New data shows the city of Norman saw a double-digit increase in sales tax revenue in December, an increase that city leaders credit to OU’s home College Football Playoff game.
According to the February 2026 sales tax report obtained by OU Daily, the city of Norman recorded a 13.61% increase in sales tax. This percentage is based on the trend between December 2024 and December 2025, according to Scott Martin, president and CEO of the Norman Chamber of Commerce.
In a Feb. 16 interview with the Daily, Martin said that although December tends to generate additional income from holiday shopping, he believes the playoffs are the main driver of the increase.
“December is always a healthy (month) for sales tax collections because (of) the holidays — people are out shopping,” Martin said. “I think it's pretty safe to say that this particular growth can be directly attributed to the playoff game that occurred in Norman in December.”
The city collected a total of $6,516,536 in December, according to the report. In December 2024, the city collected $5,735,634, making a $780,902 difference.
The city of Norman receives most of its day-to-day funding through sales tax, and Oklahoma is the only state in the nation where this is common practice.
With this in mind, Martin said that money can support local businesses and hotels.
“That's more money that's put into a mom-and-pop restaurant or additional hotel (and) motel taxes collected (from) visitors that are coming to town,” Martin said. “All these things have a compounding effect that really (does) help drive our local economy.”
Martin noted that since OU’s move to the Southeastern Conference, more visitors have come to Norman, which boosts the local economy. Martin said the SEC and OU athletics are two brands the city should lean into.
“I think the important thing is (that) we lean into our strengths,” Martin said. “There's only one Oklahoma, and it's ours. We are the home base when it comes to OU athletics.”
The Rock Creek Entertainment District, an upcoming development project in Norman’s University North Park, will include a new arena with OU athletics as a feature tenant. In total, the project is expected to cost $622 million.
Martin said not every college town is “lucky” enough to host a home playoff game, and he hopes OU can host another playoff game in the future.
Dan Schemm, president and CEO of Visit Norman, told the Daily Feb. 17 that both hotel occupancy and room rates also increased significantly in December.
“For that weekend of the playoff game, the occupancy in our hotels jumped 81% from the same time the previous year and the average daily rate jumped up 130% from the same time last year,”
Schemm said. “The room tax in December was up 38% from the prior year, so that was tremendous as well.”
A daily rate is the average price that hotel guests pay per night of their stay, measured across motels to high-end hotels, according to Schemm.
Schemm said that although official tourist numbers are not available, he estimates that 70% of visitors in town for the game were from out of state.
“We had visitors coming from Arizona, California, Houston, Austin, Arkansas, … Michigan, Colorado, New York — people were coming from all over,” Schemm said.
Visit Norman tracks visitor numbers through software systems that tap into cell phone activity, a step up from the previous way of measuring tourist activity which involved counting license plates and on-site surveys, according to Schemm.
Of the total spend during December 2025, 19% was from visitors, according to Schemm. He added that 61% of the visitor expenditure went directly to small businesses, which supports the local community.
“(Small businesses) don't have corporate companies, chains, headquarters (or) other places that help support them. It’s mom-and-pops that are pulling up their bootstraps and making it on their own,” Schemm said. “They're also the ones that support our local Little League teams … when they're successful and thriving, it means our community is successful and thriving.”
Schemm added that the increase in tax revenue will be allocated to the city’s general fund, which is used to enhance the quality of life in Norman, including improvements to parks, roads and festivals.
“This means that the playground equipment is going to be nicer. It means that the grass is going to be mowed more often,” Schemm said. “The portion that goes to all of our arts entities that receive grants from this … it just makes Norman a tremendous place to live.”
Martin said quality of life improvements are all intertwined with each other.
“Whether it's other core services that our city is providing, like public safety, parks, recreation (or) streets … all these things go together,” Martin said. “They dovetail off of each other.”
Schemm said he hopes to continue increasing tax revenue.
“We are going to continue to market Norman to visitors and get my favorite type of money, other people's money, coming into Norman.”
This story was edited by Audrey McClour and Natalie Armour. Chelsea Low and Gretchen Schultz copy edited this story.
