You Are Already Paying to Park at PREMIER Center

By virtue of just buying a ticket to an event at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center you have paid for parking whether you park there or not.

Consider it a cost of doing business.  It is similar to janitor services for cleaning up being part of the cost of attending a concert or sporting event at the soon-to-be-christened new event center.

At first the statement hits you.  “We are going to be charging for parking.  It’s going to appear like it’s free.  When you drive into the parking lot, you’re not going to (pay someone at the entrance).  The parking cost is going to be embedded in your ticket.”  Those are the words of Kermit Staggers who is on the Sioux Falls City Council.

Parking was a mild headache before the new event center’s construction with events at the Arena.  If you add the footprint of the PREMIER Center plus the increased seating capacity for any shindig, finding a place for your car becomes a migraine all things considered.

Staggers looks to a time when the city will need to respond.  “People have already expressed concerns that we get one or two big events at the same time, we’re not going to have enough parking.  Some of us are thinking are we getting a parking ramp.  I wouldn’t be surprised in one or two years we’ll be talking about it.”

Already a football game at Howard Wood Field between Sioux Falls Washington and Huron has been moved to accommodate the Jason Aldean concert scheduled for October 3.