Dear Citizens, The City of Sioux Falls is in a unique position. For the last 60 plus years, the Sioux Falls Arena has served our area well. Thousands of events have been featured there and it has no doubt brought in millions of dollars to our economy. However, we are facing increasing competition from other Midwestern cities for events and are potentially losing millions of dollars to rival centers like the Tyson Center in Sioux City. It’s time to position Sioux Falls as the go-to city for Midwest events. Mayor Heuther is on board with building the Events Center. That is great news. However, his plan calls for it to be built next to the current Sioux Falls Arena. Not only is does the area lack restaurants and other establishments that people like to go to after events, but there is absolutely no logic and aesthetics in placing the new Events Center next to the Sioux Falls Arena, the Convention Center, The Birdcage, and Howard Wood Field. We don’t need to clump our event options into four city blocks. We need to build a beautiful, timeless facility that will last for decades to come. Reasons to build the new Events Center Downtown: 1. There inevitably will be traffic congestions no matter where we build it. Why not build it downtown, which is built in a grid, to allow multiple entry points. 2. Building the Events Center Downtown will jumpstart our local economy in this recession. Not only will it create jobs for the actual building process, but it will open up more opportunities for businesses to establish downtown. Current businesses will hopefully stay open later to accommodate the customers and new ones will offer better variety. 3. More large-scale businesses would consider a downtown location. Hotels and other companies that employ hundreds of people will want to be located near an Events Center 4. The city will inevitably continue to invest in infrastructure to make downtown easier to move about. Please consider signing this petition and let’s make Downtown Sioux Falls the premier place for entertainment in the Midwest.