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| Photo by Redwing77 |
The Denny Sanford Premier Center, home of the USHL's Sioux Fall Stampede, is entering its second year in existence. It's part of a multiple sport complex and convention center format in the northern part of Sioux Falls. It is connected to a basketball arena, soccer and baseball field, and football field.
It has a listed capacity for hockey of just under 10,700. This has to be among the largest venues in the USHL, if not the largest.
Cynically stated, this arena is situated very nicely for NHL scouts who want to get in and get out. It is literally less than 10 minutes from the airport. Sadly, there's almost nothing, outside of a few hotels, around the facility.
The Facility
There is ample, paved parking for the event. The exterior looks very modern, but not like what you'd expect of a hockey arena. It looks more like a new style convention center from the outside. On the inside, however, it's a different story. You are greeted with two large flights of stairs once entering and having your ticket scanned. There are escalators and elevators as well.
The arena itself is beautiful. There's ample, well padded and, to my eyes, slightly oversized seating around the sheet of ice that was extremely comfortable. The scoreboard was state of the art and breathtaking. One thing that was VERY noticeable (if not slightly predictable due to the age of the facility) is that it was VERY clean.
Maybe it was the lack of them that stood out elsewhere, but there seemed to be a LOT of restrooms available. It seemed to me that there were mens and women's facilities outside of every section.
The sound system was good and the use of technology was great at times. More on this later.
The ice doesn't deserve its own review. It's a new arena. The ice is new. It appeared like what a new hockey arena's ice sheet should look like. The skaters, outside of the mascot, looked to be quite at ease on the ice.
Grade: A+
The Entertainment
Here's where it gets a bit inconsistent, if not...well...sad. The use of technology for the opening intro was very good and featured a bunch of blue bison running in a stampede around the ribbon LED screens around the perimeter that was actually quite nice.
The music throughout was actually not that bad. Far better than Ralston, Sioux City, and Des Moines. Unlike Ralston, they prefer to allow the music to set the background not the main attraction. In other words, Ralston blasts your eardrups (especially with ads in between periods) whereas they do not in Sioux Falls.
But not all is well. They do not interact much with the crowd during the game. There's not that many "Let's Make Some Noise" prompts or other scripted events to get the crowd into the game. So, when the Sioux Falls Stampede aren't winning, it actually sounds more like a library than a hockey rink. There were times, even, when I could clearly hear the voices of the hockey players communicating on the ice... and my seats were 12 rows up from the glass.
The mascot, Tiptoe (I guess), looked EXTREMELY uncomfortable on skates. In other words, the person in the costume barely knew how to skate. I get that it is difficult to skate in that getup, but the Tri City and Omaha mascots seem to do quite well despite similarly top heavy setups. Same could be said of the UNO mascot.
A nice thing, though, is that they apparently have a kid mascot as well. I'm not sure if this is sanctioned or if this is something that a rabid fan created for their kid, but TipToe 1/2 is a very nice touch.
Lastly, the ads. Every arena has ads. They are usually between periods and announced during media timeouts and the like during the game. At this arena, it's almost nonstop... especially before the intro and in between periods. They brought a 2015 or 2016 Ford F150 onto the ice as well.
There was no intermission entertainment whatsoever outside of the Ads.
The one bit of entertainment we did get, I'd have rather not have gotten. Entering the third period, they put on the song "Cotton Eyed Joe." This, in itself, isn't unusual as the song is a staple at least in Nebraska sporting events. What I wasn't expecting was the crowd's reaction to it. It seemed many men took the song to mean "stand up, take off your shirt, and dance twirling your shirt above your head." I don't think I'll ever be able to forget some of what I saw. Luckily for you, the reader, you won't have to relive it...unless you go there yourself to view the carnage. It appears that there are several Sioux Falls fans that seem to not like it that much as well.
Grade: D -- when you have that kind of facility, there's no excuse for the lack of environment they put up. Truthfully, though, this could EASILY be remedied.
FOOD
They did serve Pepsi, which is unfortunate, but did not cost them in my rating. HOWEVER, what they DID do is offer options in how the beverage of your choice was to be served. They had the usual fountain drink variety but they did offer 20 oz. bottles. This is the only arena outside of Des Moines reviewed so far that offered this. A VERY nice touch.
Ok, I'm going to take a pass on this because I didn't really eat at the arena. However, from wandering around, they had a nice variety of food available to the public. I don't think reviewing the food based on what I DID order (popcorn and a bottle of water) to be accurate to rate.
Grade: N/A
The Visitor Experience
We were largely ignored despite being one of perhaps 10 Omaha fans in the arena (of which only the 3 that came with me to the game sat in my section). There was no razzing and the most common question asked of us was how long it took to drive from Omaha to Sioux Falls.
There was one lady who was upset at our cheering and "voiced" her objections after the game by ringing her cowbell as loudly as she could as near as she could to us after the game. Other than ringing in my ears, that's all the razzing I got.
Grade: A-
Overall
You cannot can or detract too much for tertiary omissions such as prompted interactions and whatnot when it comes to the overall experience. The overall experience, the game itself, the quality of the hockey (regardless of outcome) was simply fantastic. It did not surprise me at all that the Stampede blew away the attendance record last season (I believe they averaged about 8000 per game, which even for ONE night is pretty darned good for a USHL game).
Let's put the whole thing this way: There are NCAA DI hockey programs that do not have as nice of a facility as Sioux Falls Stampede enjoy. It's too bad that there's really not a lot of infrastructure around the arena or I'd say that, if Fargo can host an NCAA regional, so could Sioux Falls.
I'd definitely recommend visiting this arena.
Grade: A
