New ARENA as part of entertainment District

I think in a lot of ways this may actually help student attendance by having a vibrant social scene right around the arena. I’m sure they ll have no issues filling it year round, no more pussyfooting around this has to happen.
This reminds me of an email a friend sent last week. Some of it has been mentioned before, but it's related to the growth of everything with the move to the SEC:
"(Connection to OU) tells me that OU is anticipating increase in students of 2,000 to 2,500 per year for ten years with switch to SEC. The SEC schools already get $10 to $12 per year more just based on television money, but he also tells me that it has a broad and deep affect.

The increase in quality sporting events and the travel ability of the SEC affects all sports. This increases the quality of life on campus and thus attracts more students. For example, in football, opposing fans buy all of the allocated road game tickets. The allocation is about twice for the SEC games than for Big 12 games. The SEC fans often get to away games on Tuesday and celebrate all week long. They want things like concerts to go to and plays to attend. All of this affects the quality of life on campus. It happens for every sport. All of this means more restaurants, bars, and hotels and more tourism. The increase in tourism money is more than the television money."
 
This reminds me of an email a friend sent last week. Some of it has been mentioned before, but it's related to the growth of everything with the move to the SEC:
"(Connection to OU) tells me that OU is anticipating increase in students of 2,000 to 2,500 per year for ten years with switch to SEC. The SEC schools already get $10 to $12 per year more just based on television money, but he also tells me that it has a broad and deep affect.

The increase in quality sporting events and the travel ability of the SEC affects all sports. This increases the quality of life on campus and thus attracts more students. For example, in football, opposing fans buy all of the allocated road game tickets. The allocation is about twice for the SEC games than for Big 12 games. The SEC fans often get to away games on Tuesday and celebrate all week long. They want things like concerts to go to and plays to attend. All of this affects the quality of life on campus. It happens for every sport. All of this means more restaurants, bars, and hotels and more tourism. The increase in tourism money is more than the television money."
I just think some of that is overstated. Is there a population of retired alum that might look for "plays to attend?" Maybe. But I'm not looking at the Ole Miss and LSU games this year and wondering what I'm going to do in those towns other than watch a good football game. Especially LSU. If I make it to that game, any non-game entertainment I partake in would likely be general New Orleans tourist stuff.

And why would OU's student numbers increase? If they do, I think it's because OU wants them to increase, not because the move to the SEC caused them to increase. Outside of athletes, who is picking a college based on their athletic conference affiliation?

Not trying to be argumentative. OU does need to do some things differently now that we're in the SEC, but some of the stuff being talked about, I think like other things, is just getting blown out of proportion.
 
If in property tax tif. value of property is set as commercial land. School gets their portion based on that until tif is done. That’s the basic. Sometimes there is some percentage adjustments based on value of property increase.
 
I just think some of that is overstated. Is there a population of retired alum that might look for "plays to attend?" Maybe. But I'm not looking at the Ole Miss and LSU games this year and wondering what I'm going to do in those towns other than watch a good football game. Especially LSU. If I make it to that game, any non-game entertainment I partake in would likely be general New Orleans tourist stuff.

And why would OU's student numbers increase? If they do, I think it's because OU wants them to increase, not because the move to the SEC caused them to increase. Outside of athletes, who is picking a college based on their athletic conference affiliation?

Not trying to be argumentative. OU does need to do some things differently now that we're in the SEC, but some of the stuff being talked about, I think like other things, is just getting blown out of proportion.
The school has capped the number of freshmen and transfers allowed due to dorm construction plans. I assume that they are raising that cap slowly up. Not sure if tied to sec.
 
I just think some of that is overstated. Is there a population of retired alum that might look for "plays to attend?" Maybe. But I'm not looking at the Ole Miss and LSU games this year and wondering what I'm going to do in those towns other than watch a good football game. Especially LSU. If I make it to that game, any non-game entertainment I partake in would likely be general New Orleans tourist stuff.

And why would OU's student numbers increase? If they do, I think it's because OU wants them to increase, not because the move to the SEC caused them to increase. Outside of athletes, who is picking a college based on their athletic conference affiliation?

Not trying to be argumentative. OU does need to do some things differently now that we're in the SEC, but some of the stuff being talked about, I think like other things, is just getting blown out of proportion.
I think plenty of college seniors consider the non-academic culture of the schools they're considering. Should they? Perhaps not, but we're talking about 17- and 18-year-olds here. I never considered any school other than OU. Why? It wasn't specifically about sports, but I'd been an OU fan in an OU family my whole life and my attachment to OU was certainly impacted by years of cheering for the Sooners.

And I think many fans who spend four or five days in Baton Rouge or Oxford would seek out various other activities to fill the days leading up to game day. I certainly would.
 
I think plenty of college seniors consider the non-academic culture of the schools they're considering. Should they? Perhaps not, but we're talking about 17- and 18-year-olds here. I never considered any school other than OU. Why? It wasn't specifically about sports, but I'd been an OU fan in an OU family my whole life and my attachment to OU was certainly impacted by years of cheering for the Sooners.

And I think many fans who spend four or five days in Baton Rouge or Oxford would seek out various other activities to fill the days leading up to game day. I certainly would.
OU expected enrollment to go up a ton in the first 10 years of the SEC
 
I just think some of that is overstated. Is there a population of retired alum that might look for "plays to attend?" Maybe. But I'm not looking at the Ole Miss and LSU games this year and wondering what I'm going to do in those towns other than watch a good football game. Especially LSU. If I make it to that game, any non-game entertainment I partake in would likely be general New Orleans tourist stuff.

And why would OU's student numbers increase? If they do, I think it's because OU wants them to increase, not because the move to the SEC caused them to increase. Outside of athletes, who is picking a college based on their athletic conference affiliation?

Not trying to be argumentative. OU does need to do some things differently now that we're in the SEC, but some of the stuff being talked about, I think like other things, is just getting blown out of proportion.

Definitely a real phenomenon, one can argue if this a good development but kids increasingly choosing schools because of the entertainment/experience prospects.

You should definitely try and plan out your trip if going to Oxford.
 

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This sounds like bad news. I bet those that vote will go against it.
The anti arena voters will be more passionate than the pro arena voters. August will be a low turnout election so passion matters a lot. It will be hard for the city council to ignore the result of the vote even though it is non binding.
 
Packed council meeting tonight. Enough voices now they can't just push through from my perspective as a norman resident.

This one may go different, however as said before, there is a decent amount of opposition for this every time it's been brought up, especially regarding creating a new TIF district. Last one left bad taste for some.
 
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