Okay, we have known all along the EC was going to be named after T. Denny, but we were never given the proof that these negotiations were going on, probably even before the vote. So let’s lay it out;
June 12, 2012: Director Smith Talks about hiring Legends to help secure a title sponsor. July 12, 2012: Sanford Health BUYS the domain:Â DENNYSANFORDPREMIERCENTER.COM
July 24, 2012: Director Smith says he is ‘close’ to having a title sponsor, and will bring it to the council soon.
August 2, 2012: EC title sponsor announced.
I don’t know about you, but that is breakneck speed if you ask me. You hire your naming rights firm and in one month, they are so sure they have a buyer, they purchase a domain. And within a couple of weeks they announce. One might say, Legends is good at what they do, but doesn’t anyone find it a bit suspicious that a deal like this is inked in 30 days of hiring a naming rights contractor? Apparently they are so good, they had a title sponsorship in the works BEFORE they were even hired by the city. So let’s go to the SF City Council informational meeting, June 12, 2012 (FF: 54:00)
Advancing? It’s almost like Smith had to hire a naming rights contractor so it didn’t look like it was already a done deal with Sanford. Gee, I wonder why they fired this company? Now, jump to the July 24, 2012 informational meeting (FF: 21:00) Still no done deals.
Oh, but it gets better, Dave Knudson says this during the August 7, 2012 informational about the naming rights (FF: 14:00);
So while everyone ‘seemed’ so surprised, it was evident. Superlative was fired because the city wanted to ink a deal with T. Denny (Sanford Health) and they wanted to do it before a replacement company was hired (Legends). I guess I could say a lot of things about the misleading and blatant lies fed to us, but Kermit says it best in the Argus Leader article;
“We don’t have transparency on this at all,” Councilor Kermit Staggers said. “The mayor used to work for First Premier, and people in the community are closely associated with Sanford. We should have had openness … Maybe we really got a good deal, maybe we will. But we’ll never know because we never had any bidding going on out in the open.”
Transparency, something this administration knows nothing about. I have said all along, the EC should have been called ‘The Citizens Arena’ We are ultimately paying for the construction of it, we approved it, and when the operating costs come up short, we will be subsidizing it. But giving it such a populist name might have shook Sioux Falls to the core, maybe enough to loosen some of the bedrock under the EC so the footings could have been large enough for a 15K seat expansion, instead of a 14K (another lie fed to us). BTW, speaking of surprises . . .
NO EVENTS CENTER TICKET SALES UNTIL AFTER THE ELECTION?
There is a rumor going around that the new EC will not sell tickets for upcoming events until after the election (in case the sales are a flop) but I heard there is plans to announce the opening event before the election. It’s probably a good thing that the EC won’t be selling tickets for awhile, they really need to get their header links fixed first anyway.
You would think after owning the DOMAIN for almost 18 months they would have the kinks figured out?