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This was probably my first ‘official’ concert at the EC. I did see Joan Jett at the opening event and did see the free United Way ‘Heart’ concert (which was amazing). But this was the first PAID event.
I will say the EC is set up nicely for concerts. I would compare it to the Quest in Omaha. The sound and the light show were amazing and the Foo Fighters put on a great show.
I will admit though out of personal preference as to why I don’t go to large arena concerts much (and this isn’t a dig on our EC, just large show in general).
• They are expensive (for the $120 I paid I could have gone to 6-8 club shows (and saw national acts just as good as the Foo Fighters).
• Besides the expensive ticket, $9 for a draft Bud Light or a single shot cocktail is over the top, so were the lines. The bars were extremely under staffed and you could see it in the staff’s faces.
• The bathrooms are way to small (not enough urinals). And if you think the men’s line was long, you should have seen the ladies.
• Finding parking was easy, leaving the event, not much fun.
• Supporting local promoters, venues and even artists helps to recirculate money in our economy. Giving $120 to the Foo Fighters, not so much.
It will probably be a long time before I go to a concert again at the EC. It will have to be someone really legendary. I am a bit bias though. I grew up going to club shows, they are what I know. But I also like the fact I can park a 100 feet away, not stand in line for a drink or bathroom and not get raped on drink prices. I also can stand in front of the stage. Nothing beats the intimacy of a club show either. There’s nothing like standing 8 feet away from one of your favorite artists.
To each there own though I guess. I encourage people to keep going to the EC, we already drain $10 million a year out of our CIP for the place each year on mortgage payments. If people stop going, we will really be in a bind.
We are all shocked that you would gripe about a show at the event center.
“The sound and the light show were amazing and the Foo Fighters put on a great show.”
I guess you missed this line.
Like I said, not an arena show guy, and has nothing to do with The Denty or any other large concert venue, just not my thing for all the things I mentioned above. Fiscally they just don’t add up for taxpayers and club shows are just better frankly.
I agree with many of your points. I like to have a couple of beers at the show. But the prices are crazy, and you have to wait forever to get one, unless you’re up in the “I’m special” seats where I guess they have their own bars. The lines for the bathroom are worse. For my last couple of shows the lines for the guys move fairly quick, but for the ladies their line is usually 15 minutes plus.
Lastly, I feel pretty smushed in there. The seating is tight in my opinion. 2 hours in and I was ready to get out
What about the fact that the box suites sit in the middle of all of the seating? Shouldn’t they be at the top of the seating to give the individual ticket holders, the taxpayers and average citizens, the closest views of the staged event? It appears to me that the interior architectural set up of the EC is very undemocratic and gives the patricians a better view of the show at the expense of the many, of the plebeians.
Frank Lloyd Wright believed that you could use architecture to empower and promote democratic principles. Have you ever noticed how the first floor entrance of the Minnehaha County Courthouse Annex (the former county courthouse from 1962-1995) has very low first floor ceilings for a government building? This is because it is an example of Wright’s influence on interior architectural design in the 20th century. He believed that in a democratic society the entrance ceilings should be low to empower even the shortest of the people in our democratic society with a sense of empowerment, importance, and equality – and that this entrance should then be followed by a grandeur room where the ceiling is so high, that it promotes a humility in all in reference to our democratic society, where no one feels superior or overpowering to others….. I am afraid that none of the Wright principles in democratic architecture can be found at the EC, however (Well, except for the grandeur room, but that is merely to facilitate the needs of an events center) – and when you add the fact, that the EC has a corporate name attached to it, while the SF Arena was never called the John Morrell Arena, then our politics and its by-products seem to becoming more and more less democratic in multiple ways…. And perhaps the expensive food court and the limited restrooms, along with the $ 120 tickets, further speaks to how the EC is not a democratic idea for the masses or plebeians, rather a corporate idea for the patricians of our society.
I still have not been to the Denty. There’s no longer a pawn shop near there for ticket and concessions money.
I gotta say, if you thought leaving that location was bad, just imagine what it would have been like downtown.
WRONG Fluff. Much easier to get out of an area when everyone is dispersing in different directions.
Fluff, I would have just walked home. Also the concept about having the Denty Downtown would be that some people wouldn’t just jump in their cars after the show, they would walk to a bar or restaurant and have another before going home and hopefully take a cab.
When I worked at the TOE we always got busy AFTER the show. Sometimes we would have more people AFTER than BEFORE a show.
– I was referring to shows at the Pavilion.
I respectfully disagree. DT would be a nightmare coming and going. But, why argue about dinner when it’s already in the oven.
I had a great time at the concert.
They are a real ROCK BAND!
I lived in Colorado Springs when after 10 years they regretted not building the World Event Center (now the Broadmoor Event Center) downtown. It sits in a large parking lot “almost” by itself. Only with a movie theater and a couple chain restaurants.
“They will not come”…when they said they were going to build the Denny at its present location I could see the same regret that Colorado Springs experienced coming to Sioux Falls.
I had “no vote” as I live out of the city limits but became a “vocal non-voter” against the location. I did not want to see Sioux Falls make the same mistake Colorado Springs did.
Overwhelmingly people told me we should not put the Denny downtown and it was due to no parking available. All I had to say to them was: take a taxi, take the bus, ride your bike, walk along the shops, restaurants and bars on your way to your event, but instead you want to walk (if you don’t have to take a shuttle from the fairgrounds) across a large parking of nothing. “Yea, but we could get out of their a lot faster having it next to the interstate”, really…..aghhhhhh!!
I will guarantee that we will regret the Denny location.
And I don’t think it will take another 7 years.