Leaders place a sign near the site of the future OU basketball arena

About 50 university and city officials and local business owners gathered in an empty field at 24th Avenue Northwest and Rock Creek Road, southeast of where the project will be built, and unveiled a sign identifying the area as the future home of the entertainment district.

“The people who are here, I’ve had the honor of working with them on this issue over the last few years, and I couldn’t be prouder to be part of this group,” OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. said as he addressed to the crowd.

“This is not a University of Oklahoma project. Yes, there will be an arena that we will use 24-28% of the time. (But) this project is about the prosperity of Norman, the prosperity of our state. It is a unique combination that only we can fulfill or pass on.

“I was so proud of the City Council vote, so proud of where we’re going, and I can’t wait to see what’s being built across the street.”

The Norman City Council voted Sept. 18 to approve the entertainment district project plan and create two tax increment funding districts that would subsidize the development.

The city was asked to pay up to $600 million for the entertainment district through the TIF, with the rest coming from private investment.

The total cost of the project for the in-district arena — which would host OU basketball games and women’s gymnastics meets — and surrounding infrastructure is $330 million. OU is expected to pay $100 million of that, with the other $230 million coming from the TIF.

Originally announced on September 23, 2023, the entertainment district project moved very slowly through the legal processes on the way to approval. Despite the delays, Sooners athletic director Joe Castiglione said after the project was approved that the goal was still to have the arena ready for OU events by 2027 or 2028.

However, the possibility of a legal challenge remains. During public hearings on the project, it became clear that some Normans are unhappy with the level of the city’s financial contribution and its potential impact on the future.

“The fight will continue,” said Norman Mayor Larry Heikkila in his address on Wednesday. “Any time we use democracy or do things like that, there’s always disagreement, especially among Oklahomans, especially in Norman.”

The state constitution and the City of Norman Charter allow citizens to submit a referendum petition against an ordinance within 30 days of its adoption. They then have 30 days from the ordinance’s passage to collect the required number of legally sufficient signatures to overturn the City Council’s decision and force a referendum.

The number of signatures required is at least 25% of the number of citizens who voted in the last mayoral election. For Norman that’s 6,098 signatures.

A referendum request for the City Council’s vote on the Rock Creek Entertainment District was submitted to the city clerk’s office on September 20. The Normanites have until Oct. 18 to obtain all the signatures needed for a public vote.

“From what I hear when I talk to people downtown, when I walk around restaurants, when I do all sorts of other things, I hear more support than negative,” Heikkila said while speaking to reporters after Wednesday’s event .

“There is a small group of people (who are against it) — and you can never make everyone happy — and they want to exercise their rights as American citizens and vote and do these things. But I think when it gets voted on, if they’re successful, you’ll be amazed at how many people come out and say, “We want this.”

Heikkila demonstratively shrugged his shoulders when asked whether he thought the project opponents would receive enough signatures. What’s the plan if there’s a referendum in the entertainment district?

“The plan will be to make it a campaign, just like a political campaign or anything else,” Heikkila said. “We will present our side, they will present (their side), our voters will make a choice. It will be a good thing.”

But district supporters didn’t seem worried about that Wednesday.

OU men’s basketball coach Porter Moser, women’s basketball coach Jennie Baranczyk and women’s fitness coach KJ Kindler have spoken on behalf of the district in public forums throughout the process. They were on hand Wednesday to help christen the site for their teams’ future home.

Whether premature or not, everyone took a victory lap as they drew a black curtain in front of the newly installed Rock Creek Entertainment District sign.

“This is a day we have been waiting for,” Harroz said.