http://www.ktul.com/news/stories/0906/360425.html

That sale was approved.

They say they don't have any specific plans for that property but I know they are also buying up stuff east of there (towards the RR tracks).

With all the improvements to campus and the areas surrounding, that property is a pretty big eyesore these days:

http://mysite.verizon.net/res17zef/oconnells.jpg

The potential loss of O'Connells doesn't affect me much...OU has quite possibly the lamest tailgating of any of the places I've been to or heard from others...couple beer stands and the sports guys on the radio right there...wow what a tradition :053:

O'Connell's will most likely move to Campus Corner.

I'd hate to lose the south-of-the-stadium atmosphere on game day, but I'm all for the strengthening of Campus Corner. That area has made a great comeback over the last 5 years or so.

The potential loss of O'Connells doesn't affect me much...OU has quite possibly the lamest tailgating of any of the places I've been to or heard from others...couple beer stands and the sports guys on the radio right there...wow what a tradition :053:

Yeah... 100,000 people that come from all over the state and the entire U.S., lining the streets around campus with huge tents, custom bbq smokers and portable satelites, is pretty pathetic.

It is pathetic compared to many other teams' tailgating...K-State even blows ours away

What does K-State do that OU doesn't? Talk about tradition... what tradition do they have? Wagner field is about half the capacity of OU's stadium, so I seriously doubt that K-State has anywhere close to the amount of people tailgating as OU. I could be wrong. I have never been to Manhatten, KS. Is it better because their stadium is surrounded by parking lots intstead of trees and campus?

This Sports Illustrated article says OU has the 6th best gameday experience in the country. K-State didn't even make the list (Top 25).

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/sioncampus/09/15/best_weekends0916/

Thats exactly right...It's one huge party up there while OU's is spread out all over...His statement saying the tailgating is mainly located on Jenkins isn't exactly awe inspiring

Don't get me wrong we still love the gameday experience in Norman, but it's just pretty tame compared to some other teams out there

OSU's tailgating is better. Although, I have yet to experience anything better than an OU home game. When the PRIDE of Oklahoma starts the show... man, I get goose bumps.

It would be nice to centralize the tailgating... now we have the Jenkins corridor, north of campus, Lindsay corridor, plus Campus Corner on top of that. It would be nice to centralize everything to one end, but I'm not sure if that is logisically possible.

The key to centralizing tailgating, from my experiences, is having centralized parking immediately around the stadium (i.e. K-State, Arrowhead, Dallas Cowboys) Obviously that will not happen in Norman. They two games I've been to this year have a very nice presence of tent dwellers down Lindsey to the west of Jenkins.

Thinking about it, they really could turn the parking lot directly south of the stadium and east of the dorms area into a tailgating superplace.

With Campus Corner OU has a different tradition and dynamics than a tailgating community. For one we don't have seas of parking surrounding the stadium, hence little tailgating. O'Connel's is a good atmoshpere too. It's just different, not inferior.

Personally I like having an on campus stadium rather than something like what the U has at the orange bowl. More collegiate and more traditional that way.

About the tailgating, schools with good tailgating atmospheres usually do not have Campus Corner areas right by their stadiums like at OU. And OU has plenty of tailgaters along Lindsey Street which is closed down on gamedays, and again all around the stadium and campus and even in the parking garage!

On the property, my hope is that OU builds a nice mid-rise residential tower there. Maybe something 6-8 stories with street level retail/restaurant space. Some kind of on-the-street development all the way down Lindsey to the tracks would be great, especially for the Parkview redevelopment.

traxx is exactly right.

Tailgaiting is what you do when you don't have anything else and your stadium is off campus in a sea of parking.


I just went to the OU/Oregon game in Eugene and their Campus Corner - like area is no where near the stadium, which itself is completely separated from campus by a river and big open space. ALL there was was tailgaiting and their was almost no link to the university.

This is how most pro teams are -- again, because they have nothing else.


The more games at other schools I go to -- and I've been to a ton -- the more I appreciate the game day experience in Norman.

I just hope this new development doesn't change this for the worse.

I didn't comment on the gameday experience at OU...Just saying in terms of tailgating it is inferior to some other big time schools

Malibu it seems you aren't a big fan of tailgating and I am...other than that we feel the same about gameday at OU

I've always thought tailgaiting was way overrated.

I hosted one when OU played at UCLA last year because I live in the L.A. area and I was one of the few OU fans that could bring all the stuff and organize things.

Let me tell you, it was no fun for me. I spent the whole afternoon on my cell phone trying to guide people to my piece of the golf course, had to pack all that junk into my car along with the people I was transporting, then was tied to my car throughout. Couldn't leave until everything went back into the car, including all the trash that had accumulated.

Also, I was invited to a big Oregon tailgait on Saturday. It was great to have a place to go, but again it was just a bunch of people standing in a parking lot drinking beer. I would have much preferred to be in a more campus environment, strolling through the campus, stopping at different places, etc. AND it took us forever to find the tailgait and lots of people never found it.

You can have a party anywhere... The whole beauty of college football is the campus experience IMO.

K-State?!?!?!?! :tweeted:

just like some others have said.... tailgating at Kstate is big because it has to be.... there is NOTHING within miles of the stadium....

As a visitor there I was MASSIVELY bored until we could get into the stadium. We got there early hoping to enjoy the gameday atmosphere of another school and it was pathetic. It was a bunch of people tailgating, on their own, and the atmosphere was void of anything festive. We had to wait until the stadium opened to get something to eat for crissakes.... so our early planning netted us some stadium hot dogs and overpriced soft drinks.....

OU, on the other hand, is a veritable festival on gamedays..... LOTS of places to eat and drink beer and interact with others rather than hide in an RV or under a tent.....

So, to summarize, I thank my lucky stars that our tailgating isn't ANYTHING similar to Kstate or the NFL or that ilk..... that is what makes our gamedays better than all those others....

So you are saying K-State's tailgating isn't as good as OU's tailgating...never said the overall pre game atmosphere is better than OU's

If a bunch of people are standing around in a parking lot drinking beer on a Thursday it's called loitering and maybe even public drunkeness. On Saturday it's called tailgating. On Campus Corner it doesn't matter because there'a always something to do there.:tweeted:

My uncle, who is an OU grad and Dallas-area developer, submitted a proposal for the Parkview redevelopment. His proposal was turned down by the University and he says he's not sure about which proposal they decided to go with, but he did say the University wanted mixed-use development with an emphasis on dense townhomes. We'll see what happens, the University is always so damn secretive about new projects like this.

As for the corner of Lindsey and Jenkins, that site would make a good place for a midrise with condos for wealthy Sooner football fans to have during home game weekends and wealthy OU students wanting to live by campus. Then put some of the existing tenants of the strip mall like Pad Thai and Campus Market at the ground level of the building and maybe add a few new ones like a full restaurant and bar (O'Connell's perhaps? Legends?) or a coffee shop. The building could front Jenkins with parking in the back along Lincoln Ave. (where O'Connell's currently is located and a few cheap houses). Have parking for the residents be underground, a new concept for Norman but necessary at this location.

A building like this one at the corner(ignore the buildings to the sides), maybe a little shorter with metered parking along Jenkins and angled parking along Lindsey from Jenkins to Lincoln.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/bg918/avenuedistrict0906.jpg