OU’s transition to the Southeastern Conference has increased visitors, business revenue and occupancy rates in Norman, highlighting questions on if the city’s lodging can keep up with the community’s growth.
Since the move to the SEC in July 2024, after nearly 30 years in the Big 12 Conference, OU doubled the number of visiting tickets it sells for football games.
According to an Oklahoma Hotel and Lodging Association report, Norman has seen a steady increase in the monthly average daily rate of hotel stays in the past two years, with a significant spike during OU’s 2024 football season.
Krystle Ross has worked as the director of sales for the Noun Hotel since 2023, witnessing how OU’s move to the SEC has affected Norman hotels.
Ross said Norman is struggling to keep up with the increased demand for lodging during athletic seasons.
“There's demand for more hotel rooms in Norman as a whole. I think there's only 27 or 28 hotels. The market is definitely struggling to keep up,” Ross said. “Our management company is out of Oklahoma City, and so we have several sister properties in the downtown area, and they're starting to see compression from specifically football as well.”
Noun Hotel runs out of space each game weekend, Ross said, and customers are booking their rooms months in advance.
“We sell out for every game. We have waitlists for a year out,” Ross said. “Guests are jumping on the waitlist that far in advance as soon as the opponents are released. It's pretty insane.”
This demand is new for the hotel. Ross said OU was still part of the Big 12 during her first year working at the Noun, and game weekends were less intense.
“We didn’t see this type of demand when we were in the Big 12 conference,” Ross said. “A lot of the opponents that were coming were just a hop, skip and jump away from the state of Oklahoma. You're talking about Kansas, Kansas State. And so some of those smaller fan bases, they weren't coming for the entire weekend, they were just coming for maybe one or two nights at the most.”
One of the biggest changes is the media coverage that comes along with the sports outside of football, Ross said.
“What's been really big for us, specifically being so near the campus, is the other teams too. A lot of these other games are being televised through national broadcasts and we weren't seeing a lot of that with the Big 12 Conference,” Ross said. “Whereas SEC conference, seeing a lot of the production crews that are staying when they're televising some of the basketball games and the gymnastics meets and stuff like that.”
Ross said with the move, fans typically stay in Norman for longer periods and interact more with the community.
“The fans are coming earlier. They're obviously traveling farther than when we were in the Big 12 and so they're coming in, they're arriving as early as a Wednesday or even Thursday, and then staying through the whole weekend,” Ross said. “They're looking to, ‘Where can I go and eat? Where can I go and shop? What are the sites to see in Norman?’”
Due to the economic impact of increased tourism, the city is proposing a guest tax increase from 8% to 10%, which pays the city’s arts, parks and Visit Norman, the city’s tourism and visitor information organization.
Dan Schemm, Visit Norman president and CEO, said the guest tax collection has already grown exponentially since the SEC move, even without the proposed increase.
“We have seen tremendous growth here in Norman. Last year's first full year in the SEC we saw a 15% increase in the guest tax collection,” Schemm said. “That's huge. Generally, we look at hopefully a 3% to 5% increase year over year.”
Schemm said the estimated total tax collection for this year’s football season is over $5 million.
This guest tax is due to the increased stays and visits of SEC fans, which Schemm said has made a large economic impact.
“SEC fans travel for all sports. If you go to the Lloyd Noble Center for gymnastics or women's basketball, you see more of the other schools' colors than we ever did in the Big 12,” Schemm said. “For football, … (in) the Big 12, we generally saw an estimated $8-$11 million economic impact. And looking at the SEC, on just a very conservative, low-end estimate, we saw $25 million per game.”
Schemm said not every visitor goes to the games so the number of people in Norman on gameday weekend is more than what the ticket numbers show.
“The stadium holds 83,000 people, and we have 3,000 hotel rooms, but we get more people coming than just going to the game,” Schemm said. “They come to the tailgate and do all of that as well.”
Schemm said these increased visitor rates have made the hotel industry in Norman look toward expansion and development.
“The Noun is looking to add 52 hotel rooms and some meeting space,” Schemm said. “There's also a downtown hotel that is in the planning process and hopefully will be moving forward with the groundbreaking.”
Another notable part of many SEC towns is large RV parks to accommodate visitors, which Norman is capitalizing on.
“That's a big culture shift that we didn't have in the Big 12,” Schemm said. “Just last Tuesday, at the council meeting, they approved some slight changes to a development on the southeast side of Norman that includes a Luxury RV park.”
This was Item 32 at the Norman City Council meeting, a vote which approved a preliminary plat for Liberty Point, a plan for the development of an RV resort.
According to Schemm, these new developments have caused a change in the energy of Norman.
“It didn't have the same energy and vibe that we do now. The whole atmosphere around the city has completely changed, and I think that just carries over to our retailers, our shops, our attractions, our hotels,” Schemm said. “We definitely have seen a difference.”
All these changes and increased visits are positive to Schemm but pose challenges to the city.
“It does pose challenges. Where are they going to live, and how do we get affordable housing and things?” Schemm said. “It's something that Visit Norman and the city council and others are stepping up and ready to address and tackle those challenges head on.”
Scott Martin, Norman Chamber of Commerce president and CEO, agreed the expansion is being handled well by the city. He said Schemm and Visit Norman, as well as members of the community, have been executing innovative ideas to deal with increased visitors.
“(Visit Norman) bought some extended golf carts and are transporting people on a Friday night of a gameday weekend, and also on a Saturday back and forth between Campus Corner and downtown, making it really easy for people to get around in those two business districts,” Martin said. “That’s a tangible, really neat effort that I saw.”
In the fall of 2022, Martin traveled to SEC college towns, including Fayetteville, Arkansas; Lexington, Kentucky; and Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to get a baseline of how the move would impact Norman.
The pre-SEC visits predicted the rise in RV traffic, along with increased visitor engagement in Norman.
During his visits, Martin said he also noticed increased development in the cities' lodging industries, which is now happening in Norman.
“There’s a hotel that is being contemplated in our downtown area that is moving forward. It’ll be roughly another 100 beds that will be added to our community,” Martin said.
Martin also stated the plan for the Rock Creek Entertainment District includes a hotel and conference center to help meet the growing demand.
Despite the growing pains, Martin said city developments, increased fan numbers and longer stay patterns have been positive.
“The move to the SEC has been fantastic for Norman, not only just the general excitement,” Martin said. “Certainly you’ve seen increased eyes on the university, which translates to eyes on our community.”
Outside of driving sales, occupancy rates and community engagement, Martin said the SEC impact is a positive for connections between locals.
“You can’t put a price on that. It’s just been awesome for us to come together as a team, as a community, to support this transition, because it’s way more than what happens on the athletic field,” Martin said. “This is really something that impacts our entire community.”
This story was edited by Madisson Cameron, Natalie Armour and Anusha Fathepure. Vanessa Essien, Kylie Caldwell and Tori Pham copy edited this story.
