Event Center

We do need a new events center, but you are going in the wrong direction

l3wis July 19, 2009 21Comments

Not sure what the point of this letter is, because it is sure vague on details. I would think a task force member would know a little more;

The time for a new events center in Sioux Falls is now. With a new events center comes income for area businesses, more jobs and more opportunities for a variety of events that are educational and entertaining.

What opportunities? What jobs? What events? Like I said, I support a new events center, but if you are going to win over the public you better start giving us details.

As a group we have met twice a month for more than a year, gathering information and public opinion. We are getting closer, but a decision has not yet been made.

That part of the letter confuses me. If you haven’t made a decision yet what point are you trying to make?

The Arena is full for about a four-month period with our local sports teams and other annual events.

That statement alone is very telling. How are we going to fill a 15,000 seat event center then? I have often suggested we should just refurbish the Arena and add another 2,000 seats if we think the solution is to make us bigger. We can also expand the convention center at the same time.

So far we’ve been leaning toward keeping all of our facilities at the same site. We’re going to need places for people to park. I have learned that regardless of your opinion about Howard Wood Field, moving it opens up 1,400 parking spaces at the site.

Silly. Tearing down a very useable stadium to build parking spaces is dumb. Sioux Falls is relatively small, we don’t need to concentrate the facilities. I prefer we build it downtown, but I really don’t care where, just as long as it is not at the current location of the Arena. By building the EC in it’s own location, we create a unique business infrastructure around it. Putting the EC by itself will truly be good for new businesses.

The best thing about the Mayor’s Events Center Task Force is that we’re open-minded.

BAHAHAHAHAHA! You mean like when you hired a consultant and then said he didn’t know what he was talking about? A professional in the business of giving sound advice on building entertainment facilities?

We want to do the right thing, and we’re willing to look at a lot of options.

You may THINK you want to do the right thing, but you are going in the wrong direction, may I suggest instead of opening your mind you start listening to the professionals and public in our community instead of ‘telling’ us what is best.

The Gargoyle has a great live show about the Event Center

l3wis July 1, 2009 12Comments

I guess I was guest host of the show today (SCOTT). It was actually

a good opinion panel about the Event Center. Worth watching.

The Event Center Task Force; Three Strikes, you are out!

l3wis July 1, 2009 2Comments

Just one of the several “If we build it, they will come” boneheads that sit on the EC Task Force. I think we will pass on the advice from a fee harvesting thief that will soon be looking for a new job.

It’s time to replace the Event Center Task Force. They have it wrong on three fronts and no one seems to be calling them out on it until now. Scotty Hudson found this quote;

My new hero is Stampede chief executive officer Gary Weckwerth. Sure, he differs with me in that he does want a new facility built. At least he’s realistic about the city’s draw, saying that a 15,000 seat building is “monstrous for this community…I don’t want to see them over-build and have this big animal that sits empty and doesn’t work for the teams that play there”, he told the Argus. “Over the last 50 years, have we really outgrown the Arena that we have? The amenities and quality of it…is gone. But from a simple seat perspective, we have not outgrown the Arena as it sits today. And we never will.” Please, Mr. Weckwerth, run for Mayor.

Gary is right.  Not only is the plan too big, but the location has no entertainment infrastructure and funding it thru charging people more taxes on essential goods like food and utilities is assinine. But the task force doesn’t seem to get it;

Dykhouse and Woster said the task force still prefers a facility that seats more.
“I can’t see us going over 15,000, but I can’t see us going below 12,000,” Woster said.
“This isn’t about five to 10 years from now. This is about 25 or 30 years. We want to look 40 years down the road.”

Originally when I was still against the new Event Center my argument always was, “We don’t book the 7,000 seat Arena at capacity now, what makes us think we can book one twice the size?” Since the recession, that I believe will take the country 5-10 years to truly recover from, people have been finding different ways to spend their entertainment dollars. And buying $120 concert tickets isn’t one of them.

It’s time we fire the task force and start from scratch, again. Maybe the 3rd time is a charm.