Vote Yes Or Vote No: Both Sides Make Final Push As Early Voting On New Arena Begins

Early voting began Thursday on a proposition to extend a one cent sales tax to fund a new arena in Oklahoma City for the Thunder.

In the home stretch to election day, both sides make their final pitch to voters.

For those supporting the proposition, messaging is done in the form of a commercial. 

For Nabilah Rawdah, the final push meant partnering with a national group, Black Voters Matter.

“We don’t tell people who to vote for just that they come out and vote,” she said. 

The message sent to voters on Tuesday however made the group’s position clear – vote no.

“This is a half a billion dollar wealth extraction out of brown and black communities of Oklahoma City,” said Rawdah.

Those are the voters she hopes to reach ahead of Tuesday.

“There is no economic reality in which this benefits Oklahoma City or the brown and black community,” she said.

Russell Perry who owns and operates several businesses on the city’s northeast side says he couldn’t disagree more.

“It creates opportunities for all of us. When was the last time we had 12 to 15 young black millionaires come to this city?” Perry asked. “We don’t want that to continue?”

He laid out his case on the front page of his newspaper The Black Chronicle. The headline was “Vote Yes!!”

“This is a wonderful, profitable investment to this city and state. Not only for the franchise itself, but it does so much for so many of us,” he says.

Perry says he’s worked for years to bring corporations to Oklahoma City and hates to even think about the franchise leaving.

Rawdah isn’t sure that would be the case. She hopes a no vote would lead to a better deal.

Voters have the chance to decide December 12th starting at 7 a.m.