Don't look now but both Sooner basketball teams are highly ranked. Women #10, Men #13. Football not ranked at all. Maybe OU is a basketball school and all the bandwagon fans just need a decent place to watch it in that is easy to access, filled with amenities, and is surrounded by real life activity and life. What a novel concept.
That would be great if it became both a football and basketball school (to go with the softball and gymnastics, but they don't make money).
When I went to OU, the men where sold out all the time (Sampson had players like Ryan Minor and Nate Edrmann). However, excluding employees and family, I may have been the only other person attending the women's games (pre Coale, but still had some good players). Both teams just under 5,000 fans per game so far this season despite both being ranked (men at #13 women at #10).
Should have compared it with Guthrie...
But its moot because Norman doesnt exist without OU and OU doesnt exist without Norman.
Sure OU could have been founded in a different spot but a town is still going to pop up around to support the university. Its a symbiotic relationship which is probably more in Normans favor now with the growth of OKC and less of a reliance on OU.
Because a new downtown OKC arena and its main tenant the Thunder matter more by a factor of 50. There is no comparison between the two arenas. One will have immensely more patrons, way bigger economic impact, and of course a better product on the court. Personally speaking, I didnt love the okc arena proposal and also wouldnt love the norman arena deal either if I lived there.
I'll make a prediction. When Norman voters kill this arena TIF, within a year you will see those arena adjacent apartments announced anyways. It already makes too much sense to have apartments at UNP and announcing them as part of the arena development was only to help boost the TIF package.
I can't be in the minority here, college basketball is terrible to watch. When you have the Thunder down the road why would you watch college bball?
OU would exist. OU doesn't need Norman as much as Norman needs them. Had OU been placed in Yukon or Del City it would have still been a large state university. OSU does fine in a fairly remote small Oklahoma town. OU would have too. But, just like OSU makes Stillwater a much stronger town, OU makes Norman disproportionally stronger.
so back to the fact that this won't actually cost the city anything, except concession sales tax on some 40 events... what are the other problems people have with this? oh that's right, they think if we cause it to fail, all of these developments will still just magically happen, even though they haven't for the past 2 decades
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the city the guarantor on the bond payments? So if the TIF doesn't bring in enough money to pay the bonds the city has to pick it up. I think the original proposal didn't spell out who would actually own the arena but the city would be responsible for the maintenance, staff, utilities and what not?
"On December 19, 1890, the first territorial legislature, following its practice of parceling out state institutions on the basis of coalition politics, placed the University of Oklahoma (OU) in Norman. The legislature stipulated that the town donate forty acres for a campus and raise ten thousand dollars through bond sales to construct a building. The town, sensing the enormous economic benefits that would result, complied with the requirements on December 14, 1891. Before the money was raised, Gov. George Steele appointed a six-member board of regents to administer the institution."
Source:https://www.okhistory.org/publicatio...ry?entry=UN010
Note that the first students and David Ross Boyd did not arrive to Norman until 1892.
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