Women’s professional sports are excluded from a tax program, but Oklahoma lawmaker seeks to change that

OKLAHOMA CITY – Officials on both sides of the aisle are backing a move to expand an exclusionary state tax program by allowing women’s professional sports to participate.

Senate Bill 820, by Sen. Mary Boren, D-Norman, seeks to incentivize women’s professional sports to locate in the state by expanding the Oklahoma Five Major Sports League Rebate Program Act to include women’s professional sports teams.

Passed and signed last year, House Bill 3959 became effective Nov. 1, but only offers tax incentives to men’s professional sports teams.

Boren said she tried unsuccessfully last year to have women’s sports included in the law. The Oklahoma City Thunder is the only team that qualifies under the provisions that require investing $10 million in payroll within a year. A team could qualify for incentives on 5% of actual gross payroll capped at $10 million annually per team.

“If we are going to have a vision for economic development around professional sports, we need to include women’s sports, because the future for women’s sports is really bright right now,” Boren said. “It’s on the uptick. The growth has really taken off as far as media buys and fan involvement.”

Oklahoma City has a women’s professional softball team called the Oklahoma City Spark, and Tulsa used to be home to the Tulsa Shock, a Women’s National Basketball Association team. But the team moved to Texas in 2015 and became the Dallas Wings.

Boren said she hopes the measure could attract new professional women’s basketball and soccer teams to the state while helping the Oklahoma City Spark. The Oklahoma City Energy Football Club has said they are interested in a women’s professional team, said Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt.

Holt had not read Boren’s bill and reserved comment, but said interest in women’s professional sports is growing.

The success of Caitlin Clark of the WNBA’s Indiana Fever has popularized the game, Holt said.

“ They are seeing much larger crowds than they have in the past,” Holt said. “So I think clearly, that’s the league that has become most established.”

But Holt said the National Women’s Soccer League is also getting a lot of “buzz.”

“Oklahoma City fancies itself as a city that is particularly interested in women’s sports, mostly because of our long standing relationship with the Women’s (softball) College World Series,” he said. “We have arguably the premier college women’s sporting event in the United States.”

Meanwhile, Oklahoma City will receive international attention while serving as the venue for the 2028 Olympic women’s softball competition.

The law’s House author, former Majority Floor Leader Jon Echols, R-Oklahoma City, endorsed Boren’s measure.

“I think they should have the same ability as any men’s sports teams would have,” he said.

The bill passed the Senate Appropriations Committee by a vote of 23-1. It is eligible to be heard on the Senate floor.

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