Hundreds of Oklahoma's top high school athletes, their coaches and families filled Edmond hotel rooms, restaurants and shops last month when the Oklahoma Coaches Clinic and All-State Games relocated to the city for the first time. City officials estimate roughly 80% of attendees traveled in from outside Edmond, turning a week of statewide competition into a direct infusion of visitor spending for local businesses.
The event, which ran from July 25 through July 30, brought together more than 436 elite high school senior athletes along with thousands of coaches and family members across 15 sports, according to the Journal Record. Wayne Dozier, executive director of the Oklahoma Coaches Association, said the event brought thousands of visitors to Edmond, with many staying overnight and supporting local businesses. The association, a nonprofit supporting Oklahoma coaches and athletes, counts more than 9,500 members statewide.
Overnight Stays Add Up for Local Hotels
City officials say attendees typically stayed one to two nights, a pattern that channels directly into Edmond's tourism tax base. Jennifer Thornton, the city's director of communications and tourism, said participants enjoyed Edmond's sports facilities, and noted the influx provided a boost to local businesses while showcasing the city's athletic venues.
That overnight spending arrives at a useful moment for Edmond's coffers. In June 2024, voters approved raising the city's lodging tax from 4% to 6% — its first adjustment in 30 years — a change estimated to generate roughly $500,000 annually for Visit Edmond's tourism promotion and event recruitment work, according to Edmond Business. Before that increase, Edmond's 4% rate trailed the rest of the metro, undercutting Oklahoma City's 5.5%, Guthrie and Stillwater's 7%, and Norman's 8%, per the Edmond Area Chamber of Commerce. Hotel guests in Edmond now pay a combined tax load of the state's 4.5% sales tax, the city's 8.25% municipal sales tax, and the 6% lodging excise tax, according to the Oklahoma Hotel & Lodging Association.
A Statewide Tradition Lands on New Turf
The Oklahoma Coaches Clinic and All-State Games date back to 1938, when the Oklahoma Coaches Association — founded in 1934 with just 13 original members — held its first all-star football game. The gathering has since grown into a showcase spanning 15 sports, and its history hasn't been uninterrupted: the 2020 clinic and games, then held in Tulsa, were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the first cancellation in the organization's history.
This year marked the event's move from Tulsa to Edmond, with athletes competing in volleyball, golf, tennis, basketball, wrestling and football across venues including KickingBird Golf Club, Edmond Center Court and the University of Central Oklahoma. Stan Wagnon, vice president of athletics at UCO and chair of Edmond's tourism advisory board, said the event gave coaches and athletes an opportunity to experience the UCO campus. The university supported the clinic and games as a host partner.
One competitive footnote from the week: the East and West All-State golf teams finished tied for the first time in the event's history, a result decided on KickingBird's fairways. The course reopened in June 2023 after a nearly $21 million renovation that added a 13,500-square-foot clubhouse and event center, and Edmond's City Council approved another $145,500 last October to refurbish the course's water well infrastructure and add 30 parking spaces to handle visitor volume.
Municipal Investment Behind the Scenes
Edmond Center Court, the tennis venue used during the games, opened in 2020 as a joint project between the city and Edmond Public Schools and was later named the USTA's 2022 Outstanding Facility of the Year. Those facilities, paired with UCO's campus, gave organizers the capacity to host the full slate of athletes and coaches in one city rather than splitting the event across multiple sites.
City officials say the event will return to Edmond for the next two years, giving Visit Edmond a recurring opportunity to capture lodging and sales tax revenue tied to the games. Wagnon said continued partnership will strengthen connections between the community, coaches and student-athletes. The pattern echoes another recent push by the city to court sports tourism, including Arcadia Lake's new rowing festival earlier this month.
