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Best Seats At the Paycom Center
Paycom Center is the only home the Oklahoma City Thunder have ever had. Durant, Westbrook and Harden grew up together on this floor — three future MVPs sharing one locker room, a Finals run in 2012, and a decade of what-ifs that Oklahoma City has never really stopped arguing about — and then in June 2025 a different SGA led Thunder team finished the job in the same building and raised the franchise’s first championship banner into these rafters. From the outside it’s a plain 2002 box, but the floor sits twenty-two feet below street level with 18,203 seats stacked steeply over it, and that geometry is why a small-market arena has spent nearly twenty years being one of the loudest rooms in the NBA.
The honest reality is that it’s showing its age — tight concourses, dated finishes, none of the wide social spaces newer arenas are built around — and it’s on a clock, because the Thunder move across Reno Avenue to Continental Coliseum in 2028. Two seasons left to stand in the room where all of it happened. Here’s how to pick your seat.
Seating Overview
The bowl is three tiers and nothing more complicated: lower level 101–120, club level 201–230, and the upper level 301–330, branded Love’s Loud City. Both benches share the same sideline — the Thunder bench sits in front of sections 116 and 117, the visitors’ bench in front of 114, with the scorer’s table between them at 115 — so that entire run and the opposite sideline at 104–107 are the money seats.
Best Non-Premium Seats at Paycom Center
Lower sideline 104–107. The opposite sideline from the benches, dead center on the floor, with a clean view of both baskets and no scorer’s-table bodies in the frame. Rows A–G of 104 and 107 carry the extra-padded seats the chart labels Champion’s Club or Premier, so you get the comfort upgrade without paying for the center block. The tradeoff is that you’re looking at the backs of the coaches all night instead of into the huddle.
Lower corners 102–103 and 118–119. Corners at Paycom Center are unusually good because the bowl is so compressed — you’re still genuinely close, and the diagonal angle actually reads the offense better than a flat sideline view. Prices drop hard the moment you leave the four-section sideline run. What you lose is the far-corner three, which disappears behind the near basket stanchion from certain rows.
Upper sideline 303–305 and 318–320. The upper sideline seats offer a good view to see plays and read jersey numbers, with the noise concentrated in this area. Tickets are labeled Balcony or Premier Balcony, indicating the first row (row A). However, reaching these seats requires a significant walk, as escalators only go to the concourse.
Best Value Seats
Upper corners 301–302, 306–307, 316–317 and 321–322. These carry Mezzanine or Plaza labels and cost a fraction of the sideline equivalents one section over, with an angle that’s barely different. Anything in the first six or seven rows here is a better watch than a back-row sideline seat at twice the price.
Club level 214–217, the south stretch. The cheapest way to buy club access. You’re at one end rather than center court, but you get the carpeted concourse, wider seats with cup holders, the upgraded restrooms, and the dedicated Club and Suite entrance on the east side of the arena that lets you skip the main security line entirely. That east entrance is the actual value here — on a sellout it can save you fifteen minutes.
Single-lettered rows in 110, 111 and 120. In the giant baseline sections, the rows in the J–U band cost less than the double-lettered rows below them, sit right by the entry tunnel, and have better rake. You trade twenty feet of proximity for a clearer sightline and a thirty-second walk instead of a five-minute one.
Cheapest Way Into a Thunder Game
Loft sections in Love’s Loud City. Loft is the label on the upper-level end sections, and it’s the floor of the market for a Thunder ticket. The honest downside is real: the basket and its support structure sit in your sightline, so one end of the floor is partially blocked all night. You’re buying the room, not the view.
Upper end sections 310–312 and 325–327, back rows. A step up from Loft pricing and a meaningfully better angle, high enough that the basket stanchion stops mattering. This is the standard local move for a Tuesday game against a rebuilding team.
Our Pick
Row A through F of upper sideline sections 304 or 319. You are directly over midcourt, high enough to see everything at once, surrounded by the loudest section of the loudest arena in the league, and paying a fraction of what the lower bowl costs. For a first visit, the atmosphere is the product here, and this is where you get the most of it per dollar.
Best Seats for Concerts at Paycom Center
Concert capacity tops out at 16,591 for a full 360-degree setup, and most touring shows run a 270- or 240-degree configuration that cuts the room down considerably. The stage goes up at the west end, which puts sections 110 and 111 behind or beside it — check the configuration before buying anything in that half of the lower bowl.
The best non-floor seats are lower sideline 104–107 and 114–117, head-on at a slight elevation, or club level 205–209 and 222–226 for the same angle with concourse amenities. Floor rows run A–P with seats 1–14 right to left facing the stage; the floor is flat, so anything past row H is a sea of heads.
What to Avoid (and What’s Worth Trying Once)
Double-lettered rows in 101, 110, 111 and 120. These look like a bargain on the map — lower bowl, close to the floor, priced well below the sidelines. They’re the worst-value seats in the building. You’re directly behind a basket with minimal elevation between rows, and the entry tunnel is thirty-plus rows above you, so every trip for a drink is a hike.
Club sections 201–202 and 229–230. Lower Terrace pricing that’s still well above the upper sideline, for a corner view at club-level height that isn’t better than a good 300-level seat. If you want the club concourse, buy 214–217 instead.
Worth it once: a Loft ticket on a big night. A partially obstructed upper-end seat for a Denver or San Antonio game in March is the cheapest ticket in the building and puts you inside the loudest crowd in the NBA when it matters. You’ll watch one end of the floor around a basket stanchion and you won’t care.
Premium Seating & Clubs at Paycom Center
The premium tiers here are organised by proximity rather than by named clubs, which is a holdover from the arena’s 2009–11 renovation and honestly makes it easier to shop. Everything except courtside runs through the Club and Suite entrance on the east side of the arena, across from the Courtyard by Marriott garage, with its own elevator at Section 109.
The Best Premium Experience
Courtside Club, rows FL1 through FL4. This is the closest anyone sits at a Thunder game, and the club attached to it is the best room in the building — three full-service bars, a fireplace, wall-to-wall screens, and in-seat wait service during the game.
Section 117 puts you directly behind the Thunder bench; rows FL1 and FL2 of Section 116 put you beside it, close enough to hear the huddle. Visiting fans want 114, behind their own bench, or 115 between the bench and the scorer’s table. Courtside also includes VIP parking, one pass per two floor seats.
Best Value Premium
The Terrace Lounge boxes. There are 48 Terrace Suites on the club level — 32 in the North Terrace Lounge behind sections 201–203 and 228–230, 16 in the South Terrace Lounge behind 214–217 — and each box is a small private ledge with one to three padded seats, a counter for food and drinks, and its own replay screens, tiered above the club seating. They’re all-inclusive on food and non-alcoholic drinks with in-seat service and a full bar alongside, they come with a parking pass per two seats, and they cost a fraction of a full suite. For a group of two to six this is the smartest premium buy in the arena.
Other Premium Options
Club seats in 204–213 and 218–227 are the straightforward version: bigger seats, cup holders, the carpeted concourse, the private entrance, and first crack at tickets for most other arena events. The Landings are drink-rail perches at the top of sections 101, 111 and 115 in the lower bowl and 205, 211, 220 and 226 on the club level — standing-and-leaning premium rather than seated, good for people who don’t sit still. Bunker suites sit at event level and entry level, seven and eight of them respectively, for groups who want a private room without a full box.
Paycom Center Suites and Group Options
Twenty-nine private suites accommodate sixteen to twenty guests each, offering a dedicated attendant, in-suite food and beverage service, club-level access, and VIP parking. Suite holders also have priority seating for most non-Thunder events, enhancing the value of the deal in a venue that attracts over a million guests annually.
Executive and Terrace Suites are available for full lease, packages or single-night rental through the Thunder’s premium sales team, and single-event premium inventory is listed through the arena’s own marketplace. Email premium@paycomcenter.com to start.
Paycom Center Seating Chart and Capacity
Paycom Center holds 18,203 for basketball, which makes it one of the smaller arenas in the NBA and is the single biggest reason the place sounds the way it does. Other configurations run smaller: 15-16k range for Boxing, MMA, Hockey. And a Theater setup in the 3-4k range.
Here is an Interactive OKC Thunder Seating Chart.
OKC Thunder Tickets
Season memberships are sold out for the current season and the team now runs a waiting list, so the public market is resale and single-game inventory through Ticketmaster, which is the arena’s official ticketing partner. Demand is genuinely tiered here: Denver, San Antonio, Dallas and Houston price like small playoff games, and anything involving a former Thunder player returning gets its own bump, while a midweek game against a lottery team is one of the best-value tickets in the league.
The practical move is to buy the marquee matchups the week the schedule drops and wait on everything else until the week of the game, when season-ticket holders dump seats they can’t use. Tickets are mobile-only through the Thunder app or your account online, and screenshots don’t scan.
Get your Oklahoma City Thunder Tickets Here! With our partnership with Vivid Seats you can get tickets to concerts, Thunder games, Sooners or Cowboys tickets. Just about any event!
Paycom Center Bag Policy
Nothing larger than 6″ x 9″ x 2″ gets in, and that applies to clear bags too — the limit is dimensional, not material, so a standard 12x6x12 clear stadium bag will be turned away. Most regular purses won’t make it. Backpacks are out entirely.
The same rule covers anything you bring for autographs, which catches people out: a jersey or individual basketball cards are fine, a full-size basketball, a binder or a pair of shoes you aren’t wearing are not. There is no bag check anywhere on site and the arena will not hold personal items, so an oversized bag means a walk back to your car. All bags are searched, and entry screening includes metal detectors and wands.
Key Policies To Know
The arena is fully cashless. Reverse ATMs that convert cash to a prepaid Mastercard sit at the northeast entrance by Section 106, near the Michelob Ultra Club, and at Section 311/312, in any amount from $20 to $500 with no activation fee, and the leftover balance works anywhere outside the arena.
Re-entry is prohibited — once you leave, you’re out. Doors open 90 minutes before Thunder tip-off; other events vary, so check the event page. Alcohol is limited to one drink per person per purchase and sales stop roughly an hour before the event ends. The building is entirely smoke-free, vapes included, under a city ordinance covering all Oklahoma City property.
For accessibility, there are 48 restrooms including 12 unisex family restrooms with changing tables, all wheelchair accessible; first aid is on the entry level across from Section 112; and four Guest Relations desks sit near each main-concourse entrance plus the club and suite entrances. The Section 101 elevator is the only one that reaches floor seating.
Full policies on the arena’s FAQ page.
Getting To the Paycom Center
The arena sits at 100 W. Reno Avenue at the southwest corner of Reno and E.K. Gaylord, which means it is a genuinely walkable distance from most of downtown and all of Bricktown. If you’re staying downtown, walk. If you’re driving in, the smart play is to park a few blocks out and ride the streetcar, which now costs nothing at all.
Paycom Center Parking
The arena operates no lot of its own; everything is downtown garages and surface lots, and there are more of them than a big game needs. The closest structures are the Convention Center garage immediately south of the arena, the Santa Fe garage at 101 N. E.K. Gaylord to the northeast, Century Center at 145 W. Sheridan, and the Sheridan–Walker garage at 501 W. Sheridan.
Further out but reliably cheaper and quicker to exit are the Arts District garage at 431 W. Main and the Scissortail lot at 98 SW 6th. Rates move by event, and prepaying through a reservation app is worth it for a marquee Thunder game or a sold-out concert. Accessible parking is available on the south side and in the Convention Center garage, with the ADA entrance off E.K. Gaylord.
Here’s the hack that actually saves money and time: park free at a Midtown or Automobile Alley meter after 5 p.m., or in a lot near the northern streetcar stops, and ride in. The streetcar is free, the ride is under ten minutes, and you skip the garage line that forms on Reno and E.K. Gaylord for a solid half hour after the final buzzer. Construction on the new arena has taken a full downtown block out of circulation directly north of Paycom Center, so the immediate blocks are tighter than they used to be.
OKC Streetcar and Public Transit
As of August 2026 the OKC Streetcar is permanently fare-free. The board that runs EMBARK voted the fare away outright after a six-month trial pushed ridership up 71 percent, so there is no ticket, no app and no machine — you just get on.
The Arena platform is conveniently located by the Downtown Loop, which operates 22 stops across five districts every twelve to fifteen minutes. Service runs from 6 a.m. to midnight Monday through Thursday, until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, and until 10 p.m. on Sundays. A separate Bricktown Loop operates on weekends, but be cautious of the Sunday schedule, as evening games may end after the last service.
Rideshare
Uber and Lyft pickups are at Second and Harvey near the arena. After a Thunder game, surge pricing is high, and traffic is heavy, so it’s best to walk ten minutes to the business district or Bricktown to get a ride faster and cheaper.
Paycom Center Insider Tips
Oklahoma City does gameday differently from most NBA cities, and a lot of that is because the Thunder are the only major league team in the state. The building fills early, the crowd is loud from the invocation, and nobody treats a regular-season Tuesday as optional. Here’s what to know before you walk in.
Loud City: The Traditions You Need to Know
Stay on your feet until the Thunder score. After tip-off the entire arena remains standing until Oklahoma City puts the first points on the board. It started in Game 3 of the 2010 first-round series against the Lakers and it has held ever since. Sit down early and you’ll be the only person in your section doing it.
There’s a prayer before the anthem. Thunder games open with an invocation, which surprises visitors more than anything else in the building. Stand for it.
Loud City is the marketing name, not a nickname fans invented. The upper deck is officially Love’s Loud City, and the fans up there take the assignment seriously — it is consistently rowdier than the lower bowl, which is unusual in the NBA.
Every seat gets a T-shirt in the playoffs. Since 2010 the Thunder have laid a free shirt on all 18,203 seats for playoff games. Wear it. Cameras find the people who don’t.
Rumble the Bison opens the game on a bass drum. The mascot is a genuine institution here — NBA Mascot of the Year in 2009, Community Impact Award in 2022 — and the drum hit before tip is part of the ritual.
Paycom Center Food and Drink: What to Eat
Schwab’s at Section 101 is the one to hit. The Oklahoma meat company’s stand does the Thunder Dog, a BBQ brisket dog, hot links and jalapeño cheddar sausage, and it’s the closest thing in the building to food with a local address. Gluten-free buns are available here.
Empire at Section 114 is Plaza District pizza in the arena. Empire Slice House is one of the best pizza operations in the state and the arena stand runs proper slices, garlic knots and a hot honey option — a long way above standard concourse pizza.
Big O’s Pork and Dreams for the real plate. The barbecue stand does pulled pork, brisket, a turkey leg and loaded potatoes, and it’s the move if you’re eating dinner in the building rather than snacking.
Buy the bottomless souvenir soda or popcorn if you’re staying all night. The 32-ounce refillable cup and the refillable popcorn bucket both pay for themselves by the second refill. One catch: they’re only valid for the event you bought them at, so don’t plan on bringing them back next game.
Eat in Bricktown and skip the line entirely. The arena is a five-minute walk from a district full of restaurants. A full meal before you walk over costs about what a couple of concourse items do, and you avoid the pre-tip crush at the stands.
Which Paycom Center Entrance Should You Use?
There are four doors and most of the crowd uses two of them. Both main public entrances face north onto Reno Avenue at the northeast and northwest corners, and that’s where the lines form.
The southwest entrance off Robinson is the quiet one. It opens by the Michelob Ultra Club and Old No. 7 Club and takes a fraction of the traffic the Reno doors do. If you’re coming from a downtown hotel or the Convention Center garage, it’s closer anyway.
Club and suite holders have their own door on the east side. It faces the Courtyard by Marriott garage and has its own elevator at Section 109 straight up to the club concourse — one of the genuine perks of a club ticket at this building.
Arrival Strategy and What Time Doors Open
Doors open 90 minutes before a Thunder tip. That is the widest window you’ll get and it’s worth using on a big night.
Warmups start around 45 minutes out. The floor is close enough in the lower bowl that shootaround is genuinely watchable, and the building is quiet enough then to actually hear the ball.
Escalators only get you to the concourse. They run near each of the two primary north entrances. From there it’s stairs to the upper rows, or the Section 106 elevator if you need it — that one reaches every level except floor seating.
Getting Out After the Game
The Reno and E.K. Gaylord garages jam for about thirty minutes. If you drove and parked close, you’re better off walking into Bricktown for a drink and coming back than sitting in the structure.
The streetcar is the fastest exit. It runs late on Friday and Saturday and it’s free, and the Arena platform clears faster than the rideshare zone.
Walk north or east before calling a car. Ten minutes of walking usually beats twenty minutes of surge pricing.
Best Instagrammable Spots at Paycom Center
The north face of the building. The grand entry atrium and the 75-foot exterior video wall on the Reno Avenue side are the arena’s best exterior frame, and they’re lit at night.
The Bricktown Canal, five minutes east. Water, brick and lights — it’s the shot most visitors actually keep, and it works best after dark on the walk back from the game.
Inside, shoot from the upper sideline. The steepness of the bowl means a 300-level sideline seat captures the whole floor and the full crowd in one frame, including the championship banner in the rafters.
Bringing Kids to a Thunder Game
Under-two gets in free on a lap at Thunder games. From age three up, everyone needs their own ticket, including a child who’ll take a seat. Other events set their own rules — concerts usually start charging at age two, children’s shows at one.
Family restrooms are everywhere. Twelve of the arena’s 48 restrooms are unisex family rooms with changing stations, all accessible.
Water fountains are marked and easy to find. Entry level at sections 102, 109, 112 and 119; club level at 204, 214, 219 and 229; upper level at 303, 314, 319 and 328.
Phone chargers are rentable on every level. chargeFUZE kiosks sit at sections 111, 118, 229 and 313 — take a power bank from one and return it to any other.
Autographs and Player Access
Get in at the 90-minute door. The best window is the first half-hour, before ushers tighten up the lower bowl, and the best position is along the rails near the tunnels on the bench sideline.
Your autograph item has to fit the bag policy. This trips up more fans than anything else at this arena: every item, including what you’re bringing to be signed, must fit inside 6″ x 9″ x 2″. A jersey works. Individual cards work. A basketball, a binder or a pair of shoes will be turned away at the door.
The New OKC Arena: Continental Coliseum, Opening 2028
The Thunder’s next home is rising directly across Reno Avenue. Continental Coliseum broke ground on 26 March 2026 on the block bounded by Reno, Ron Norick Boulevard, Sheridan and E.K. Gaylord — the site of the old Myriad Convention Center, which stood from 1972 until its demolition finished in early 2026.
It’s a $900 million, 750,000 square foot building for roughly 17,200 fans. Smaller than Paycom Center by design: the seat count drops, the concourses widen, and the bowl is drawn specifically around basketball sightlines. MANICA Architecture leads the design with TVS as architect of record, and a Flintco–Mortenson joint venture is building it.
The signature feature is a 360-degree glass curtain wall. The entire exterior is glazed, so the interior concourses look out over downtown from every side, and the main entrance faces west toward the Myriad Gardens with a fan plaza built into the footprint.
Continental Resources bought the name in a 15-year deal in March 2026. The arena is publicly owned, funded by a 72-month one-cent sales tax that 71 percent of Oklahoma City voters approved, plus MAPS 4 money and a contribution from Thunder ownership. Crews poured the first substructure concrete in July 2026, with the building targeted to open in late summer 2028.
The championship banner goes with them. The 2025 title banner raised on 21 October 2025 will make the short trip across the street, which is why the next two seasons are the last chance to see it hanging where the title was actually won.
Does Paycom Center Host Hockey?
Not currently, but the building is built for it. Paycom Center has eleven miles of pipe under the floor for making ice and seats 15,152 in the rink configuration. The Oklahoma City Blazers of the Central Hockey League called it home in the 2000s, and the Barons of the AHL played here after them, but there’s been no full-time hockey tenant for years. The ice setup still comes out for touring shows and the occasional exhibition.
From Ford Center to Paycom Center: The Name History
Three names in two decades. The building opened on 8 June 2002 as the Ford Center, became the Oklahoma City Arena in 2010, was renamed Chesapeake Energy Arena in 2011, and took the Paycom name in 2021. Plenty of directions, tickets and older fans still use Chesapeake — it’s the same building, same address, 100 W. Reno Avenue.
Thunder Shop and Merch
The main Thunder Shop is across from Section 120, with its own street entrance on the west side. That means you can shop it without a game ticket: weekdays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with hours shifting on event days.
Shop before tip, not after. The postgame queue at the main store runs twenty minutes deep on a win; the satellite merchandise stands scattered around the concourses move much faster.
Other Events at Paycom Center
The OKC Blue play here too. The Thunder’s G League affiliate uses the same building, and it’s a genuinely cheap way to see the arena — doors open one hour before tip and everyone enters through the northeast door by the box office.
It’s a major touring stop. More than a million guests a year come through for concerts, UFC, PBR, monster trucks and NCAA tournament sessions, so the calendar is busy well outside basketball season.
Venue-Specific Quirks
Seat 1 is always on your right. Facing the floor, seat numbers climb right to left in every row, every section, every level.
Wrapped gifts won’t get in. If you’re bringing something for a birthday, leave it unwrapped — wrapped items of any kind are on the prohibited list.
In-game shoutouts need 48 hours. Email fans@okcthunder.com at least two days before the game for a birthday or anniversary message on the board.
If You’ve Got Extra Time in Oklahoma City
The Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum at 620 N. Harvey is a ten-minute walk from the arena and is the one thing to do in this city whether or not you care about basketball. The Field of Empty Chairs is lit at night and free to walk through any time. Scissortail Park south of the arena is worth an hour in good weather, and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is the other genuinely first-rate collection in town.
Hotels Near the Paycom Center
Downtown Oklahoma City is compact enough that almost every good hotel is a walk to the arena, so the choice is really about which district you want to be in after the game. Bricktown and downtown proper both book up for marquee Thunder games and big concerts, so lock in early for anything against a contender.
Best Areas to Stay
Bricktown is the entertainment district immediately east of the arena across the railroad tracks — the canal, the ballpark, the bars and most of the restaurants, all within a five to ten minute walk. It’s the obvious pick if you want to be in the middle of things and never touch a car.
The central business district, between Broadway and Robinson, is quieter, has the better hotels and the more serious restaurants, and is still a seven-minute walk to the doors. Scissortail Park, south of the arena, is the newest cluster and the most scenic, with the park itself between you and the building.
Where to Stay Near Paycom Center
Renaissance Oklahoma City Downtown Bricktown is a top choice, located just three minutes from the arena, featuring modern rooms, a Starbucks in the lobby, and a quality steakhouse, Culprits, on the ground floor.
Omni Oklahoma City, is the splurge. It faces Scissortail Park south of the arena, has a rooftop pool with a park view, and is about a ten-minute walk. The catch is valet-only parking that shares the hotel’s main entrance and backs up badly when the hotel is full.
The Skirvin, a Hilton Hotel, is the character option — a 1911 landmark with a piano in the lobby, a long-running ghost story attached, and a five-minute walk to the doors. Rooms show their age in places, but nowhere else downtown feels like this.
Wyndham Grand Oklahoma City Downtown, is the comfortable middle. Big rooms, a pool, a proper restaurant and bar, and a five-to-seven minute walk. Parking is across the street behind another building, which is odd but not a problem.
Courtyard by Marriott Oklahoma City Downtown, is the closest hotel to the arena — its garage is literally the landmark the club entrance faces. The building is older and the rooms are unremarkable, but you cannot beat the walk.
Holiday Inn Express & Suites Bricktown: puts you in the middle of the bar district with breakfast included. The lot is paid and unsecured, so park in a garage if that bothers you.
Budget Options Near the Arena
Fairfield Inn & Suites Oklahoma City Downtown, 10 SW 4th, is the reliable cheap bed within walking distance, with decent breakfast and a real gym. It fronts a busy road and the rooms facing it are loud, so ask for the back.
Skip the Bricktown-branded budget hotels further east on Reno. They advertise the neighbourhood but sit a mile or more out, which is a twenty-plus minute walk rather than the ten they imply, and you’ll end up paying for rides anyway.
Bricktown Bars and Restaurants
Thunder gameday is a downtown-wide event in a way it isn’t in bigger cities. The Thunder are the only major league team in Oklahoma, so the crowd comes from Norman and Edmond and Tulsa as much as from downtown, which means Bricktown starts filling by late afternoon and the walk from the canal to the arena turns into a steady blue-and-orange current an hour before tip. The compact geography helps: you can eat on the water, walk five minutes, and be in your seat.
Afterwards the same thing happens in reverse. Bricktown absorbs the arena crowd almost instantly, the canal-side patios stay busy until midnight, and the streetcar loops through it all for free. If you only have one night in Oklahoma City, this is the version of it to have.
Best Pregame and Postgame Bars Near Paycom Center
Whiskey Chicks: is the closest real bar to the arena, sitting between Paycom Center and the ballpark, with live music most nights and a wing menu people drive in for.
Skinny Slim’s: is a narrow, dim, jukebox-and-dogs neighbourhood pub with the best beer list in walking distance. It’s the antidote if the big Bricktown rooms feel too loud.
Bricktown Brewery: is the dependable one — house beer, a big menu, plenty of screens, and enough room to absorb a pregame crowd without a wait. This was always my fav.
The GOAT Sports Bar: is the newest of the group and the most screens-per-square-foot, with an upstairs patio. It doesn’t open until late afternoon on weekdays.
Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill: is the tourist pick and it’s genuinely fun, but check the clock: it closes at 9 p.m. most weeknights, so it works as a pregame stop and not as a postgame one.
Best Restaurants Near Paycom Center
Pearl’s Crabtown: does Cajun and seafood in a converted Bricktown warehouse and handles a pre-tip rush better than most places in the district.
Bourbon St. Cafe: sits right on the canal with gator bites, étouffée and a patio that’s the most pleasant table in Bricktown on a warm evening.
Mickey Mantle’s Steakhouse: The special-occasion room — dark wood, white tablecloths, a serious wine list. Note the hours before you plan around it: closed Sundays and Mondays, which rules it out for a lot of Thunder tip times.
Culprits: inside the Renaissance, is the easy answer when you want something better than bar food ten minutes before you need to walk. The chicken-fried ribeye is the order.
Cattlemen’s Steakhouse: Is the Oklahoma City institution — open since 1910 in Stockyards City, about ten minutes away by car. Lamb fries if you’re feeling brave, prime rib if you’re not.
Why You Should Go
Oklahoma City is the smallest market in the NBA and built the loudest room in it anyway, out of a plain concrete arena voters paid for with a penny sales tax before the city even had a team to put in it. A building that shouldn’t work, a crowd that stands until the first basket falls and never really sits back down, and a banner overhead that says it all came off. Go in winter, when the Western Conference schedule turns serious, and get there early — the walk in from Bricktown with the rest of the crowd is half of what you came for.
Explore all of our arena guides as well as these regional gems:
The American Airlines Center In Dallas, AT&T Stadium in Dallas and Globe Life Field.
And for you Chiefs fans down in Oklahoma. Its always fun to check out Arrowhead Stadium.
Thanks for reading!
Written by Brad Richards, Founder of Gameday Guides. This guide includes insights from personal visits as well as updated info from team sources, fan forums, and stadium policies. We aim to help you plan with confidence — enjoy your gameday.