The local sports scene got a big boost when Andy Scurto, an insurance and IT entrepreneur and sports investor originally from California, bought the Tulsa Oilers hockey team in September 2021, vowing to revitalize the fan experience.
Since then, he has continued to have a major local impact.
Scurto helped improve the Oilers’ marketing efforts, contributing to Tulsa ranking fourth in the ECHL in attendance. An average of 5,834 fans watched the team play its home games at the BOK Center last season, the team’s most since 2017-18.
Scurto also brought in a showcase for elite-level women’s hockey in April, when the Premier Hockey Federation’s Minnesota Whitecaps and the Buffalo Beauts, both owned by Scurto, faced off at the BOK Center.
Scurto then purchased the Oilers Ice Center, the only full-size ice rink in Tulsa, bringing all the ice under one ownership and implementing impressive renovations to the facility.
After that, Scurto bought the former Macy’s building at the Promenade Mall. It is being converted into a rink facility with two ice sheets, which will be a boon for the local youth hockey, figure skating and curling scene once it is ready next year.
Finally, in July, Scurto announced he had bought an expansion franchise in the Indoor Football League, to begin play at the BOK Center in March 2023. There was a name-the-team contest, resulting in the name Oilers for the football team, and since then, the Tulsa Oilers football team has hired a coach (Marvin Jones) and started signing players, with a big local tryout session in late October.
