Parking Problems At Proposed Events Center Site

SIOUX FALLS, SD - One of the main concerns about a downtown events center is the traffic. But, what is the traffic like at the current Sioux Falls Arena?

Friday night there were four different events going on at the Sioux Falls Arena, Convention Center and Howard Wood Field. There were two football games at Howard Wood Field, a Sioux Falls Stampede hockey game, and an expo for women all at the same spot.

"Little interesting finding a parking spot," Stampede fan Matt Eggert said.

"You can walk out here on a night like tonight and see that parking is a problem. It's a problem," Stampede fan Tom Jones said.

Parking was at a premium Friday night at the Sioux Falls Arena and Convention Center. More than six thousand people were packed into the lots with all the events going on. And one of the lots is where the city wants to build an events center that would hold twice as many people.

"I think parking is going to be a big concern. It's already kind of a mess right now. We had to park much farther away than we normally do. I can not imagine having a 12,000 seat events center here being able to support the needs of the parking," Jones said.

And while some think a downtown location would be worse, a few of the fans going to Friday night's events think it will be just as much work to build up the infrastructure downtown as it will to build at the arena.

"I think you would have to put just as much work into it. You'd have to build up the roads and make sure there's ample parking and stuff. But, I think you'd end up with better results downtown," Eggert said.

"But, I think it needs to be thought out properly. I'm absolutely in favor of it, but there has to be some planning and they need to think about parking here," Jones said.

Because these fans say packing in more events and more people in a new events center is going to cause parking problems no matter where its built.

The city is planning to buy up homes to turn several areas around the arena into parking lots if the events center is built there.