tulsa its own stadium.
Tulsa does not have a soccer stadium, so the city’s minor league franchises — the Tulsa Drillers and FC Tulsa — currently share ONEOK Field downtown. Considering the history of the old Drillers Stadium, building FC Tulsa its own stadium at the former site makes sense, Cook said.
“Having FC Tulsa play at [ONEOK Field] is an awkward arrangement. It’s not a soccer stadium,” Cook said. “Tulsa doesn’t have a stadium devoted to soccer, and a lot of cities do. I don’t even know if it’s big enough for that, but maybe it is.”
After the Drillers moved to ONEOK Field in 2010, the old stadium sat empty until 2013. Then the Tulsa Athletic, a semi-professional soccer team in the National Premier Soccer League, played at the stadium for three years.
Cook cited the WeStreet Ice Center as an example of a successful, sports-oriented infill development in midtown, located just 2.5 miles south of 15th and Yale. Andy Scurto, owner of the Tulsa Oilers, purchased the former Macy’s department store at Promenade Mall and transformed the property into an ice sports and entertainment facility in March 2024.
However, Cook questioned whether the surrounding community would embrace that kind of change.
“People are in favor of development, except when it inconveniences them or causes problems like traffic and noise,” Cook said. “Anything you put there that isn’t a living space or a park is probably going to be more traffic and noise.”
Keep it green. Keep it clean. Make it a park.
Some suggested what they consider to be the least offensive and most obvious choice: Make the site a park or green space.
“We’ve had a lot of conversations in our district about parks, green spaces, third spaces,” Thorne said. “Dog parks get brought up a lot because we don’t have a dog park in midtown. We have to go way down south or way out west to get to an actual dog park.”
Shawn Davis, development director at environmental organization Up With Trees, says creating a quality maintained green space at the northeastern corner of Expo Square would provide that area of midtown with an amenity it currently does not have. Transforming the space would require input from neighbors on what they’re looking for, whether that’s a playground or running trail.
“Anytime you’re seeing an area like what you’re seeing at 15th and Yale — I used to live over there, actually — it’s about how it can become a space that really encourages social connections or gets people out of their homes, interacting with their neighbors, going out,” Davis said.
Davis explained the 3+30+300 rule, a global rule of thumb in urban forestry that states:
- Three mature trees should be visible from every home;
- there should be 30% tree canopy cover in every neighborhood; and
- people should have access to a high-quality public park or other green space within 300 yards of their home.
“There’s a clear correlation between nature and the social component of humans,” Davis said. “We’re seeing that, but the 3+30+300 rule was developed as a global initiative to make it really easy for cities to take those benefits and adopt them in a way that’s kind of equitable.”
A green space at that corner would provide a reprieve from the surrounding pavement, which can get up to 10 to 12 degrees hotter than other spaces, Davis added.
With so much history connected to the property and activity surrounding the area, Tulsans were disappointed to see the old Drillers Stadium sit undeveloped for years, but they are hopeful the best is yet to come.
“I don’t know that it’s anybody’s fault, but I think it’s a good time to revisit it for sure,” Thorne said. “It’s maybe worth their time to put out a (request for proposals) and see if they can get any interesting projects.”
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