Competitions are among the first through Convention Center’s doors

One of the many bright spots for the newly opened Oklahoma City Convention Center is the venue has been a landing place for regional sporting events looking for a larger facility to host their events. While the sports travel industry has shown signs of rebounding, the convention centers stand ready and are flexible to comply with social-distance requirements and hosting these events in a clean, safe environment.

Dance, cheer, Ju-Jitsu and performing arts competitions have already made use of Oklahoma City’s sparkling new facility. Volleyball and USA softball are in the queue for later this year.

Many of the competitions have come from out of state. The BJJ Ji-Jitsu, based in Dallas, Texas, brought 2,100 participants. Amarillo’s Red Line Cheer and Dance brought 1,300 participants while the St. Louis-based MCDA Cheer and Dance Spirit Fest brought 1,200.

“Hosting these types of events is important to the competitors and their families without question,” said Al Rojas, General Manager of the Oklahoma City Convention Center. “It’s important to the communities to see the activity and energy in the building and for the people who make their living in this industry to see opportunities again.”

“We are grateful to have events coming to Oklahoma City again,” said Rojas. “I know how hard our team worked over the last six to eight months to get this off the ground. It’s been great to see the economic impact on our downtown businesses.”

A heightened emphasis on cleaning and hygiene was one of the first things the OKC Convention Center focused on in response to the pandemic. To help the facility take the necessary steps to minimize the risk of infectious agents, ASM Global launched its VenueShield program that implemented measures covering air quality, surface cleaning, food safety, contactless transactions, bipolar ionization and germ-zapping robots.