The EC only garners one tourney

1. I don’t believe this is the case at all here. The tournaments awarded to the Pentagon simply don’t garner a facility as big as the EC. The EC was built to bring in larger concerts and conventions for the most part. Also, the Stampede will play in the new EC and it’s just a matter of time before we start seeing the effects of what building this new facility will do. To immediately go to the conspiracy argument is sophomoric. You have to look at every angle before making such an assertion.

2. The dirty little secret we will not hear about anytime soon. Division 2 BB tourney, men’s style, averages less than 2000 per session. Womens, pitifully lower than even that. Washington, Lincoln, and Roosevelt have seating capacities of 2000. Our high school gyms could host ncaa div II tourneys. It is a crock to pronounce these tourneys as a boon to SF. REMEMBER, the mayor said we’d be getting div I tourneys. All BS. Never gonna happen.

3. Should have remodeled the Arena. I heard the roof doesn’t leak.

4. Jango, what is sophomoric is building a 12,000 seat EC without one single signed tenant, not enough parking, and no on-site 2nd hotel.

   Stampede Hockey will not bring in anymore people then they do at the current Arena site.

   The EC is being built to benefit contractors, that’s it. The cost to taxpayers subsidizing this facility will be huge.

5. You are a conspiracy theorist. Why do you believe that behind every rock there is a demon? Is it possible that people who work for the city, the visions of the community they work on, and the majority of the citizenry are just not as stupid as you portray them to be?

   Grow up a little, get educated, find a real job and maybe you’ll learn something about how things actually work.

6. I am educated, I have (two) real jobs, actually.

   Do I think the citizenry is stupid? No, but a little naïve. If you read the consultants reports in several of the task forces, you will see that they recommended several things that I suggested above. None have them have been fulfilled, yet we are full steam ahead on this project.

   If you do a little research on conventions, sporting events and concerts you will see that the EC is much too large for what we ‘need’.

   The good people of SF were sold a bill of goods that was based solely on ‘bigger is better’. This is short-sighted in itself.

   I voted against the EC, because we didn’t need it. I did my research. Maybe you should have done yours. I have followed city politics for over 12 years, and I can tell you one thing they are very consistent on, spreading mis-information and ‘guessing’ what is best.

   Is the city a demon, nope, I’m not superstitious or believe the spirit world controls the decisions city officials make. I believe greed is what makes government do the things they do. Is greed a spiritual ailment? Not sure, I’m not clergy. But it certainly isn’t in the best interest of the public.

7. Keep in mind, when the Arena was built it held 10% of this town’s population & we got our investment back on that many times over it’s 50+ year life span. Today 10% would be pushing 16K seats.

   I also think they will eventually remodel the Arena and CC to make the whole facility look and feel the same.

   I still contend we blew it on the location, it should’ve been downtown. The way to make lemonade out of it would be to move Canaries stadium downtown and put the next hotel and shared ramp on it’s site.

8. DL – do you have information suggesting the Stampede won’t be moving over to the EC? Because last I checked, they have a very strong desire to do so and have every intention of being a permanent tenant.

   I wasn’t a fan of the EC either, but let’s admit it was designed for larger events, so those B-ball tourneys going elsewhere is probably not because they didn’t like the facility, but rather because they didn’t want the cameras catching 11,500 empty seats per game.

   I’m not surprised one bit that basketball or volleyball tourneys would rather use the Pentagon because the maximum seating capacity is 3,200.

   Now if people start actually wanting to go to Skyforce games, perhaps in a few years they will be forced to relocate to the EC. However as it sits now, they don’t even need 3,000 seats so they surely don’t want a larger facility. The same is true for the Storm, and even though the Stampede won’t need all of those seats, they will benefit from finally having a full sheet of ice where people can actually see the entire rink.

   I really don’t think the EC is built for 2013 Sioux Falls sporting events, because our 2013 crowds can’t utilize it. As Sy said, the current Arena held a larger share of the city’s population when built and it turned out ok. When building something like this, you don’t build for today because that is short-sighted. At the least, you build for two or three decades in the future, so we will need to grow in into it. How loud would you guys be complaining if they build something that was obsolete in five or ten years from being too small?

   I laugh and the continual complains about us not signing all these big conventions or sports tournaments before the EC is even built… because that just shows how pessimistic, cynical, and short sighted people are. A year ago the area where the EC was a parking lot – and most large conventions and sports tournaments sign contracts and pick locations anywhere from two to five years out. Just look at the list above – they have selected facilities for 2018 tournments already! Groups like Pheasants forever have staked out locations for their annual convention two or three years in advance – do you really think they were going to choose Sioux Falls because we were planning to vote on a new EC?

   So lighten up a bit and be realistic – give the EC three or four years before you announce it as a dismal failure. If the place still has that new EC smell and can’t attract any events you’ll have ample time to tell the city you told them so, but bragging about your stellar vision at this point only proves how disconnected from the real world you really are.

9. How’s the Pavilion doing after 14 years?

10. I laugh when I heard people say it was built for bigger concerts.

11. “Hear” not “heard”.

12. Craig, I would agree it is a little early to speculate, but SF track record and history on these kind of deals are not so good. Entertainment should be handled by private entities. Doing things for profit inspires competitiveness, creativity and bringing in events that the public desires. ROME’s downfall proved to me that government should not be in the business of entertainment.

13. Well…as of 3:30 this afternoon, they do have a permanent Tenant:
    http://www.sfstampede.com/news_article/show/319038?referrer_id=627591-news

    So…I do believe – Conspiracy Theorist?

14. Yeah, that will float the place.

15. Roman civilization lasted over 1,200 years. The US isn’t even out of it’s imperial diapers yet – let alone SF.

16. It had been wayyyy to long since we had a mention of Ric Flair on this board. My thanks to you, good sir!

    In the memorable words of the ‘Naitch…. “When you know Ric Flair’s in town, Whoooo things are taking place!”

    I only wish I could be a fraction of that cool.

17. L3wis, as a non-profit entity and if you compare it to peer cities, the Pavilion is doing exactly as it was intended.

    Now as I’ve said before, it’s underutilized and there are other things the WP could and should do to take it to the next level. For the last decade it could’ve been the same thing as the District and booked bands that people have heard of that want to play smaller, more intimate venues and in doing so it would’ve likely kicked the City back profits every year. That isn’t a facility problem, that’s a management problem.

18. @ Scott, I hear ya, but take a look at what Pinnacle in Lincoln has managed to do and when you consider CenturyLink/Qwest is right up the road that seems even more impressive. Don’t you think at least for a while (like until Tyson expands) we will be able to piggyback those shows here as acts are bouncing between MLPS, Denver and KC?

19. If we had a school as big as the University of Nebraska, I’d agree with you, Sy.

20. Hey, we could always set up tennis courts on the EC floor and cash in on the tens of people who will be shut out of the new indoor facility…

21. JangoFett on 12.12.13 at 12:49 pm

    The tournaments awarded to the Pentagon simply don’t garner a facility as big as the EC.

    JangoFett, this is exactly why the new EC has a “curtaining” system. The question of whether the new facility would be a football arena or a basketball arena was discussed at length by both the 2009 EC Task Force and by Mike and his EC Team. The decision was made to build a basketball arena.

    The EC was built to bring in larger concerts and conventions for the most part. (per JangoFett)

    Both of the EC consultants, CSL and AECOM very clearly stated that AT MOST SF could expect 2 to 3 large concerts PER YEAR.

    pragmatist83 on 12.12.13 at 1:15 pm

    You are a conspiracy theorist. Why do you believe that behind every rock there is a demon? Is it possible that people who work for the city, the visions of the community they work on, and the majority of the citizenry are just not as stupid as you portray them to be?

    Grow up a little, get educated, find a real job and maybe you’ll learn something about how things actually work.

    Actually, pragmatist83, some of us who comment on this site understand local politics and issues in great depth.

    Sy on 12.12.13 at 2:05 pm

    The way to make lemonade out of it would be to move Canaries stadium downtown

    Why would taxpayers be interested in investing millions of dollars to build a new stadium for the Canaries and their low attendance crowds?

    Craig on 12.12.13 at 2:31 pm

    I laugh at the continual complains about us not signing all these big conventions or sports tournaments before the EC is even built… because that just shows how pessimistic, cynical, and short sighted people are.

    Teri Ellis Schmidt, who leads the EC’s major tenant, the Convention Center, spent 13 months telling the 2009 EC Task Force that as soon as the results of the vote were known she would start booking conventions. The vote happened two years ago, where is the list of upcoming conventions?

    Scott on 12.12.13 at 7:02 pm

    If we had a school as big as the University of Nebraska….

    Herein lies the major problem for this new 183 million dollar facility….there really is NO major tenant.

    I attended the 2009 EC Task Force meetings for 13 months and I closely followed the discussion right up to the vote. I will never forget the final meeting where the 2009 Task Force was finishing their preparation for the consultant, CSL, and they all looked at each other and said, “Well, who is our major tenant going to be,” and this was after a year of task force meetings!

    So, the fact that the EC has secured one wrestling tournament and signed the Stampede, a minor D League team, is reason for concern for all taxpayers.

22. From the AL:

    The Stampede’s current contract dates back to 2007. The hockey club pays rent of about $3,200 for each home game. The club will pay a bit more under the new agreement — about $4,000.

    The hockey club sets the ticket prices and gets revenue from sales as well as from selling sponsorships and advertising on the ice. The Stampede also gets a portion of concession sales, according to the current contract. The arena staffs the games with ticket takers and ushers.

23. I’m sure the EC didn’t get all those other event contracts because it is already booked for Bieber and Beyonce concerts!!!

24. Oh, LJL, stop being so sophomoric.

25. Sy mentions the arena being built with 10% seats for our population base. Sioux Falls doubled its population from 1981 to now thanks to predator friendly usury laws. That ain’t gonna happen again any time soon. Even at that, take the best 10 year run the arena had, and tell us how many sellouts they had for a 6000 seat arena.

    The pinnacle in Lincoln has a chance. Compare their major tenant, 60 home U of N basketball games to the stampede? Also Lincoln has 8 times as many college kids as SF within walking distance to the center. They also have over 1.2 million people within an 80 mile radius of the center. For SF the numbers simply do not add up.

    Bravo to the guys who built the District. They got it right and will help put another nail in the EC coffin.

26. Not sure if the District did it right or not, that is still to be determined, but, they understand, in order for entertainment to survive in this community, there should be a ‘need’ for it. And if there is, there will be a ‘profit’.

    After 14 years, I get really bored with the notion that the Pavilion shouldn’t make money because they are in the ‘education’ business. I’m sorry, but I am still trying to grasp what kind of ‘education’ I am garnering from Lorie Line Xmas concerts and Giclee’ prints of Norman Rockwells.

27. I know the District has only been open a short time. But I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say they make it big time. We were there last Friday nite. Went early, ate some food. Drank some beer. Watched a pretty good show made really good by sound and lighting. The food was OK. Only complaint it might have taken a little longer than normal to be served. Understandable tho. The place was packed. Food prices also not out of line. Beer selection was more than enough to choose from. I drank Ethos IPA. Good stuff, and about what I paid for a watered down domestic beer at the arena.

    Been to enough sporting venues at the arena to know there is nothing electric about an event where two out of three seats are empty. The District? Packed. The music, lighting, sound, all really good. My gut tells me this place will make it.

28. What’s true about everything new in Sioux Falls is it’s popular a short time that’s hopefully long enough to satisfy the business plan. Then the location can be repurposed. What’s important is it’s not taxpayer money. It costs double or triple to build with public money and construction is always inferior. I say again, the EC vote was rigged. Votes were unguarded for 10 hours in the hands of an unsupervised individual. It will become a landmark question for those arriving into the city by air but become hardly occupied. When pot becomes legal, it can be leased as the largest indoor grow and retail facility.

29. Repurposing the EC:

    Mark solstices on roof corners then rename it Stonehenge.
    A full time location for the Shriner’s Circus.
    A practice target for National Guard fighter jets.
    Visible from space so aliens target us & we get FEMA money.

30. Repurposing the EC:

    A place to store part of Huethers ego

31. Maybe diamond Jim can use the entire complex to hold a motorcycle ride through.

32. scott, don’t think that isn’t probably already being proposed.

33. Is this the place where the term “Our man Mike”
    originated on the argus and kelo before they went
    to java scripty/cookified comments?

    I think I am among like minded individuals if it is.

    OBG

Comments are closed.