Sioux Falls will host Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference basketball tournaments from 2014-16.
The eight-team men's and women's conference tournaments will take place at the 160,000-square-foot, five-sided Sanford Pentagon, which is currently under construction. Next season, the first rounds of those tournaments will be hosted by the top four seeds with the semifinals and finals in Rochester, Minn.
The $18 million Pentagon's main basketball arena will seat 3,100 fans. The facility in northwest Sioux Falls is located along Westport Avenue between Benson Road and West 54th Street, west of the airport.
The Pentagon will include nine basketball courts, centerpieced by the NBA/college-sized Heritage Court, taking its design inspiration from 1950s/1960s basketball. The Sioux Falls Skyforce of the NBA Development League will use the arena, with its expected opening in fall 2013.
The Pentagon also will have room for 11 volleyball courts, wrestling and cheer/dance events and other athletic and community events. There are also planned indoor tennis and hockey facilities in the works for the 162-acre complex.
Sioux Falls Junior Football will move its games to the complex this fall. There will be nine, regulation-sized, outdoor football fields with room to develop three more. In 2011, 2,260 players played on 102 teams in the league.
The 85,000-square-foot Sanford Fieldhouse also is being constructed on the property and has a planned opening for this fall. The fieldhouse features 60,000 feet of field turf, so its uses are endless. It is big enough to host a soccer tournament.
The entire Sanford Health complex has a total price tag of $46 million, utilizing Sioux Falls city, private and nonprofit money. Plus, groups are raising an additional almost $11 million for a couple more facilities on the complex.
It seems like the number of sports groups raising money in Sioux Falls is endless as well.
Sioux Falls tennis fans are raising funds to build a $3 million Community Indoor Tennis Center at the complex.
The only indoor tennis courts in Sioux Falls are Westward Ho Country Club (which requires membership) and Sioux Empire Fitness (which charges $24 per hour for the use of one of its four courts). If all goes as planned, we could possibly open by the fall of 2014, fund-raising chairman for the project Bill Townsend told the Argus Leader.
The Sioux Falls Ice Sports Association also is raising money to build a $7.7 million facility at the complex. Sanford is donating the land at the complex for both the tennis and ice groups.
This complex has been aptly nicknamed a game changer.
It is easy to see why.
John Papendick is the managing news-sports editor for the American News. Reach him at jpapendick@aberdeennews.com.
Blog: aberdeensports.net/inthehuddle.
Twitter:@jpapendick
