But guess what, we are stuck with the beautiful $10 Million dollar mortgage for the next 15 years;

Recently, however, there are signs that the venue’s initial luster has faded. The Premier Center is more profitable than ever, but ticket sales and attendance have failed to match the Garth Brooks-fueled bump of 2017. Along with turnover in management, there have been fewer sellouts, and a smaller portion of the acts coming to town are the big names blowing up box offices in other markets.

It’s a different market out there, not to mention the Denty has just been a money vacuum from day one;

City staff declined a request to interview Mayor Paul TenHaken for this story. 

I found this very odd since PTH has nothing to do with booking acts at the Denty. He is also not responsible for selling the white elephant to us. I can tell you why he turned down the interview, because he doesn’t have a clue what is going on out there.

And while it has proven to bring in more revenue (net operating) we never hear what the actual sales are. Why is that? Ticket sales and attendance is also down;

Pollstar ranked the Premier Center as the 84th top performing arena in 2017. But more recently Sioux Falls’ largest facility fell to 125th in 2018 and 136th in 2019.

Tickets sold also plummeted, according to Pollstar. Those fell from 239,089 in 2017 to 117,411 last year.

In 2019, just 43 percent, or nine out of the 21 concerts that performed at the facility, were ranked in Pollstar’s Top 100 worldwide acts ranking, which is based on ticket revenue a band or artist brings in. In 2018, 53 percent of Premier Center’s music entertainers cracked that list and in 2017, the last full year that Semrau did the booking, 72 percent of the 22 concerts were among Pollstar’s top-ranked acts.

Then Terry ‘left’;

Not long after, Torkildson himself left the Premier Center, though his departure came after being let go by ASM when it was still SMG.

Terry took a job a few months back up North and is already back in Sioux Falls. He promised me once he would give me an ‘off the record’ run down of what happened out there, than told me later he was just bluffing me. But he did tell me the interior walls of the Events Center are thinner than the walls of a Japanese cat house (those are my words, not his). He basically said, don’t lean to hard on them.

When acts return for a second or third time, it’s harder to sell out. People who have budgeted their money for entertainment find it more difficult to spend money on a performer who they’ve already seen live, Opp said.

That line right there explains why the Pavilion really hasn’t increased attendance much over the past 20 years, because they do the same stuff over and over, and still cater to a certain demographic and not the entire city.

The Denty was built for a small window of time, and once that clock runs out, we are still stuck with mortgage payments, maintenance and operating, whether we use it or not. But hey, we can’t afford to trim boulevard trees, because that is a ‘hand out’.

Remember when former Mayor Bowlcut and Bucktooth bragged to us how perfect the concrete pour was for the ice rink at the Denty? Apparently it was not so great;

The City of Sioux Falls, SD, requests formal bids for DSFP Events Center Building Improvements—Ice Rink Expansion Joint Replacement.

I have heard from several people that the ice rink was NOT done correctly shortly after it opened. Complaints about leaks, etc. Besides the siding, the screwed up cracked flooring and paper thin walls, another short cut to ‘save money’ at the Denty. This will be costing us for years to come.

I guess I missed the first part of the informational meeting where financial director Mr. Pritchett revealed some interesting things going on. I appreciate Shawn’s honesty.

The first thing he reveals is that Sioux Empire Community Theatre owes SMG or Global, or whatever they are calling themselves these days $74K for past rentals of the Orpheum and that they have an agreement to pay $1,000 a month until it is paid up. What a deal! The Pavilion, which runs the Orpheum now requires the SECT to pay rent for events now with 50% up front.

Then there is the Event Center that actually pulled in less revenue last year, but get this, made a bigger profit (according to Global). I guess when you don’t have to pay anybody (part-timers) to work events (because very few are going on) you make more money. Go figure. I wonder if we mothballed the place we could make even more money!

We also found out why we had to ‘repair’ the HVAC system at the Denty, because it has severely malfunctioned causing leaks in the roof and damage to the ceiling. So now we have the siding and the HVAC system, makes you wonder what other things we cut corners on. A former Denty employee told me once “Don’t lean too hard on the interior walls, you may fall thru.”

Speaking of leaky stuff, the Pavilion is requesting around $6 million to fix the roof and railing on the roof. Where are they getting their bids? Certainly not from Mitchell Roofing 🙂

We also got to hear about the deteriorating Sioux Falls Stadium and what we are going to do with that money pit, but that discussion really didn’t go anywhere – as usual.

Yet we need to charge non-profits who actually bring successful events into Sioux Falls that drive the economy $70 an hour, per officer, for police protection. Go figure. As one of my former co-workers used to say about our boss/owner of the company we worked for, “He’s concerned about pennies as dollars are flying out the window.”

After watching the press conference, I’m confused as to what was accomplished;

UPDATE: This is Bruce’s video which includes Q & A at end.

And according to the press release;

The next steps for the administration is to use the recommendations as the basis for developing a long-term master plan for the campus. Any major construction or changes to the campus will require budgetary approval by the City Council.

In other words the ‘administration’ will do whatever they want to, and put those numbers into next year’s budget for the rubberstamp council to approve. This project(s) will cost close to $50 million dollars, this is something voters should approve, not a handful of public officials. I also like the bait and switch of the administration when it comes to the ‘recommendations’. Basically they have used the book club as patsies to get the end result they wanted. I could have told you in a 20 minute meeting before the task force even met what needed to be done. What a waste of taxpayer resources and time. Heck, Teri Schmidt probably could have told them in a 5 minute phone conversation.

A new bag policy goes into affect tonight. While I can’t understand why anyone would want to carry in a bag or purse to a show anyway, I do understand that women like to have makeup and other personal items with them, but I wonder if the policy isn’t about safety (concealed weapons) but about people sneaking in their own beverages and snacks. The last time I paid to go to a show at the EC my ticket was $120 (very good seats) and drinks were about $50. Remember, well over 90% of what you spend at the EC (tickets, food, beverages, etc.) goes straight out of town and doesn’t get circulated in the local economy. I have asked since the place has opened what their yearly sales are and how much of that money stays in Sioux Falls and have yet to get an answer from the city who owns the facility and pays the mortgage and maintenance.