Angles: The events center: finding a home

Downtown

By Kirstie Wollman

During the public input session of a city council meeting last month, someone said that, "Going to Sioux Falls and going to the convention center is like going to Paris and going to McDonald's."

I would tend to agree.

Sioux Falls needs to work with what it has, and right now what we have is downtown.

I have lived in Sioux Falls for 20 years and downtown has always been the most interesting part of town.

There are unique shops and restaurants that really represent the best of what Sioux Falls has to offer.

The arena, however, is practically in a ghost town. It is a long drive from anywhere and unless you want to go to a burger joint on the side of the road, there really isn't anything else to do there.

If the city is going to spend all of this money on an events center, it should be somewhere where people want to go.

Building an events center downtown would revitalize the entire area.

It would provide more customers for restaurants and shops, most of which are locally or regionally owned.

Even though building an events center by the arena would also spur some economic development there, I feel that we should work on building up what we already have before we start building more. The last thing Sioux Falls needs is another strip mall.

Either way, an events center is bound to bring a lot of money and people to Sioux Falls, but it is also important to think about what is best for the city as a whole as well as how we are portraying ourselves.

Most of Sioux Falls' character and charm lies in downtown and I think that adding an events center there would only bring in more people to appreciate it.

Arena

By Adam Walsh

I believe the Sioux Falls Events Center should be built by the original events center location, on the north side of town. The key to the plan is location, location, location.

In his presentation to the Sioux Falls City Council, Mayor Mike Huether describes a plan that resembles a puzzle, with all the pieces fitting in the right place.

Included in the puzzle are the pieces of funding, size, location, parking, timing, uses, economy, operations and traffic.

Funding for the project is estimated at $99.5 million with a $500,000 site assessment plan. In his proposal, Mayor Huether said the $500,000 will be used to come up with a plan for design, parking, site review, comparing alternative sites and various other expenses.

Location can be summed up with size, parking and economic operations. The Sioux Falls Convention Center provides parking for up to 3,000 already and parking downtown is hectic with limited parking places. The size of the events center is projected at 12,000 seats, which wouldn't change dramatically regardless of the location.

I believe economic operations would improve more drastically having the events center built by the Convention Center because there is more room for larger projects like hotels, restaurants and bars.

There would definitely be an increase in economic operations with an Events Center built downtown as well, but to produce more business, as in new business, an events center at the Arena location is necessary.

One quote that was presented comes from the Final Report of the Events Center Task Force stating "The Task Force believes the most appropriate location for a new facility is at the current Arena/Convention Center site. This is the one that allows a new facility to best work with the existing facilities to offer the needed flexibility.

The Task Force also recognizes the opportunity provided by a downtown location, but feels it would not allow for contiguous space with the existing Convention Center. Daytime parking for trade shows would also be challenging." This presentation can be found on www.siouxfalls.org/eventscenter.

The events center should be built next to the Sioux Falls Convention Center because of the capabilities it already produces, whereas more funding and time would be needed to build an events center downtown.