Image: Argus Leader
As I suspected, this facility is only for the members of the Tennis Association, and if you want to use it, you better pony-up;
A consultant hired by the Sioux Falls Tennis Association has recommended charging $22 per hour to play at the seven-court Community Indoor Tennis Center. To be guaranteed court time, players would have to sign up for memberships that cost $30 a month per person or $50 for families; nonmembers would pay $10 per visit in addition to the court rental and could not reserve permanent court time.
These prices are outrageous if you want the ‘public’ to use the facility.
And what kind of usage does a facility like this expect to get?
Sioux Empire Fitness is one of two private businesses in the city that have indoor tennis courts. Owner Reid Hans said running a facility that is solely for tennis is difficult financially, partly because no one shows up when the weather is nice.
“It attracts 3 percent of the population,†he said.
So we are going to give $500,000 to a private organization that is going to charge a fortune for the public to use the facility so that approximately 3% of the city’s population can play tennis indoors?
Besides the blatant conflict of interest with the mayor’s wife, this is a total waste of tax dollars and I urge the council to vote against giving them the money. They will just have to work a little harder in fundraising and they can have their own private tennis club (that is what they are trying to do anyway by charging such a high public fee).
You left out the best part:
[…In addition, Councilor Rex Rolfing wants to add a clause that would require the association to periodically show the council a snapshot of its budget. Given the city’s interest in the facility, Rolfing wants to be able to plan ahead should the city need to step in and run the tennis center. He compared it to the city taking on the Ice and Rec Center years ago.
“We just need to have some way, in my opinion, to monitor their progress,†Rolfing said. …]
Perfect use for Snapchat, don’t ya think?
The council should vote it down but Huether is the all knowing Oz who has the power to overrule them. We spent 500k. Get used to it. At least tiny Huether won’t get beat up by his athletic wife. Our city will soon own luxury hotels so a vacant version of Wimbleton isn’t so bad.
What are the chances that this thing gets named after MMM? They don’t want to say what the name of the thing will be until after it’s built.
Start thinking of repurposing some of Huether’s follys. The tennis place can become a year round Shriners circus tent. The EC can become a new sale barn for livestock. The taxpayer built hotels can be donated to the county for homeless housing. The first city with a golf course & air travel access for the poor. Makes sense, try to get them in shape. Otherwise, fly them to wherever Huether moves.
We have a $15 million baseball park at Harmondon with 8 baseball diamonds and 8 softball diamonds that are by far superior to anything within 150 miles. What percentage of the SF population does that attract? It is all relative.
Matter of fact the ice storm blew down some back stops and they have now replaced them. What do you suppose it cost for a contractor to work with heavy equipment for 3 months on this job?
And from October to April, I use it as a dog park. Love my 160 acre, $15 million dog park. Especially today, nobody else out in the weather.
With apologies to those who read the Argus comments, I’m going to repost part of what I wrote there because I think it’s worthwhile for people to see what these numbers look like in practice.
An annual membership is $360. Assuming you can start and stop a membership for free, and you play outdoors when you can, that’s $210 for the seven months a year outdoor tennis is unpalatable here.
The non-member fee is $10 per person per use. If you use the facility with any degree of regularity, a membership is cheaper.
But there are court fees on top of that, ringing in a flat $22 per hour. That’s $11/person/hour for singles and $5.50/person/hour for doubles.
So consider a typical hypothetical scenario. I want two hours a week to play singles with a friend – that’s enough time to hit around for 15-20 minutes and then play a 2-of-3 set match.
That’s $118, plus tax. Per month. For each of us. If you play doubles, knock that down to $74.
If you use public money for something but then price it in such a way that it excludes the overwhelming majority of the public, it’s not really public.
And the thing is, it’s also not realistic for the tennis association to lower its proposed rates. This is just what it costs to operate an indoor tennis facility. They’re expensive. It’s not even like an indoor swimming pool, where you could have a hundred people using it at once. With seven courts at $22 an hour, and excluding membership fees, etc., you’re talking about a maximum of $154 an hour in revenue.
I know some people like to carp about the Pavilion subsidy, but at least the city OWNS the Pavilion. This is just a giant giveaway to a nonprofit, a bigger version of the State’s movie projector.
It’s just like DL said – if they’re going to raise $3.5MM in private funds for this thing, can the $500k subsidy and tell them to raise another $500k. If you can raise $3.5MM, you can raise another 14% over that. There’s ZERO public benefit here. Nada.
I will guarantee this wil be petitioned to be placed on the ballot if it is passed by the band of crooks that call themselves councilmen. Criminals
“The tennis place can become a year round Shriners circus tent. ”
I think I just pissed my pants laughing.
LJL – I told a council person today that any councilor that votes for this boondoggle should heed the public’s outcry.
Like I said all along, it would be no different then me being mayor and asking for a $500,000 Boston Terrier dog park. While Sodapop would be happy, it wouldn’t serve the public as a whole.
Somebody please just buy the Mayor a Wii.
HA! They’d never let the Shriners in though, their go karts would leave circular skid marks on the courts.
Yeah but when you run into a fence pole chasing an out of bounds ball in a clown suit, you don’t look as dumb.
I’m hoping that Huether will soon get tired of 500k nobility handouts for him to take digital ‘selfies’ in front of.
I don’t see anything wrong with using tax dollars to fund huge projects that benefit the wealthy as long as we force our teenagers to say the Pledge of Allegiance every day.
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