The biggest disappointment in last night’s city council meeting (FF: 43:00) was when the city council allowed the NCAA, the CVB and the (self-appointed) Sports Authority to write an ordinance for them. I said all along that this should have went through a CC committee, but council chair Diamond Jim poo-poo’d that saying, “He sits on the Sports Authority, so the council had a representative looking at the proposed ordinance. (sic)” Well guess what? When you don’t have actual legislators looking at legislation before it is proposed, mistakes are made, and the council should be EMBARRASSED that an individual citizen actually found errors in the proposed ordinance;
“I feel that this was rushed forward very quickly and it’s a large industry that we’re being involved in now with the event center and I think there should be more talks about it,” Opp said.
While some of his concerns seemed to fall short, there was one that turned the tide of the entire meeting.
“I also feel that we should learn from the people who have been in the NCAA ticket industry for awhile, and that’s Omaha. Their only ordinance is that you cannot scalp a ticket within a half-mile within the arena,” Opp said.
Bravo to Opp for bringing this to the council’s attention, but it should have never gotten this far. The council should have reviewed this. It goes to show that the mayor, as usual, is flat out lying when he says he works with the council on legislation. He does not, and this ram-rodding is further proof that he as mayor doesn’t give two-rips about the council’s opinion, just their rubber stamps. Don’t believe me, watch his interaction with councilor Staggers before the final vote, where Staggers has to interupt the mayor 3 times to ask to BE EXCUSED from the vote because Staggers works at USF and they would be affected by the ordinance. It was quite a ‘Jackassery’ moment, but not surprising from our mayor.
Funny, it seems lately the only way this city government can get anything accomplished is through the intervention of citizens.
This whole thing is being ram rodded so we can potentially host NCAA Women’s BB games in the first and second rounds of its annual tournament. Anti Scalping to my way of thinking is selling tickets for profit at potential sold out events. Womens BB unfortunately does not exactly pack em in. This year the 16 cities that hosted 32 sessions averaged less than 4800 per session. Several of the 16 cities had sessions where the games could have been played in the Lincoln HS gym.
So….anti scalping???? Dream on dreamers.
And lets not forget the all powerful Summit League. Did you know ALL the Summit Leagues Womens BB games averaged 960 per game in 2012-13?
I saw the highlights of this. Mr. Opp made the council AND the Mayor look like a bunch of dumbsh*** that had no idea what they were even voting on. It was great.
I liked his little pout session at the end when Staggers was trying to excuse himself from the vote.
Exactly, Poly 4800 and even that was inflated because a local team made it. That won’t happen every year.
Sioux Falls Sports Authority
Board Members
2013
Kevin Lampe
Vice President
Sanford USD Medical Center
Jim Entenman
SF CITY COUNCIL, CHAIR
J&L Harley-Davidson
Bob Thimjon
Ramkota Companies, Inc.
Cheryl Dodd
US Bank
Terry Baloun
Retired CEO
Wells Fargo
Doug Barthel
Chief of Police
Sioux Falls Police Department
Dave Zimbeck
Associate General Counsel
Citibank, N.A.
Todd Thoelke
School Board Representative
Sioux Falls
Brian Jans
Jans Corporation
Don Kearney
Director of Parks and Recreation
City of Sioux Falls
Dana Dykhouse
First Premiere Bank
Rob Oliver
Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce
Former CEO, Wells Fargo
Mark Meile
Sioux Falls Schools
Teri Ellis-Schmidt
Executive Director
Sioux Falls CVB
Pat Costello
Commissioner
SD Office of Economic Development
WesHall
Executive Director
Sioux Falls Sports Authority
Downtown Sioux Falls
Forward Sioux Falls
Sioux Falls Arena
Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce
Sioux Falls CVB
Sioux Falls Development Foundation
Sioux Falls Events
Sioux Falls Regional Airport
And you wonder why this turned out the way it did!!
Good luck enforcing that!
NCAA Women’s Championship Game was standing room only in the Arena this year. NCAA wants venues like Sioux Falls. It becomes the biggest event in the region and is not lost in the crowded happenings of a larger metro area.
The Sports Authority does much more than run basketball games and other college tournament. Sept 6th is the SF Marathon. This is becoming a big event.
Out of towners spending money here. Is there something wrong with that?
AS for the scalping, I can still sell my $50 ticket for $150, I just have to deliver it to the person or I can have them pick it up personally from me at my address.
Yeah, the FIXED version of this ordinance is fine. I just found it ironic that Diamond Jim, the one who told everyone he looked it over with the Sports Authority, didn’t even show up to vote. Who fixed this ordinance? You can thank Jamison for meeting with Brian the day before to hear his concerns about the ordinance. I have a feeling if this meeting never would have happened we would have had a lousy ordinance.
If SDSU or USD aren’t in the championship games, what do you think that will do to attendance?
There is a reason they are putting movable curtains in the new events center that adjust to the size of the crowd. I’m guessing shower curtains will probably work for the event you are talking about.
NCAA Women’s Championship Game was standing room only in the Arena this year. NCAA wants venues like Sioux Falls.
Uhhhhh. Wrong. First off, there is a huge difference between the NCAA tourney and the summit league tourney. What you speak of is the summit league tourney. Bad teams in a bad league. Sure, SDSU does well in this league. It should. So the league has good attendance because the host team plays losers bigger than themselves.
That is a formula the NCAA is looking for. Host cities with the home team as the highest seed. There is already talk women’s BB is heading in this direction. The 16 first and second round games will be played in the cities with the highest seeded team. In order to qualify for that the team can be no lower than a number 4 seed. The summit champ is always a 13 seed…exactly where they belong. Do you really think for a minute a host city for the first Nd second rounds is going to stake it’s attendance chances on a 13 seed? No way. Women’s BB needs people in the stands and the host city team getting whomped in the first round is a attendance nightmare.
Long story short. Picture last years SDSU team hosting a first round game against South Carolina. Same results.
SC 74 SDSU 52. The second round game then becomes an attendance nightmare. Something the ncaa will avoid at all costs. So, a summit league champ(13 seed) hosting the opening rounds. NEVER GONNA HAPPEN.
Poly – your seeding/hosting theory must be only that (a theory) for first round games. There were teams much lower that hosted games last year.
Been reading about it for several weeks now. The women’s game has stagnated and needs a boost. This is just one way to do it.
http://m.espn.go.com/ncw/story?storyId=9395073&src=desktop