Knudson the Blogger
Dave and his wife the Quen Be De as the lunch lady.
Dave and his wife the Quen Be De as the lunch lady.
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.
Â
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.
Â
“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.
The Drake Springs pool is a huge success while saving the city millions in building and subsidy costs;
Since the facility opened May 29, more than 23,000 people have visited. That’s despite it being closed six full days and one half-day because of inclement weather.
You mean the kids showed up? You are kidding me. I thought they would be upset about not having an indoor pool, according to our very insightful city leaders.
But it doesn’t stop Vernon Brown from eating sour grapes;
“With an indoor pool, there would have been opportunities for children to be swimming on those cold, rainy days,” said Vernon Brown, a City Council member who supported an indoor pool.
You are right Vernon. And kids have over 8 indoor private pools to pick from at various fitness centers. Get over it already.
There was two very well written letters in the Gargoyle Leader yesterday about the pros and cons of a large scale casino in Larchwood.
In the letter that was against the casino I found this statement encouraging, not negative;
The report goes on to say that “Video Lottery Terminals (VLTs) are located in bars and bar/ restaurants throughout South Dakota, including a total of 1,551 VLTs in Minnehaha County, which is the Sioux Falls area. These VLTs in Minnehaha generated net win of more than $66 million last year, or about $500 per adult resident. From this data it is clear that the propensity to gamble among Sioux Falls area residents is already quite high, although a relatively small proportion of this gaming flows to area casinos due to their distance from Sioux Falls.”
GVA Marquette Advisors believes that a new Iowa casino will shift gaming patrons from VLTs in Sioux Falls to the new casino. The company says: “From our analysis, we would expect a new casino at Lyon County would have a significant impact upon VLT revenues in south[eastern] SD, particularly in the Sioux Falls area, as more of those gaming dollars would be spent at the casino, which would offer a much more appealing facility and overall gaming experience.”
While beauracrats and development big wigs see this as a bad thing, I think it is a very positive thing. Video Lottery is a horrible way to fund government, not to mention all the crime and other social costs it brings. Anything to reduce the number of VL casinos in Sioux Falls is a move in the right direction, for society. Pierre might not like it, but who gives a shit what they think? It might finally force them to get rid of the awful funding source once and for all.
As for the pro-casino letter, I found this statement at the end of the letter very telling about how South Dakota and Sioux Falls politicians like to do business; their way or the highway;
We need to look at every so-called threat and find the opportunity. I would like to personally extend a hand across the river to the economic development team representing Sioux Falls to meet in person to work together in making our area within 100 miles of Sioux Falls the best place to work, live, play and raise a family.
Good luck with that Iowa. Our city council and county commissioners can’t even work together, what makes you think you will be able to work with them? Don’t get me wrong, I agree 100%, we should work together. Instead trying to create stupid legislation and denegrating Iowa in the media, Sioux Falls should embrace this casino, and make it a partnership effort. Sour grapes won’t help either of us.
But I’m not holding my breath. Now excuse me while I bang my head against the wall.