Denny Sanford Premier Center

Price discrepancies at the Events Center?

As we all know, the Events Center is NEW and very popular. Something else is evident from this ‘newness’ the high prices of concerts. On Sunday I was talking to a friend who said him and some other folks were taking a carload to Lincoln to see Def Leppard at the Pinnacle. I asked why he didn’t see them when they were at the Denny. He told me he was going to, but the seats he wanted were between $100-125. He told me he got comparable seats at the Pinnacle for $40. I still think he went to Lincoln so his friends wouldn’t see him in town going to see Def Leppard, because to be honest with you, $40 is about $39 more than I would pay to see Def Leppard.

The surprising part about this is that the Pinnacle isn’t that much older than the Denny, and tickets are $60 less for the same show? Do Sioux Falls taxpayers have a rude awakening coming in a couple of years when the newness of the Denny wears off and we are subsidizing it more? Kind of reminds you of another entertainment facility in Sioux Falls that we are constantly throwing money at and putting bandages on.

 

Cameraman Bruce asks the ‘important’ Events Center questions

This my voice will print in the Argus Leader tomorrow;

We are asking for a full audit of the Denny Sanford Premier Events Center — including the original contracts with the builder, their subcontractors, operation audits, financing, change orders and especially, the top secret settlement agreement just announced. Why have settlement agreements if nothing needs to be fixed?

 

People fighting is OK, dog fighting? Not so much. (H/T-MM7.5)

You run across some pretty weird things as a blogger, especially when your foot soldiers send you weird links. Not sure if this is controversial, but it certainly is strange.

So the person who is hired by the state (Jennifer Stalley) to be the executive director of the SD Athletics Commission, you know, the folks in charge of making sure MMA fighters perform safely, is also the head lobbyist for Midwest Solutions. What do they lobby for? The SD Veterinary Medical Association.

What is most bizarre about this is, first off, what is the connection (not sure there is one)? But more importantly, was the state so strapped to find an ED for the Athletics Commission that they had to hire a PRIVATE lobbyist? Forget the fact that she lobbies for an industry that cares for the well-being of our pets and livestock while running another organization that promotes people punching each other in the face.

One could say being a private lobbyist and a state employee at the same time may be a conflict of interest. Not sure? But the oddity of promoting people fighting for entertainment on one hand while promoting the health of animals on the other, that’s a new one in a state with some very strange bedfellows and almost NO ethics.

How did this all come about? Jennifer helped with a presentation yesterday at the Sioux Falls city council informational meeting about lifting the ban on ultimate fighting in city owned facilities (so one of my foot soldiers decided to see who Jennifer was). Like I have said in the past, I don’t care either way. MMA is just glorified boxing, and if the Pentagon is already hosting these events, why not the Events Center.

Sometimes I don’t know whether to laugh, cry or just shake my head when I see some of the doofus things our state government does. Well it’s good to know our animals are safe, the MMA fighters, I guess they are safe to . . . just sign on the dotted line.

 

The city only applies transparency to bragging

Okay, I am NOT shocked, the mayor will only promote ‘positive’ numbers and if anything ‘negative’ is coming from city hall he keeps that information under lock and key. The irony of releasing this information today is just two days ago, city attorney Loophole David Fiddle-Faddle said NO details of a closed settlement would be released on the EC siding fiasco. We have our speculation why that is . . . cough . . . the city f’d up . . . cough, cough. But isn’t it amazing that SMG & our city finance office were able to get together and show us all these flashy numbers yet no audit has been done on construction costs? How’s the saying go? “Dazzle them with Bullshit”.

By the Numbers

$117,000,000: Cost of Premier Center construction

$115,000,000: Amount approved by Sioux Falls voters

$1.3-$2.9 million: Anticipated annual net income ahead of 2011 election

$1.8 million: Actual net income through July 31

$19.6 million: Anticipated annual revenues ahead of 2011 election

$21.7 million: Actual revenue*

$1.6 million: Sales taxes generated for state and city*

220,169: Attendance for the 2015 Sioux Falls Stampede hockey season.

64,674: Attendance for the 2015 Sioux Falls Storm football season.

*Through July 31