Less than two years after it opened, the Young Family Athletic Center in Norman, Oklahoma is at the center of a lawsuit, with the city alleging persistent moisture and water intrusion problems and unfinished work by the contractors who built it. The City of Norman and the Norman Municipal Authority have sued the contractors involved in construction of the facility, which was approved by voters and carries the name of NBA star Trae Young, a Norman native.
According to KFOR, the city filed the lawsuit before final acceptance of the property, a legal threshold at which full ownership and risk would otherwise shift from the contractors to the city. The lawsuit alleges the contractors left several tasks unfinished and were negligent in their project work, with the city claiming the contractors breached their contracts. City officials say mediation efforts to resolve the dispute were unsuccessful, and the city has said it filed the lawsuit to protect taxpayers.
Norman is withholding $1.5 million in contractor payments until the issues are fixed and the dispute is resolved, per the station's report. That standoff isn't new — minutes from the November 15, 2024 meeting show city officials were already withholding final payments to YFAC contractors while awaiting completion of unresolved punch-list items, according to the City of Norman, nearly two years before the lawsuit was ultimately filed.
A $50 Million Facility Built With Local Tax Dollars
The Young Family Athletic Center officially opened to the public with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on February 19, 2024, according to OU Daily. The 122,000-square-foot facility sits on a 12-acre site and includes eight basketball courts, 12 overlaying volleyball courts, an 8-lane 25-yard competition pool, a 4-lane 25-meter warmup pool, and a 25,000-square-foot sports medicine clinic operated by Norman Regional Health System as its NMotion clinic, per the City of Norman.
The project's projected budget was nearly $36 million, with funding including $22.5 million from NORMAN FORWARD sales taxes, $6.7 million from Norman Regional Health System, and $2.7 million in Tax Increment Financing funds. FSB Architects & Engineers was a design partner.
Trae Young's family foundation donated $4 million to the facility in his hometown, according to OU Daily. The project drew on the NORMAN FORWARD initiative, which Norman voters approved on October 13, 2015 with 72% support, creating a 15-year, 0.5% sales tax that has funded the athletic center along with multiple other major municipal facilities, the City of Norman notes.
Echoes of the Central Library's Mold Crisis
The lawsuit follows a familiar pattern for Norman. The city previously sued contractor Flintco LLC and architect MSR in October 2024 after Norman Public Library Central — which opened in November 2019 — was forced to close in late 2023 due to severe water intrusion and mold, as Hoodline previously reported. The library remains closed; it opened in November 2019 and closed on November 15, 2023, so by October 2026 it had been closed for less time than it had been open to the public.
City officials are drawing a sharp line between the two cases. While the library closure stemmed from alleged mold and water leaks serious enough to force an indefinite shutdown, officials say the Young Family Athletic Center will remain open during repairs, since the moisture issues present no health or safety risks to visitors and are located largely in spaces out of public view. Hoodline's earlier coverage of the library's mediation saga reported that the Norman Municipal Authority filed a lawsuit in October 2024, with mediation taking place afterward.
A Regional Athletics Hub
The Norman location has built a reputation as a regional athletics hub — in May, former NBA player Kendrick Perkins was involved in a viral courtside dispute during an AAU basketball tournament at the facility, as reported by NDTV Sports, with Perkins stating publicly that he stepped in to protect youth players.
For now, the Norman lawsuit remains focused on the contractors' alleged breach of contract rather than any threat to the center's operations. City officials have emphasized the facility will continue serving the community throughout the repair process, even as the legal dispute over who pays for the fixes plays out in court.
