Russell Claus, city planning director, answers questions about Oklahoma City's Central Park.

The Devon/OCU boathouse is bigger and more expensive than Chesapeake’s. Rather than trying to one-up Chesapeake, Knopp says the new boathouse will simply serve a different purpose.

The Chesapeake Boathouse is about 15,000 square feet. Devon’s boathouse will have about 35,000 square feet of training and event space. When the Devon boathouse opens, the OCU team will pack up its oars and move in. At that time, Chesapeake Boathouse will serve primarily as a community boathouse.

Additional boathouses are in the planning and fund-raising phases for University of Oklahoma and University of Central Oklahoma. McClendon has again made a personal commitment to help fund OU’s boathouse, and Chesapeake has made a financial commitment to UCO.

The OU boathouse is expected to cost $4 million, and the UCO boathouse will be in the neighborhood of $8 million to $9 million, Knopp says.