Oklahoma coach Porter Moser said it’s time for a new basketball arena during his media availability via Zoom on Thursday.
The first-year Sooners coach was adamant that a new arena is needed and that he’s had conversations about it with athletic director Joe Castiglione since he was hired on April 3, 2021.
“I definitely think it’s time for a new arena for a lot of reasons,” Moser said. “Definitely been talking since I was hired with Joe (Castiglione), he’s very much in those conversations and very aggressive with those conversations.”
The project was created in 2017 when the city of Norman unveiled a plan to develop a new entertainment district to potentially house OU basketball, with restaurants, hotels and other amenities. The OU Foundation requested tax incentives through the University North Park tax increment district in 2018 to build the arena, the Norman Transcript reported.
Following opposition from community members and a lawsuit regarding records allegedly subject to the state open records act, the OU Foundation withdrew its request in July 2018.
The new district would have been located between Rock Creek and Tecumseh Road about six miles from OU’s campus. In 2017, OU agreed "in principle" to be the multi-purpose arena’s anchor tenant, and Castiglione said the university’s interest level was “very high,” according to a previous article from The Daily.
The Transcript reported that, after the request’s withdrawal, the project was unofficially presented to the city of Moore, but the proposal was never submitted, City Manager Brooks Mitchell said.
The Lloyd Noble Center opened in 1975 and holds up to 11,562 fans. When asked if the idea of an off-campus arena was possible, Moser said he would offer more insight about a new stadium after the season.
In an effort to get more students in seats, Moser has spoken at multiple Greek life events, offered free pizza to early arrivals and even made a half-court shot to grant students free tickets for the entire season.
"I'm doing what I can control right now," Moser said. "That's trying to get those students in there and the people in there and put a product on the floor where we're playing our tails off that people want to root for.
I'm going to keep doing that to connect with the students. I love our student body. I think they're awesome. But also, we all know it, we definitely need a new one."
Moser and Oklahoma (14-12, 4-9 Big 12) face Iowa State (17-9, 4-9) at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 19 in Ames on ESPN+.
“There are people who have had two arenas since (1975),” Moser said. “It’s a huge part of what we want and the direction we want to go.”
Alexia Aston contributed to this report
