City of Norman exploring building new arena that could house OU basketball

[OUHoops]

http://www.oudaily.com/news/city-of...cle_315ca468-9d89-11e7-9e16-5390ca9e6557.html

 

[OUHoops]

Wow. Yes please.

 

[CoachTalk]

Pretty please!

 

[skyvue]

Seems unusual to have the unversity as a tenant in a city-owned facility, no?

 

[OUHoops]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3rcsW5BrtlZUnlxYUExRk9lU3c/view

 

[usedtobe1]

A 10,000 seat arena? All purpose. I want something more "intimate" for basketball fans. I'm spoiled with Toyota arena where the Rockets play in Houston. The upper deck is so close you feel like if you fell, you could land on the court. Also, I like the option of practicing on your home court ..... and nor sharing it with local HS teams and their events.

I guess I would need to see more. I'm skeptical.

 

[OUHoops]

A 10,000 seat arena? All purpose. I want something more "intimate" for basketball fans.

Agree on that. And that rendering seems too good to be true just overall/design wise.

 

[coolm]

I know there are a lot of downers to it, but I've been begging for years to get our arena either on campus or right next to it. No matter how easy they make getting there the distance from the center of campus and being in the boonies negatively impacts attendance at LNC.

 

[afaSooner]

Ok yes sounds good. Let's start building tomorrow mmmkay? :woot

 

[Swans]

Looks like this would be built out by Westheimer. Can't see any upside to that. Especially if you're talking proximity to the university.

 

[perryj74]

They're going to have to bus students to and from the game to get any kind of turnout. However I would think this would encourage more non-students to attend the games.

 

[OU92Grad]

How far down the road are we looking at? Has anyone seen anything stating what year the arena could actually be completed by?

 

[Darwin]

LNC's location isn't perfect but it's not bad. The campus is growing south so it's location continues to get better. Now the new construction to I35 will make post game travel way easier. Most of us believe the program will be better with a home court energy and intimidation which starts with students and can be enhanced with that close on top of seating. So the proposal is good for Norman ,yes, but not the the OU mens program. Though it would be a nice place for that year the LNC is rebuilt.

 

[Swans]

LNC's location isn't perfect but it's not bad. The campus is growing south so it's location continues to get better. Now the new construction to I35 will make post game travel way easier. Most of us believe the program will be better with a home court energy and intimidation which starts with students and can be enhanced with that close on top of seating. So the proposal is good for Norman ,yes, but not the the OU mens program. Though it would be a nice place for that year the LNC is rebuilt.

This!!!

 

[Soonercuda]

LNC's location isn't perfect but it's not bad. The campus is growing south so it's location continues to get better. Now the new construction to I35 will make post game travel way easier. Most of us believe the program will be better with a home court energy and intimidation which starts with students and can be enhanced with that close on top of seating. So the proposal is good for Norman ,yes, but not the the OU mens program. Though it would be a nice place for that year the LNC is rebuilt.

I can't imagine Norman building this without a long term commitment from OU. OU is going to put its next major athletic facility funding push on the stadium west side upper deck improvements to press box, suites, club seats, etc. So to get an improved basketball arena in the near term this may be the best route.

 

[OUHoops]

The question is how much does the location help the non-student attendance because of the closer to the OKC metro?

I haven't crunched the numbers but I'm guessing most of the non-con games last year averaged 5k per game and the conference games around 7-8k. How much more does that really increase with this location move?

I think having "entertainment" district around it with restaurants around it within walking distance is a nice touch. Always wished there were more spots around the LNC.

 

[coolm]

if it's not going to be right off of or on campus then it's pointless. more of the same.

 

[Boomer23]

This is not going to happen unless the TIF is approved. I think there is a reasonable amount of opposition to the TIF. Personally I would rather see the basketball arena on campus.

 

[snydrosooner]

I would much rather have on campus. But if this brings 8k to most games while loosing a few students I am for the move.

The issue is more complicated. From my understanding, most games are close to sell outs, its just the tickets are not used. Would this change if we had a new arena possibly. But need to find out why not being used.

 

[Bk2X]

Whole slew of reasons to not show up but frankly weeknight games aren't convenient for most in the metro.