Does moving OU sports displace existing activity or create new taxable sales?

 November 11, 2023

Today's episode of "Can you believe the arena-entertainment district hype? "

"Why are arena promoters ignoring well-known displacement effects?"

We need to understand Tax Increment Financing. Key details:

(1) TIF does not create a new revenue source to protect general fund

(2) The public does not get to vote like we did on Norman Forward quality of life projects,

(3) Tax collections are targeted to the TIF district and not available for city-wide needs

(4) The key to doing economic and fiscal impact analysis is evaluating how much net new activity (taxable sales) is likely to result vs. how much activity in the TIF displaces existing revenues

Here's a cartoon to illustrate displacement

Scott Dixon how do you know that a new arena won't mostly displace spending in Norman? (data-driven evidence please).