Sioux Falls

Why would Sioux Falls promote and host a National tournament if they didn’t have the space

l3wis June 29, 2009 21Comments

Need one of these while visiting Sioux Falls? Good luck.

It’s not like a couple hundred people had to stay out of town during the recent soccer tournament;

Last week’s youth soccer tourney was a gold mine for Sioux Falls, but the city also lost a sizable chunk of business because it ran out of motel rooms.

 

The U.S. Youth Soccer Midwest Regional Championship brought 12,000 players, coaches, parents and out-of-town fans to Yankton Trail Park. Most visitors stayed overnight in Sioux Falls, but about 40 percent – or 4,800 – commuted from as far away as Sioux City, Iowa, for the weeklong tournament.

This will just blow-up in our face. Why would we promote a tournament that we knew had this many people coming if we didn’t have the rooms for them? I noticed the Sioux Falls Soccer Association is not commenting either, gee, I wonder why? I’m curious why they didn’t at least try to have host families so people could stay in Sioux Falls, I guess that would have made sense and proved we are hospitable people in Sioux Falls. Maybe we are not?

Schmidt said the situation didn’t surprise her and has occurred in previous soccer tournaments. She doesn’t begrudge other cities cashing in on the overflow, though it’s her mission to fill local rooms.

If you knew there wasn’t enough room – why promote it? We have this attitude we want to be this big badass city, but at the end of the day we are still a small town on the interstate. City leaders need to come to a realization that we are not going to become Minneapolis overnight. Slow, wise growth is a better approach.

“We know most of them still ate here and filled up their cars with gas here and did outside entertainment here,” she said. “We know we still captured most of the economic impact. But we know realistically, if you get a team up in the morning, they’re not going to wait to eat until they get to Sioux Falls.”

How do you know that Terri? Give us proof. Several restaurants said they had no increase in business. No wonder, people were eating in Sioux City.

John Kaatz, vice president of Conventions, Sports & Leisure in Minneapolis, said earlier in June that too few hotel rooms could hinder efforts to lure more business to Sioux Falls.

Schmidt said the soccer tournament is a different matter.

 

“No, this does not prove his point,” she said of Kaatz. “This is a sporting event that is outside at facilities other than an arena or convention center-type of building.”

Yes, Terri, because denial will solve problems everytime, won’t it?

The $10 million from the soccer tourney represents 4 percent of a year’s work. The city had $249 million in business from visitors in 2008, in restaurant, lodging, car rentals, retail and other income. Most of that form of income is from smaller events. A three-day convention of 500 people brings in about $285,000, Schmidt said.

That is why we must continue to promote smaller events. Not piss off 4,000 visitors so they go home and tell everyone how bad Sioux Falls sucks. Hopefully we learned something from this, but I doubt it.

If the city is swimming in money, why do we keep raising fees, rates and taxes?

l3wis June 19, 2009 6Comments

It seems the city wants their cake and eat it too. They want large reserves, unneeded infrastructure projects, and they want to raise our taxes;

For one, the audit shows that Sioux Falls has more cash on hand and more assets than the average of 10 other cities in the region.

Then why are they constantly gunning for more increases? More, More, More, that’s why.

Plus, Sioux Falls’ long-term per capita debt is lower than those other cities’ and still below the threshold that’s considered to be high.

Nevermind it doubled between 2006-2007, I guess that isn’t important. It mostly doubled because we took out a loan for a water pipeline that we ‘might’ have by 2012. That’s right kiddies, we are paying interest on something we don’t have or know when we will get it.  It would be like taking out an equity loan to get your roof fixed and after you paid the contractor he tells you he will be back in 3 years to do the repairs.

These are all welcomed signs indicating that Sioux Falls is making good decisions about its reserve-fund levels and long-term debt.

Doubling our debt to pay for something we don’t have is hardly a ‘good decision’. I have said all along, we should of signed a contract with Lewis and Clark telling them we will pay them IN FULL when the water starts to flow. And instead of paying interest on a loan while we are waiting for the water, we could be setting money aside for the project letting it gain interest in an account. But that would make sense? Wouldn’t it?

The topics of saving and spending have been particularly heated at times in recent years as residents and city officials debated whether to fund certain projects – and if so, then when.

There has never been anything ‘heated’ about it. Citizens tell the city they are spending too much money, they ignore them and cower to the special interests.

In addition, City Councilor Kermit Staggers is correct to point out that the internal audit didn’t include a review of the city’s capital budget, which tells the rest of the story about Sioux Falls’ financial health.

Yeah, when is that audit coming out? Never?

Of course, the internal audit doesn’t mean that tough public debate ever should disappear. And it certainly isn’t a license for city officials to begin spending out of control.

Too late, they have been doing that for the past 6 years.