Well, I will have to give Stormland TV credit on this one, they dug into the archives, and showed that not much has changed in that Arena area of town since the CC has been built. The video is great, the footage of Metli is priceless,
“The convention center will not only bring more visitors and more people into that area, but also upgrade the appearance of the existing site,” City Planner Steve Metli said in December of 1993.
Now he says building it there was a mistake. No shit Sherlock. We were spending millions downtown on building the Pavilion, why not build the CC down there to? I sometimes wonder how some of these people get in power? They keep doing the same thing over and over and expect different results. This is another reason why the Arena location is bad, bad, bad.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=326_NTJvaHc&feature=related[/youtube]
Any location is bad. When the city raises water rates AGAIN to help pay for sewer upgrades and the roads look like teenagers with bad acne, we have no business building the CC. We don’t need that albatross. Willie Nelson will go to the Swiftel in Brookings, but not to the Pavillion or the Arena?
Willie has been in town plenty of times, including a year or so ago at the Pavilion.
Scott is right. And while I like Willie Nelson, I’m wondering why Shelly thinks Willie is how we should measure all great entertainment? Anyhoo. I love this cover of a Willie tune.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SM4z6rR758
It’s funny how quickly people forget about those who have made local appearances. Quite often the shows in Sioux City that have the Sy’s of this blog ringing their hands in disgust are acts that have been in our town plenty of times.
Realize that city administration is people who gravitated there because they couldn’t make it in the real world. A true leader would be a secure and sane someone who wants to pay forward for how well their life has been here. You can’t find this someone because 2 mayors devastated our quality of life. Real leaders recognized they should live in Brandon, Canton, or Harrisburg.
Scott Hudson is absolutely correct about his last post in this thread. You guys want all this ‘big’ entertainment that is going to have this huge economic impact. Fact is, like Scott says, those ‘big’ acts have been here. Isn’t Flandreau hosting one of those economic impact shows this weekend? We can’t get acts like that? How we gonna get any others?
Here are some big names who have played in Sioux City since the Tyson Center opened. Bill Cosby, Sheryl Crow, BB King, Bob Dylan, Wynton Marsalis, David Copperfield, Willie Nelson, Jewel, Alison Kraus, and Jerry Seinfeld. Impressive acts. But guess what? They played at the ORPHEUM THEATRE in Sioux City, not the Tyson “Events” center.
Sy.
Here’s a challenge for you, BoomRoasted, or Gingermalibusch.
Duel Scott Hudson on ‘Rant A Bit’, convince me in that debate we need a larger venue. Then tell me to my face this thing will NOT be financed or subsidized in any way, shape, or manner by my parents on a fixed income, or the working poor. You can do that….I’ll join BID, and pass out promotional material at all this summers DT beer fests.
I’ve always said the most important thing this city could do would be to force the Pavilion to take a more aggressive approach in booking shows. The future of live music is in theater-ish facilities, and they need a booker who understands the concept of niche-level popularity. Keep going with the middle-of-the-road acts they love so much, but also go after those acts that may not be household names but have strong, loyal followings (Decemberists, Lucinda Williams, Ween, Fleet Foxes, Hold Steady, etc.).