Unpopular decision by Sooners backfiring with fans, giving them a distraction they can’t afford ahead of College Football Playoff push
Oklahoma fans are justifiably angry about the latest stadium renovations
The Oklahoma Sooners have been flying high this week. Fresh off of key back-to-back road wins over the Tennessee Volunteers and Alabama Crimson Tide, the Sooners are squarely back in the College Football Playoff race and are aiming to win their last two at home to punch their ticket to the postseason.
However, a sudden and somewhat surprising announcement on Friday has derailed some of their positive momentum with fans, and it’s produced some of the biggest backlash against the program that I have seen in quite some time that wasn’t on the heels of a loss.
The Sooners announced a new stadium renovation to Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. In it, the Sooners revealed they are doing a project to the West Side of the stadium, releasing renderings of a massive new addition of suites, club/lounge spaces, and new stadium boxes. Yet, these additions have come at the cost of wiping out close to 7,000 seats, and fans are irate.
Fans and former players against new stadium plans
The decision to remove 7,000 seats has not been a popular one. Many fans have taken to calling these upgrades “only for the rich” and not true fans of the Sooners. This renovation could actually diminish Oklahoma’s home field advantage by discarding loud fans in favor of businesses buying the boxes.
I haven’t seen this much fan backlash over something off the field since Art Briles was spotted in the stadium a few years ago. No fans have come out in support of this move, and it’s caused more grief and frustration.
Even some former players and employees of the university are speaking out against what many are calling a ridiculous insult to the program and its fans.
This move to alienate a significant chunk of fans in favor of these boxes is following a recent and disappointing trend of college football making soulless moves in an effort to pursue profits. How many times have we seen teams and leadership in charge of college football make these kinds of moves in recent years, cutting out what fans want to try and pursue corporate profit? Heck, how many times do we see this in every industry nowadays? The Big Ten is currently experiencing a schism between their schools over the entrance of private equity, and at least Michigan and USC have the backbone to fight for their fans.
It’s a smaller part in a larger problem of society, and fans are beyond angry that Oklahoma, a place that prides itself on its passionate fanbase and one of the largest consecutive sellout streaks in the country, is tossing them aside so that executives from Love’s or Riverwind Casino can get more tickets. They have every right to be upset. Several families have kept season tickets in those seats for decades, making memories with every generation of their ancestry, and nurturing one of the most passionate fanbases in college football. Those seats are now gone, replaced by a lounge in favor of someone who couldn’t even tell you who the head coach was. Generations of fans are being priced out of seats for their favorite team. How many of them will stop going to games entirely now? Too many to count.
I was born in Oklahoma, and my entire family is spread out all around the state, from Alva to Ardmore and from Idabel to Sayre. I grew up surrounded by Sooners faithful. I can attest first-hand to what Oklahomans stand for and their passion for this university. This isn’t Oklahoma. It’s a shameful display of greed that’s infecting the sport (and country) right now, and fans don’t deserve a move that feels more like a spit in the face than step in the right direction.
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