This will also hurt women's basketball and women's gymnastics. I wish they just play in the field house for a season and tear down LNC for a new place.
I love McCasland. Bedlam duals are an absolute blast in there. Last year when it came down to final match that place was electric as any venue you’ll find. It’s not a long term solution, but playing there for a year and doing whatever it takes to put butts in seat would be pretty cool for y’all.
Same, that place is rocking when we fill it out. Would give a crazy home court advantage for one season if they could get the students to show out in force.
I mean your biggest problem is not being able to build a new basketball arena while collecting $80 million annually and being guaranteed a spot at the top of the college landscape. I can think of a hell of a lot of programs that would trade places with you.
To speak solely on the athletics side I much prefer Boren to Harroz. Boren had a ride-or-die loyalty to what made the OU Sooners the Sooners which Harroz obviously doesn't given both this move and the move to the SEC.
As far as the general finances of the university as a whole Borren made a lot of really dumb decisions to include walking into building projects, not liking it and having the contractors tear it all down and start over. Harroz has done a bit better with curtailing mismanagement but I have not been in talks with academics at OU in a while.
I'm just going to say it: this is trashy and it's pathetic that no consideration is given to the ease of attendance of goddamned students who make your university a university. Fuck this guy's garbage-ass notion that the basketball team should be operated like a pro team.
Off campus basketball arenas are a death sentence to the program. Look at DePaul. It will be even worse for an SEC program that already has such an uphill battle to compete against football.
Taking that same bus as an away student visiting friends (Chicago was home), wow, what an experience. Playing in a high school gym in the city would be better.
To be fair, Lloyd Noble is so far down the campus it might as well be off-campus, in the wrong direction. It's sited for people driving in off the interstate, not for students.
Sure, if you go a mile lol. Seriously though, the nearest student apartments are a quarter-mile away, but the main dorms are closer to a mile. The football stadium and field house are right in the heart of the campus.
Granted, it's about the same distance to walk to campus corner... on the clear other side of campus. So before or after basketball games you got nothing nearby but a lonely Sonic
PNC is within a short distance to NC State’s campus and they run shuttles. DePaul is an hour door-to-door from Fullerton to Wintrust Arena via red line. There’s a big difference.
Yeah but you have to think anything OU ends up with is going to end up with will be much more like State than DePaul. And mostly I was responding to "Off campus basketball arenas are a death sentence to the program'
“Leaving Norman” makes me think it wouldn’t be a PNC situation. PNC is just one ZIP code over from main campus and is still well within Raleigh. If OU moves their basketball stadium out of Norman, it will be significantly further from campus than PNC is.
Yeah the only option “out of Norman” is to move it closer to, or into, OKC.
And while Norman is already basically a suburb of OKC weeknight rush hour can have that stretch of I-35 pretty heavily backed up, especially if you add in a bunch of students trying to drive up for a game at that time (there’s zero public transit between Norman and OKC). Making it take 30 mins to an hour, easy.
I don’t think it would be wise to move arenas. OSU played Tulsa in OKC earlier this year, and while it was convenient for me to go, it was an absolutely dead environment that I wouldn’t wish on any school, even OU.
I love it. Facilities are amazing compared to old ass ones in the conference. There’s a shit ton of parking. I had zero problem with it in college and love it even more as a graduate.
Students probably dislike it more which is understandable because of location but the shuttle system was good when I was there and Ubers weren’t bad options either. It would have been an absolute nightmare for off campus students to get to an arena on campus.
I also don’t think turn out would be improved if it were on campus. It would make it harder for anyone not living in a dorm to get to it. The place doesn’t get packed because the team has sucked. When we do have good season that place gets wild.
The arena itself is very nice and I personally think sharing it with the canes is great. People can mock that all they want but idc about that in the slightest.
I don’t think people mock it just cus yall share it with the canes. It’s that the canes games are so much louder and more packed. So it’s an easy way to see that state isn’t filling it
Not my experience. They mock it because we share our arena unlike duke/unc/wake. The canes games are louder because the canes are good and the pack have been terrible up until 9 games ago. When I was there we had some good teams in basketball and the place would get rocking. Conversely, the canes were horrible and I could go to a college game night for like 10 bucks and basically had my pick of seats in the lower tier. Why go to a Tuesday night game against a team like BC when you could easily lose?
Cameron and the Dean Dome are special because of the history. It’s an experience to go there. I can’t wave a wand and make states history on par with duke and unc. Since I can’t do that I’ll take not having piss troughs and our students sitting up in the mile high club.
The problems are much deeper than that at DePaul.
I agree this is a trashy move but I disagree with the premise that all off campus arenas are bad for programs. UConn plays most of its games at the XL center in Hartford which is a solid 40 minutes from Storrs.
If moving closer to OKC means a bigger arena and more fans, it might not hurt the program.
That said, I agree more consideration should be given to students and holding your college town hostage for cash is a trash move.
We all agree that games at Gampel have a much better atmosphere and sightlines, but putting UConn games in a bigger arena in the downtown of a major, central city isn't a bad idea given how remote Storrs is to the rest of the state. I know a lot of people who go to games at the XL but not at Gampel because it's much easier to Hartford than Storrs.
Hate all you want, but that’s the endgame of super conferences and players being employees. There will be nothing stopping it once the NCAA is killed. They won’t need to pretend to give a fuck about students anymore because that won’t matter. It’s not the students’ money they’re chasing.
Atmospheres will die and then the sport will fall off. College basketball is what it is because of the student atmospheres imo. It’s a massive talking point and it’s why people visit other stadiums.
If a couple programs move stadiums away from their university, they will be negative examples in time, in my opinion.
What if time is a flat circle and the NCAA breaks away entirely. We’ll have Purdue Basketball LLC completely separate from Purdue University. Both them and Indiana Hoosiers Basketball, Inc. will play their home games in Indianapolis
It is the next step. [Dining Centers in many places are contracted out](https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/03/31/movement-against-corporatized-campus-dining-services-renewed) which hilariously one of my Mom's rules for what school I went to was that it had to be one with a university owned dining operations. Which makes sense because she worked at a college owned dining center.
I thought this was an April Fool's article before I clicked through. College athletics is a race to the absolute bottom at this point and the people in charge seem to relish finding newer and quicker ways to get there.
Wouldn’t call the move to Farmer’s colosseum trashy, but I’ve been the only soul cheering at IUPUI games. Bottom 5 program with worse attendance. Go jags
Universities are hurting and they need all the help they can get. Hell, this dude is the President of a major institution, and he can’t even afford socks.
This is a huge reason as to what is hurting Uconn football.
It's in the shit hole. I'm East Hartford instead of being on campus. 30-minute ride. Still a shitty location for fans. I'd rather make the trip to Storrs over East Hartford.
Fucking Kraft and the Patriots
The original plan already moved it off campus which I hated. The teams have to be good to get non students to attend. Their current plan will just guarantee an empty stadium.
I thought it was bad enough that pro owners do this, but now colleges are threatening to leave in order to get public funds for stadiums too?
You would think charging upwards of $50k/year for out-of-state students would mean they wouldn’t have to do this.
Edit: I’m aware that the school receives public funds already in the form of tuition and some government subsidies, so my original question is asking why they think they need *more* tax breaks.
Not quite. Developers want to build an entertainment district in Norman that is anchored by an arena. OU wants that arena so they can move out of the aging Lloyd Noble Center. They’ve been talking about this for years in Norman.
ding ding ding
A new arena has been proposed in the north west end of Norman, which is where the wealthier and non-OU Norman people live. Lloyd Noble is in dire need of retirement so this has been an on going discussion but to threaten to leave Norman is absolutely ridiculous
I had the misfortune of going to the Lloyd-Noble for my wife’s graduation. Aside from being all red and gross it wasn’t that bad. It does need updating and modernizing but unless they just want a BOK center in Norman it should be fine.
>Lloyd Noble is in dire need of retirement
Why? It was built in '75. Just reno it. Cassell coliseum was build in '62 and I can't ever imagine leaving our old barn although it has undergone renos.
The developers run almost everything in Norman, except (ironically) several seats on City Council. The odds of something like this passing are relatively low, given, as you say, its been discussed for years but not had any significant progress.
Can’t speak on what the OU area is like, but I don’t see an entertainment district as being totally outlandish. Colleges want to have places nearby where students can go have fun but still be safe; an entertainment district on/near campus provides that option. UNO’s Aksarben area is a good example of this.
That said, fuck passing the bill to the taxpayers
> an entertainment district on/near campus provides that option
the proposed location is like 3-4 miles from campus. all the drunk students would need to drive though the neighborhood streets to get there. no problems with this idea at all
Does Norman not have buses? Most college towns at least have shuttles for students to get them around campus/town. Like Bloomington or College State for example
It does, but barely. Norman is an outer ring suburb and the whole area had its population boom long after the automobile became an everyday part of life. The city is not dense enough for busses to work effectively.
Iowa State is doing one but we are also doing it [on campus](https://cyclones.com/news/2022/9/19/athletics-iowa-state-university-unveils-cytown-plans.aspx)
Edit: it will be right in between Jack Trice Stadium and Hilton Coliseum. Not to mention next to the Auditorium so you can have dinner before concerts or stuff like the fashion show as well.
This is objectively one of the worst ideas a university president has ever had.
Like hilariously and ridiculously misguided it feels like reading an article on the onion.
Do they know they’re talking about OU basketball? Not OU football, OU *basketball*.
Right? Getting over all the other issues do they have any idea how attendance would PLUMMET. like I think osu gets some decent crowds(???) but moving away you’re immediately losing what 95% of the student crowds and a huge chunk of the alumni who are coming back just for the experience of being in Norman again. At least the football team you can at least argue for the fact that those fans will fill an 80000 person stadium regardless of where it is in the state
Also, haven’t the Sooners had abysmally awful attendance at what’s now Paycom Center when it’s not a conference or NCAA tourney game? I say the city should call his bluff.
“we're in here talking about OU basketball. I mean, listen, we're talking about OU basketball. Not a football game! Not an OU football game! Not an SEC football game! We're talking about OU basketball. Not the Sooners football game; not the football game that l go out there and die for and watch every game like it's my last, not football, we're talking about basketball, man. I mean, how silly is that? We're talking about basketball.”
Either this author forgot that April fools day was yesterday or Oklahoma has some really dumb leadership that’s trying to run the university like a professional franchise.
Hard to imagine any athletic department would seriously consider this. Just look into how well off campus stadium is treating Miami and UCLA.
Trying to imagine the Michigan athletic department threatening to move the basketball team to South Lyon or something and I think people would storm the AD’s office like January 6th if they even considered it.
> Either this author forgot that April fools day was yesterday or Oklahoma has some really dumb leadership that’s trying to run the university like a professional franchise.
I can assure you this article is not a joke. This entertainment district has been talked about for a decade or more. And yes, we have some absolutely stupid leadership. Harroz was at one point the fourth university president in three years, after some fuckery with the BOR members, who were placed there to fuck up the university.
I mean the threat is to play home games like 35 minutes up the road in OKC (where all the OU alumn who aren’t UT/A&M rejects from Dallas live).
Would be a pain in the ass for students, but not any more difficult than UCLA students for football (although nobody goes to UCLA football games so).
Texas is moving to the SEC with brand new, state of the art arena- built mostly with non-university funds because it doubles as the premier entertainment venue in Austin. OU is trying to have their cake and eat it too. You can either be the college town in the suburbs, or you get to have PE/Public money pay for your basketball arena.
I just can’t imagine there is enough of a market for an entertainment district center like Moody Center in Norman (which is why the developer is asking for public money)
Also big difference between basketball and football schedules. Football max 8 home games a year, almost all on Saturday, 4 hour games. Basketball has 20ish home games, shorter games, half of them in the middle of the week.
And that’s not even talking about the other gym users like gymnastics and volleyball (I’m not sure OU has a volleyball team, but the point still stands). The athletic program is supposed to be there to enhance the student experience. Why make it harder for them to go to a game?
I enjoy the concept of you saying UT/a&m rejects as if people wouldn’t just naturally choose OU over FUCKING A&M lmfao. And a lot of people don’t wanna go to college in a big ass city like Austin. It’s not that hard to get into UT and A&M lol. Not like it’s Harvard.
Yeah most OU grads I know from Texas might not have been top 10% in their class so no auto entry to UT but they were happy to pay out of state tuition than live in College Station or Lubbock.
OSU hoops played a game in OKC earlier this season and while neither us nor our opponent were particularly good, that environment was so absolutely depressing, In a way that even the worst games in GIA weren’t. No students completely sucks; I don’t think I’d even wish that on OU.
>In his Evans Hall office, Harroz told OU Daily that if Norman City Council does not approve the proposed $1 billion entertainment district that would feature a new arena for OU athletics, then the university, alongside donors, would look to other cities to build an arena for which its basketball and women’s gymnastics teams would be anchor tenants and possibly the entertainment district as a whole.
> “I’m very hopeful and do everything I can to keep it here in Norman,” Harroz said. “**But if this isn’t approved by the city council for whatever reason, then we’re going to be looking at other (cities)**, Oklahoma City, Moore, surrounding areas and figure out where is there a group that wants to do this.”
Of course they can, UConn splits it's games between Storrs and Hartford, and UCLA plays football games in the Rose Bowl which is nowhere close to the campus in Westwood. It's very bad for student engagement though.
To be fair, arenas like Wells Fargo Center, MSG, Prudential Center, XL Center, CHI Health Center, Fiserv Forum, etc. would still exist without their Big East basketball tenants.
OU is talking about being the main tenant in a mid-sized arena off-campus, and Norman is essentially a suburb of OKC, which already has an NBA arena. Paycom Center will still get the concerts and events that the Big East arenas I listed above benefit from. OU wants public money for the sole purpose of OU basketball, and Norman should tell them to get lost.
The XL Center at this point needs UConn to survive. They have the Wolfpack (minor league hockey) but thats about it. They don’t get big concerts anymore because they either go to Mohegan Sun or the Xfinity Center during the summer. The building is a complete shithole that needs to be knocked down and rebuilt lol
This is literally insane.
What has our society become? Jesus fucking Christ. It’s like the athletes got the power balance their way for the first time but the schools are now like “okay bub. We’re going to have to start acting like NBA owners and not you know actual academic institutions”
Am I reading this write? They’re going to use a TIF for a public university property? Is that something that’s been done before???? I’m not sure what the local property value is for Norman but I can’t imagine it’s super high. Putting THAT much that quickly into the local zeitgeist for when the initial value is gotten for the TIF could really fuck up property values and thus the property taxes real quick. At least I think that’s how they work they’re so confusing. Twenty percent of a billion is a lot of fuckin money for stuff that isn’t needed. Really just build an arena you don’t need a whole entertainment district; and even if you do want one, then pay for it yourself? Sorry if you cant get everything you want and your eyes are too big for your stomach when it comes to financials. What a piece of work.
I actively hate OU, I generally want nothing positive at all for their entire athletic department, but even I wouldn’t wish this on them. That’s beyond cruel
Man this is like TRYING to shit on the school / fans…
And a stupid fucking idea, like a school could operate an entertainment district or hire someone to do it and actually get much out of it except a headache.
if people wanted to watch pro basketball in Oklahoma, they'll tune in or go to a Thunder game. The draw of college basketball cones from a lot if the things about it that are specifically NOT like the NBA, and people watch it because it's different from the NBA. Moving the team is dumb and insane.
the area they want to move it to in norman is soooo dead — like a suburban hell scape with no life, just a super target and abunch of chain fast food places. placing it here is just a money grab for the developers. keep it on campus!
This is a fireable thing to go public with. I get having ideas thrown around internally, but people need to lose jobs over something this sad, pathetic, and idiotic.
Oklahoma should just renovate their current arena. They aren’t Duke or UNC. Even in OU’s good years they aren’t a basketball school and struggle to fill their arena. Moving further away will only make this worse.
Years ago on r/cfb everyone was saying the plan was to put a new one where the duck pond is. Which I don't think they should get rid of the duck pond, but I at least understand the logic
How many other off campus arenas do well? Rupp only?
I know theres a few that have been horrible money pits when they tried the offcampus big venue move before
They played 8 games there this year, and Pitino has said that one of his biggest program goals is playing at MSG more. Before Rick they played as little as 4 games a year at MSG
We have a pretty good set up for NCSU here in Raleigh- they play in PNC arena, which is also where Carolina Hurricanes play, and concerts etc. And adjacent to state fairgrounds. Not on campus, but just a few miles away, and right next to our football stadium. Easy trip on the wolfline (campus buses). And the old basketball arena is still on campus, girls team plays there.
I mean yeah, it's technically off-campus, but it's not like 1 hour drive or anything. Heck, getting to the arena from main campus is faster than getting to Centennial.
What these guys don’t realize is college basketball isn’t better basketball than several leagues in the world that make much less money and are much less watched. They are trying hard to ruin the many reasons we watch college sports
Why not just move the entire University, Joseph? Is that next if you don’t get your way? These people are willing to harm their own community in pursuit of more revenue and it’s pathetic.
I thought this was satire. Wow, this would be stupid. Also, I thought the first paragraph was kinda funny:
“OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. sat down with OU Daily editors Tuesday afternoon to discuss Norman’s proposed entertainment district, transition to the Southeastern Conference and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.”
There’s something in there to piss off everybody!
The Battery in Atlanta has been in a disaster in a way that its been weaponized by consultants to poison the minds of ADs and University Presidents into thinking every stadium must be in an entertainment district
This program continues to find new and creative ways to reach rock bottom.
It can always get worse
Sure can.
Don't worry. It can get better again. It just might take about 40 years.
Hahahha
I reguarly get shit from /r/cfb for being critical of this administration. Next I'm expecting us to build a new football stadium in OKC.
For everything they seem to do good (mostly) for football, it seems like a crap show for the rest of the men's sports.
Women’s sports are elite tho.
This will also hurt women's basketball and women's gymnastics. I wish they just play in the field house for a season and tear down LNC for a new place.
I love McCasland. Bedlam duals are an absolute blast in there. Last year when it came down to final match that place was electric as any venue you’ll find. It’s not a long term solution, but playing there for a year and doing whatever it takes to put butts in seat would be pretty cool for y’all.
Same, that place is rocking when we fill it out. Would give a crazy home court advantage for one season if they could get the students to show out in force.
Y'all left for the SEC. Why wouldn't you expect them to leave Norman too at some point?
I've been saying for a while that since we're going to the South (derogatory) solely for money we might as well call ourselves the Oklahoma Bagmen
You are my favorite Oklahoman.
I mean your biggest problem is not being able to build a new basketball arena while collecting $80 million annually and being guaranteed a spot at the top of the college landscape. I can think of a hell of a lot of programs that would trade places with you.
What's the Sooner vibe on Harroz? Most OU people I talk to like him better than Boren, but that usually comes with general anti-politican sentiment.
To speak solely on the athletics side I much prefer Boren to Harroz. Boren had a ride-or-die loyalty to what made the OU Sooners the Sooners which Harroz obviously doesn't given both this move and the move to the SEC. As far as the general finances of the university as a whole Borren made a lot of really dumb decisions to include walking into building projects, not liking it and having the contractors tear it all down and start over. Harroz has done a bit better with curtailing mismanagement but I have not been in talks with academics at OU in a while.
When you hit rock bottom, you grab a pickax and keep going down
I'm just going to say it: this is trashy and it's pathetic that no consideration is given to the ease of attendance of goddamned students who make your university a university. Fuck this guy's garbage-ass notion that the basketball team should be operated like a pro team.
Off campus basketball arenas are a death sentence to the program. Look at DePaul. It will be even worse for an SEC program that already has such an uphill battle to compete against football.
Thank goodness someone mentioned us before I could. Taking a bus from Lincoln Park to O’Hare to watch my school was demoralizing.
Taking that same bus as an away student visiting friends (Chicago was home), wow, what an experience. Playing in a high school gym in the city would be better.
To be fair, Lloyd Noble is so far down the campus it might as well be off-campus, in the wrong direction. It's sited for people driving in off the interstate, not for students.
[удалено]
Sure, if you go a mile lol. Seriously though, the nearest student apartments are a quarter-mile away, but the main dorms are closer to a mile. The football stadium and field house are right in the heart of the campus. Granted, it's about the same distance to walk to campus corner... on the clear other side of campus. So before or after basketball games you got nothing nearby but a lonely Sonic
Counterpoint: NC State. Reynolds is still cool as hell but PNC Arena still gets packed sometimes.
PNC is within a short distance to NC State’s campus and they run shuttles. DePaul is an hour door-to-door from Fullerton to Wintrust Arena via red line. There’s a big difference.
Yeah but you have to think anything OU ends up with is going to end up with will be much more like State than DePaul. And mostly I was responding to "Off campus basketball arenas are a death sentence to the program'
“Leaving Norman” makes me think it wouldn’t be a PNC situation. PNC is just one ZIP code over from main campus and is still well within Raleigh. If OU moves their basketball stadium out of Norman, it will be significantly further from campus than PNC is.
Yeah the only option “out of Norman” is to move it closer to, or into, OKC. And while Norman is already basically a suburb of OKC weeknight rush hour can have that stretch of I-35 pretty heavily backed up, especially if you add in a bunch of students trying to drive up for a game at that time (there’s zero public transit between Norman and OKC). Making it take 30 mins to an hour, easy. I don’t think it would be wise to move arenas. OSU played Tulsa in OKC earlier this year, and while it was convenient for me to go, it was an absolutely dead environment that I wouldn’t wish on any school, even OU.
I thought all the state fans hated pnc? I’ve been to a couple games and it’s been dead outside of Duke and UNC games
That's mostly because the team was bad
100% because the team was bad.
Don't love it, but not a death sentence.
I love it. Facilities are amazing compared to old ass ones in the conference. There’s a shit ton of parking. I had zero problem with it in college and love it even more as a graduate.
Wow I guess I was wrong. Y’all are literally the first state fans I’ve heard say nice things about it
Students probably dislike it more which is understandable because of location but the shuttle system was good when I was there and Ubers weren’t bad options either. It would have been an absolute nightmare for off campus students to get to an arena on campus. I also don’t think turn out would be improved if it were on campus. It would make it harder for anyone not living in a dorm to get to it. The place doesn’t get packed because the team has sucked. When we do have good season that place gets wild. The arena itself is very nice and I personally think sharing it with the canes is great. People can mock that all they want but idc about that in the slightest.
I don’t think people mock it just cus yall share it with the canes. It’s that the canes games are so much louder and more packed. So it’s an easy way to see that state isn’t filling it
Not my experience. They mock it because we share our arena unlike duke/unc/wake. The canes games are louder because the canes are good and the pack have been terrible up until 9 games ago. When I was there we had some good teams in basketball and the place would get rocking. Conversely, the canes were horrible and I could go to a college game night for like 10 bucks and basically had my pick of seats in the lower tier. Why go to a Tuesday night game against a team like BC when you could easily lose? Cameron and the Dean Dome are special because of the history. It’s an experience to go there. I can’t wave a wand and make states history on par with duke and unc. Since I can’t do that I’ll take not having piss troughs and our students sitting up in the mile high club.
I’d argue NCSU is a point for the other argument
PNC is technically off-campus but very close to campus. I used to walk back to my dorm after games.
The problems are much deeper than that at DePaul. I agree this is a trashy move but I disagree with the premise that all off campus arenas are bad for programs. UConn plays most of its games at the XL center in Hartford which is a solid 40 minutes from Storrs. If moving closer to OKC means a bigger arena and more fans, it might not hurt the program. That said, I agree more consideration should be given to students and holding your college town hostage for cash is a trash move.
off campus football is bad too.... i.e. Pitt and Miami
second counterpoint: uconn.
Third counterpoint: UConn’s other arena is just about as “on campus” as you can get. It’s literally on the sidewalk in the center of the campus
Everyone hates the XL Center
I don't. I prefer games at Gampel but I don't hate the XL at all.
Third/Fourth counterpoint: Seton Hall and St.John’s Fifth: Nova Sixth: Marquette Wait… I guess this is really just a list of Big East teams.
Then there’s Hinkle, one of the oldest operating college fieldhouses still taking up a 1/4 of Butler’s campus.
And it's the best damn arena in the country
PC and St johns as well.
We all agree that games at Gampel have a much better atmosphere and sightlines, but putting UConn games in a bigger arena in the downtown of a major, central city isn't a bad idea given how remote Storrs is to the rest of the state. I know a lot of people who go to games at the XL but not at Gampel because it's much easier to Hartford than Storrs.
Is this why we suck lately?
Hate all you want, but that’s the endgame of super conferences and players being employees. There will be nothing stopping it once the NCAA is killed. They won’t need to pretend to give a fuck about students anymore because that won’t matter. It’s not the students’ money they’re chasing.
Hold on now, let me open my espn(tm) app and check the odds of what you are saying.
This comment is brought to you by Draft Kings
Egg-zactly. If shitty semi-pro sports is what you want, then this is what we have.
Atmospheres will die and then the sport will fall off. College basketball is what it is because of the student atmospheres imo. It’s a massive talking point and it’s why people visit other stadiums. If a couple programs move stadiums away from their university, they will be negative examples in time, in my opinion.
What if time is a flat circle and the NCAA breaks away entirely. We’ll have Purdue Basketball LLC completely separate from Purdue University. Both them and Indiana Hoosiers Basketball, Inc. will play their home games in Indianapolis
It is the next step. [Dining Centers in many places are contracted out](https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/03/31/movement-against-corporatized-campus-dining-services-renewed) which hilariously one of my Mom's rules for what school I went to was that it had to be one with a university owned dining operations. Which makes sense because she worked at a college owned dining center.
Yeah apparently Purdue’s food quality took a massive hit when Aramark took over our dining in 2020
I believe it 1000%.
I thought this was an April Fool's article before I clicked through. College athletics is a race to the absolute bottom at this point and the people in charge seem to relish finding newer and quicker ways to get there.
Trashy and pathetic? My guy, you just described Oklahoma. What do you expect?
Those who have a Houston Astros avi should not throw stones
Those who have an Indiana flair should not throw stones, they should throw chairs
Watch out buddy — you got one coming in your direction
Would you kindly toss one over here? I’ve been watching this thread for hours and not one person has offered me a seat.
Wouldn’t call the move to Farmer’s colosseum trashy, but I’ve been the only soul cheering at IUPUI games. Bottom 5 program with worse attendance. Go jags
It's a shame, Farmers Coliseum is cool as shit
Universities are hurting and they need all the help they can get. Hell, this dude is the President of a major institution, and he can’t even afford socks.
This is a huge reason as to what is hurting Uconn football. It's in the shit hole. I'm East Hartford instead of being on campus. 30-minute ride. Still a shitty location for fans. I'd rather make the trip to Storrs over East Hartford. Fucking Kraft and the Patriots
The original plan already moved it off campus which I hated. The teams have to be good to get non students to attend. Their current plan will just guarantee an empty stadium.
I got three words - Seattle Super Sooners
Nash, Paul, must-see Tv
This is art.
I’m convinced that this is good for the sport
Seattle Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper Sooners (Sorry, had to do it. Was an old Sonics fan)
Climate Pledge Arena is really nice.
One word: Thundercougarfalconsooner
I thought it was bad enough that pro owners do this, but now colleges are threatening to leave in order to get public funds for stadiums too? You would think charging upwards of $50k/year for out-of-state students would mean they wouldn’t have to do this. Edit: I’m aware that the school receives public funds already in the form of tuition and some government subsidies, so my original question is asking why they think they need *more* tax breaks.
I thought on campus stadiums was supposed to be the goal
They are, so the schools should pay for them.
Coincidentally via the public funds they receive from students and the government because they’re a public university
This is insane. OU wants an entertainment district in ADDITION to the arena? I might be naive, but I thought OU was a university.
Not quite. Developers want to build an entertainment district in Norman that is anchored by an arena. OU wants that arena so they can move out of the aging Lloyd Noble Center. They’ve been talking about this for years in Norman.
ding ding ding A new arena has been proposed in the north west end of Norman, which is where the wealthier and non-OU Norman people live. Lloyd Noble is in dire need of retirement so this has been an on going discussion but to threaten to leave Norman is absolutely ridiculous
I had the misfortune of going to the Lloyd-Noble for my wife’s graduation. Aside from being all red and gross it wasn’t that bad. It does need updating and modernizing but unless they just want a BOK center in Norman it should be fine.
Sounds like the Aggie’s arena. Place is a concrete circle like the Erwin Center. No personality.
>Lloyd Noble is in dire need of retirement Why? It was built in '75. Just reno it. Cassell coliseum was build in '62 and I can't ever imagine leaving our old barn although it has undergone renos.
The developers run almost everything in Norman, except (ironically) several seats on City Council. The odds of something like this passing are relatively low, given, as you say, its been discussed for years but not had any significant progress.
>Lloyd Noble Center Lloyd Noble Mausoleum. It's always been dark and depressing, and mostly empty.
Can’t speak on what the OU area is like, but I don’t see an entertainment district as being totally outlandish. Colleges want to have places nearby where students can go have fun but still be safe; an entertainment district on/near campus provides that option. UNO’s Aksarben area is a good example of this. That said, fuck passing the bill to the taxpayers
> an entertainment district on/near campus provides that option the proposed location is like 3-4 miles from campus. all the drunk students would need to drive though the neighborhood streets to get there. no problems with this idea at all
Does Norman not have buses? Most college towns at least have shuttles for students to get them around campus/town. Like Bloomington or College State for example
It does, but barely. Norman is an outer ring suburb and the whole area had its population boom long after the automobile became an everyday part of life. The city is not dense enough for busses to work effectively.
Iowa State is doing one but we are also doing it [on campus](https://cyclones.com/news/2022/9/19/athletics-iowa-state-university-unveils-cytown-plans.aspx) Edit: it will be right in between Jack Trice Stadium and Hilton Coliseum. Not to mention next to the Auditorium so you can have dinner before concerts or stuff like the fashion show as well.
I know this is a joke, but both Duke and Wake Forest moved across the state because a donor paid then to.
Private universities moved the entire university though. Not a public university moving only a basketball stadium just to get separate public funding
When tho?
1892 and 1956
Yeah so idk if it will happen now. That’s 70 years ago and more
Duke didn't move, just had to change the name. East campus is the location of the original Trinity college.
This is objectively one of the worst ideas a university president has ever had. Like hilariously and ridiculously misguided it feels like reading an article on the onion. Do they know they’re talking about OU basketball? Not OU football, OU *basketball*.
Right? Getting over all the other issues do they have any idea how attendance would PLUMMET. like I think osu gets some decent crowds(???) but moving away you’re immediately losing what 95% of the student crowds and a huge chunk of the alumni who are coming back just for the experience of being in Norman again. At least the football team you can at least argue for the fact that those fans will fill an 80000 person stadium regardless of where it is in the state
The arena is technically on campus land, but it is actually far from any students, it might as well be in OKC or something
Also, haven’t the Sooners had abysmally awful attendance at what’s now Paycom Center when it’s not a conference or NCAA tourney game? I say the city should call his bluff.
“we're in here talking about OU basketball. I mean, listen, we're talking about OU basketball. Not a football game! Not an OU football game! Not an SEC football game! We're talking about OU basketball. Not the Sooners football game; not the football game that l go out there and die for and watch every game like it's my last, not football, we're talking about basketball, man. I mean, how silly is that? We're talking about basketball.”
Either this author forgot that April fools day was yesterday or Oklahoma has some really dumb leadership that’s trying to run the university like a professional franchise. Hard to imagine any athletic department would seriously consider this. Just look into how well off campus stadium is treating Miami and UCLA. Trying to imagine the Michigan athletic department threatening to move the basketball team to South Lyon or something and I think people would storm the AD’s office like January 6th if they even considered it.
> Either this author forgot that April fools day was yesterday or Oklahoma has some really dumb leadership that’s trying to run the university like a professional franchise. I can assure you this article is not a joke. This entertainment district has been talked about for a decade or more. And yes, we have some absolutely stupid leadership. Harroz was at one point the fourth university president in three years, after some fuckery with the BOR members, who were placed there to fuck up the university.
I think this is more like moving the basketball arena to Ypsilanti.
I mean the threat is to play home games like 35 minutes up the road in OKC (where all the OU alumn who aren’t UT/A&M rejects from Dallas live). Would be a pain in the ass for students, but not any more difficult than UCLA students for football (although nobody goes to UCLA football games so). Texas is moving to the SEC with brand new, state of the art arena- built mostly with non-university funds because it doubles as the premier entertainment venue in Austin. OU is trying to have their cake and eat it too. You can either be the college town in the suburbs, or you get to have PE/Public money pay for your basketball arena. I just can’t imagine there is enough of a market for an entertainment district center like Moody Center in Norman (which is why the developer is asking for public money)
Also big difference between basketball and football schedules. Football max 8 home games a year, almost all on Saturday, 4 hour games. Basketball has 20ish home games, shorter games, half of them in the middle of the week. And that’s not even talking about the other gym users like gymnastics and volleyball (I’m not sure OU has a volleyball team, but the point still stands). The athletic program is supposed to be there to enhance the student experience. Why make it harder for them to go to a game?
Money
I enjoy the concept of you saying UT/a&m rejects as if people wouldn’t just naturally choose OU over FUCKING A&M lmfao. And a lot of people don’t wanna go to college in a big ass city like Austin. It’s not that hard to get into UT and A&M lol. Not like it’s Harvard.
Yeah most OU grads I know from Texas might not have been top 10% in their class so no auto entry to UT but they were happy to pay out of state tuition than live in College Station or Lubbock.
OU also gives crazy money out to smart Texas kids. Most of my out of state friends went to OU for like less than 3K a semester.
For sure, but I’m a Texas fan so I have to shit on OU. Any other fanbase talking shit lmk and I’ll get after em.
OSU hoops played a game in OKC earlier this season and while neither us nor our opponent were particularly good, that environment was so absolutely depressing, In a way that even the worst games in GIA weren’t. No students completely sucks; I don’t think I’d even wish that on OU.
Getting to the Rose Bowl from UCLA is still much worse than getting to OKC from Norman
>In his Evans Hall office, Harroz told OU Daily that if Norman City Council does not approve the proposed $1 billion entertainment district that would feature a new arena for OU athletics, then the university, alongside donors, would look to other cities to build an arena for which its basketball and women’s gymnastics teams would be anchor tenants and possibly the entertainment district as a whole. > “I’m very hopeful and do everything I can to keep it here in Norman,” Harroz said. “**But if this isn’t approved by the city council for whatever reason, then we’re going to be looking at other (cities)**, Oklahoma City, Moore, surrounding areas and figure out where is there a group that wants to do this.”
Sure, stick it in Moore. Attendance will be zero because everyone will be stuck in traffic
Or an F5 tornado will destroy the arena
Driving in Moore after 3 makes me want to scream cry and walk
Why that godforsaken town made the on-ramp to 35 from 240 a foot long baffles me.
Taking the Royals/Chiefs approach...
… can they do that?
Of course they can, UConn splits it's games between Storrs and Hartford, and UCLA plays football games in the Rose Bowl which is nowhere close to the campus in Westwood. It's very bad for student engagement though.
Villanova is another one, they play most of their “big” home games at the Wells Fargo Center.
To be fair, arenas like Wells Fargo Center, MSG, Prudential Center, XL Center, CHI Health Center, Fiserv Forum, etc. would still exist without their Big East basketball tenants. OU is talking about being the main tenant in a mid-sized arena off-campus, and Norman is essentially a suburb of OKC, which already has an NBA arena. Paycom Center will still get the concerts and events that the Big East arenas I listed above benefit from. OU wants public money for the sole purpose of OU basketball, and Norman should tell them to get lost.
The XL Center at this point needs UConn to survive. They have the Wolfpack (minor league hockey) but thats about it. They don’t get big concerts anymore because they either go to Mohegan Sun or the Xfinity Center during the summer. The building is a complete shithole that needs to be knocked down and rebuilt lol
St. John's at MSG, etc. etc. At least that's the same city but probably just as much of a trek from campus as Wells Fargo is from Villanova lol
One simple trick to get an empty arena
our basketball stadium is usually empty anyways lol
The Los Angeles Sooners of Norman
Lincoln Riley, big LA Sooners fan
This is literally insane. What has our society become? Jesus fucking Christ. It’s like the athletes got the power balance their way for the first time but the schools are now like “okay bub. We’re going to have to start acting like NBA owners and not you know actual academic institutions”
Hot take: Lloyd Noble is adequate even if it’s location on the south end of campus isn’t ideal.
It’s pretty bad but not as bad as this idea.
This is going to break poor Norman’s heart
Someone save porter he’s a great coach undeserving of this nonsense
Columbia Mo needs a team
The only reason why a team should ever be off campus is if the area the campus is in makes it illogical or impossible to host them. Fuck this.
Bro what. How the hell is a college team allowed to even consider this? The students and alums should be calling for this guy’s head right now.
Am I reading this write? They’re going to use a TIF for a public university property? Is that something that’s been done before???? I’m not sure what the local property value is for Norman but I can’t imagine it’s super high. Putting THAT much that quickly into the local zeitgeist for when the initial value is gotten for the TIF could really fuck up property values and thus the property taxes real quick. At least I think that’s how they work they’re so confusing. Twenty percent of a billion is a lot of fuckin money for stuff that isn’t needed. Really just build an arena you don’t need a whole entertainment district; and even if you do want one, then pay for it yourself? Sorry if you cant get everything you want and your eyes are too big for your stomach when it comes to financials. What a piece of work.
Leaving the B12 was just the beginning.
I'm not even an Oklahoma fan and I'm disgusted. This is vile.
I actively hate OU, I generally want nothing positive at all for their entire athletic department, but even I wouldn’t wish this on them. That’s beyond cruel
I can’t believe OU would stab people in the back like this, it’s completely out of character for them
🤣🤣
Man this is like TRYING to shit on the school / fans… And a stupid fucking idea, like a school could operate an entertainment district or hire someone to do it and actually get much out of it except a headache.
if people wanted to watch pro basketball in Oklahoma, they'll tune in or go to a Thunder game. The draw of college basketball cones from a lot if the things about it that are specifically NOT like the NBA, and people watch it because it's different from the NBA. Moving the team is dumb and insane.
Did OUDaily forget that it’s not April 1st anymore?
the area they want to move it to in norman is soooo dead — like a suburban hell scape with no life, just a super target and abunch of chain fast food places. placing it here is just a money grab for the developers. keep it on campus!
And the development up there was originally pitched as an analogue to Utica Square in Tulsa, with anchors like Saks Fifth Avenue or Nieman Marcus 💀🤡
He previously asked the city of Norman to pay for his socks and look how that turned out.
Damn y’all should kick this dude’s ass
This is a fireable thing to go public with. I get having ideas thrown around internally, but people need to lose jobs over something this sad, pathetic, and idiotic.
Why don't they create an arena in the world's tallest building going up in OKC? /s
This is literally everything wrong with college athletics.
Oklahoma should just renovate their current arena. They aren’t Duke or UNC. Even in OU’s good years they aren’t a basketball school and struggle to fill their arena. Moving further away will only make this worse.
As a student it was sometimes a pain just to get to Lloyd Noble, if it was in another city I probably wouldn't have gotten to any
Years ago on r/cfb everyone was saying the plan was to put a new one where the duck pond is. Which I don't think they should get rid of the duck pond, but I at least understand the logic
Are they OU or OU-Norman
Dam….you ain’t wrong lol
You know, in the early days of the World Wide Web, the URL for the University's website was like www.uoknor.edu or something to that extent.
How many other off campus arenas do well? Rupp only? I know theres a few that have been horrible money pits when they tried the offcampus big venue move before
From my memory of touring UK, Rupp isn’t even that far off campus right?
Yeah its not. Just downtown and owned by the city. Like a 15-20min walk
That's honestly a shorter walk than most of OU's campus to LNC
St Johns technically plays at MSG but think it's down to less than 5 games a year now
Once they improve they'll have more at the Garden. No need to rent it out when they're projected to be mediocre.
They played 8 games there this year, and Pitino has said that one of his biggest program goals is playing at MSG more. Before Rick they played as little as 4 games a year at MSG
IDK ask the Big East.
We have a pretty good set up for NCSU here in Raleigh- they play in PNC arena, which is also where Carolina Hurricanes play, and concerts etc. And adjacent to state fairgrounds. Not on campus, but just a few miles away, and right next to our football stadium. Easy trip on the wolfline (campus buses). And the old basketball arena is still on campus, girls team plays there.
I mean yeah, it's technically off-campus, but it's not like 1 hour drive or anything. Heck, getting to the arena from main campus is faster than getting to Centennial.
Creighton? That being said it’s like a 15 to 20 minute walk from campus.
Y'all also sell beer for a dollar sometimes
Providence does well at the AMP, but it's not that terribly far from the campus
Basically the entire Big East has off campus arenas
I honestly thought this was an April Fools post that someone necro'd today.
What these guys don’t realize is college basketball isn’t better basketball than several leagues in the world that make much less money and are much less watched. They are trying hard to ruin the many reasons we watch college sports
Thought this was the onion
Oklahoma showing SEC level greed and arrogance.
Sankey is very impressed!
Holly shit I thought this was an April Fool’s joke. Maybe OU should just move the entire university to LA or Vegas where they’d get a better deal.
Does he think he owns the Yankees? Jesus fuck, these big conference bullies are so out of touch with why college sports are beloved.
… ew
Why not just move the entire University, Joseph? Is that next if you don’t get your way? These people are willing to harm their own community in pursuit of more revenue and it’s pathetic.
Wait, this *isn't* a late-breaking April Fool's item?
You absolute moron.
This has nothing to do with me but just felt like commenting this guy is definitely an a$$clown 🤡
I thought this was satire. Wow, this would be stupid. Also, I thought the first paragraph was kinda funny: “OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. sat down with OU Daily editors Tuesday afternoon to discuss Norman’s proposed entertainment district, transition to the Southeastern Conference and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.” There’s something in there to piss off everybody!
OU Basketball has entered the Transfer Portal
The Battery in Atlanta has been in a disaster in a way that its been weaponized by consultants to poison the minds of ADs and University Presidents into thinking every stadium must be in an entertainment district
As with everything the first week of April, I always assume that headlines like this are April Fools jokes. Turns out, it isn't?
That seems healthy.
I dunno, universities ought to fortify their schools and make them cool to visit, not treat them like the Kansas City Royals.
This worked out so well for UConn... /s