Exactly... OU fans are so sensitive, any reasonable criticism of a dumb proposal is a lot of them.
OU does need a new arena and has for a while. Building it at UTC is an awful mistake and thinking OU isn't going to have to support it financial is irresponsible and people are either burying their head in the sand or being mislead.
If they wanted to do it right and they're buying up Campus Corner too - do it there. The area south of McFarlin Memorial United is just an old office building, apartments, and parking lots could fit this size of arena there and would effectively unite Downtown Norman and the OU Campus. There's where they should be building it or somewhere closer to campus or Downtown Norman.
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Yes, thanks for the objective and 'reasonable' criticism like proclaiming OU wants to purposely go bankrupt so the state will bail them out. Or claiming 50% of revenue goes to interest expense when a quick Google search shows it is currently 4%. Or talking about a lawsuit that was settled two years ago.... On and on.
If you can't read the credit agencies info I can't help you there. It's not hard to find.
If you really think OU hasn't made a bunch of dumb mistakes on real estate investments I can't help you there either. OU's debt is massive, you can pretend it's not.
I would love to see all these privately built arenas in suburban areas that have been financially sustainable. They don't exist.. sorry. This isn't going to be built without help somewhere (via OU in equity investment in the surrounding development, TIF or public dollars, etc.) and someone is going to be left holding the bag on operating expenses. These things don't pay for themselves. Every small privately built arena I've ever seen built in the US has gone bankrupt, and usually pretty quick.
The choices are not UNP vs. an on-campus facility.
It is between UNP and staying in LNC for another 10-20 years.
There are very good reasons the university is completely behind this.
I guess you don't seem to grasp some of the points I'm making then. It does shift some responsibility away from OU to not have to own/operate the arena. That will go to City of Norman... good luck to the city and residents who will be picking up the costs. I would love to see the lease agreement between the city and OU when they get that far down the road, if they do. Either the city will charge OU a lot - which really doesn't save OU money beside the fact they can't afford to issue bonds and build an on campus arena, they'll still have a heavy cost burden on lease payments or Norman/citizens will be picking up the tab for OU to have a new arena. Sounds like a great deal, where do I sign up for that?
As I can see from this thread and others on social media this will have an uphill battle to be completed. City Council members in Norman are going to be sweating.
very much this ..
also this reduces transit time to games from north of Norman by almost 15 min each way .. (saving 30 mil) that is a huge benefit to ticket holders ..
people need to keep in mind that selling tickets is not the issue OU basketball has really ever had .. it is getting people who have tickets to show up ..
Do you not realize that UT was able to build their entire 300 mil arena with all private funds from an outside group (Oak View Group) which keeps all the revenue from non UT events for the first 35 years of existence (Opened 2022). UT owns the land (same as OU).
The dorm lawsuit, you really need to read more as your understanding of things OU is exactly what your name insinuates.
Dude. Did you watch your game on Saturday? Don't yall have enough to deal with between being in the middle of nowhere and struggling to compete in football in what's about to be a second tier conference? The Pokes might not win a conference game this season if Gunnar Gundy is the best QB on the roster. It's a little nuts/obsessive that you're hate typing paragraphs about OU's supposed debt problem that only OSU and Texas fans seem to think is a real issue.
I was thinking smaller like 7,000 with the right layout. I was talking to my mom about OU's new softball stadium and she was surprised it wasn't larger than 3,000. I asked her what happens on off seasons when we aren't as good, the stadium looks empty. I would rather have a stadium (arena) packed that's smaller than a larger arena that can seem empty.
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