NORMAN — Roger Denny was crystal clear Thursday.
As Oklahoma’s athletic director outlined to The Oklahoman final month, whereas the Sooners are definitely reevaluating specifics of The Palace Mission, the $450 million plan continues to be occurring and the timeline of starting development following the 2027 soccer season continues to be on observe.
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“The query is simply what it is gonna appear to be, what it is gonna encompass,” mentioned Denny, who wasn’t fairly able to dive into specifics simply but.
It is not usually an athletic director will get a possibility like this.
Denny started his new gig in February, lower than three months after OU introduced the stadium renovation mission. When he arrived, he heard among the sturdy emotions followers portrayed and has labored diligently along with his group to deal with a few of these considerations.
Nonetheless, one of many considerations that will not be altering — reseating.
Of their preliminary announcement, the Sooners introduced a stadium-wide reseating course of that can start forward of the 2028 season as development of 47 suites, 64 loge containers, about 4,000 new membership seats and 6 membership/lounge areas commences. OU assured each season ticket holder, no matter present seat location, would have entry to a number of choices by way of the method and the athletic division would contact all season ticket holders and provide to satisfy in particular person to assessment all choices.
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Denny is standing by that.
“Our season ticket holders, my expectation is we’ll discuss to each single one in every of them,” Denny mentioned. “We now have obligations round right here. We now have people who have handled us effectively for a very, actually very long time. To not have these conversations does not make sense to me. And so my expectation is that we’ll discuss to each single one in every of them and inform them of what the plan is, but in addition allow them to learn about what the choices are.”
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As a part of Denny’s due diligence to reevaluate the mission, he tasked his group with researching ticket income and the Sooners’ soccer finances over the previous 20 years. The info was enlightening.
In 2005, OU’s ticket income lined 160% of its whole soccer spend. Twenty years later, ticket income lined lower than 75%. This season, Denny expects ticket income will cowl someplace round 50% of the full soccer spend.
The world of faculty athletics is altering by the second.
Whereas Denny understands the emotion at play, he is aware of if the Sooners do not discover a method to reverse these pattern strains, they will not have a sustainable program that expects to compete for championships.
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“I perceive the problem that is related to a reseat within the stadium,” Denny mentioned. “However on the similar time, we’ve to ensure that we’re staying economically viable as a result of the one factor that we will not settle for right here is falling behind. So whereas it is tough, I’d say we’re doing the whole lot we will to ensure that each season ticket holder to Oklahoma soccer has a spot within the stadium, and that can completely be the case.”
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Roger Denny, OU athletic director, speaks in the course of the Oklahoma Sooners rejoice their NCAA baseball Faculty World Sequence championship in a ceremony at Kimrey Household Stadium in Norman on Wednesday, June 24, 2026.
OU ‘nearing’ finish of operator choice for brand new hoops, health club area
On the opposite aspect of city, simply over six miles north at College North Park, a separate main mission is effectively underway.
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Floor is transferring, work on horizontal infrastructure and connecting utilities has begun to ensure that the positioning to be in fine condition to start out constructing. And the Sooners are “nearing” the tip of the operator choice course of.
“We’ll choose an operator after which we’ll dive head first into the design of that place,” Denny mentioned. “Not simply the world, however the whole lot round it. And so I anticipate a variety of motion on that mission, particularly motion that folk will start to begin to see and really feel what that is going to appear to be right here over the subsequent few months.”
Within the meantime, Denny — alongside new males’s common supervisor Lucas McKay and ladies’s common supervisor Jared Boyd — is working to create momentum with OU’s basketball packages so it’s going to be simpler to promote tickets as soon as the brand new area is accomplished.
“We’re investing at the moment in basketball, so two years from now, after we get out to market and begin promoting that place, we get the response that we would like,” Denny mentioned, “in order that then, by the point we transfer in, we have got it actually full and loud and the whole lot that each one of us hopes for out of a brand new basketball area for our packages.”
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Colton Sulley covers the Oklahoma Sooners for The Oklahoman. Have a narrative thought for Colton? He will be reached at csulley@oklahoman.com or on X/Twitter at @colton_sulley. Help Colton’s work and that of different Oklahoman journalists by buying adigital subscription at the moment at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
This text initially appeared on Oklahoman: Roger Denny addresses OU soccer stadium renovation, new hoops area
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