ASSOCIATED PRESS

TULSA, Okla. -- Construction on Tulsa's new downtown arena is about 25 percent complete and project leaders say it won't be much longer until the building's steel frame is assembled.

Thursday will be the one-year anniversary of the start of construction on the BOK Center, a project that has been beset by bid overruns and budget questions.

Those problems have caused project officials to delay the arena's scheduled opening by at least five months, to September 2008.

Tulsa Vision Builders Project Director Bart Boatright says officials are "cautiously optimistic" about that date.

The Tulsa County Vision Authority recently approved additional funding to raise the arena construction budget from 141 million dollars to about 178 million dollars.

Boatright says most of the arena's construction costs should be locked in by October, as bidding on portions of the project concludes.

With the budget issues addressed, officials also plan to reveal soon names of private sponsors who have donated to the arena project.

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