SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Wednesday, KELOLAND News told you the news that shocked a lot of football fans; that the Sioux Falls Storm won’t be playing football next year.
That’s because the staff at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center didn’t renew the lease for the Storm to play there.
Now as the team scrambles to find a new location, the former owner of the Storm says it’s far more troubling than that.
You know it’s been a five-year battle, they’ve been on a year-to-year lease each year
The Sioux Falls Storm has called the PREMIER Center home for almost 10 years.
“It was built for them in 2015 when I was the owner we were ordered to go in there and there were a lot of things designed just so we could go in there and as our leagues grow professionally we should be in the Events Center,” Tryon said.
Todd Tryon is the former owner of the Sioux Falls Storm, but now he’s the current IFL Commissioner and oversees every team in the league.
He says those teams don’t have any problems negotiating a lease where they play.
According to the PREMIER Center’s GM, Mike Krewson, it has a lot to do with falling attendance and it wasn’t feasible to keep the Storm in the building.
However, Tryon says that the decision could cost the community financially in other ways.
“You sit here and look at all the first-class men who are brought in here, who end up calling Sioux Falls home there are hundreds of them out there, they buy a house, they get married, they have a kid, they are contributing to the community and that’s something that doesn’t show up on the bottom line and you know that’s tough,” Tryon said.
In the meantime, Tryon says while the Storm will sit on the sidelines next season, it’ll keep looking for a new venue to call home, because the fans deserve it.
“You know we look forward to football games, you know it was another event we could go to in the city, we aren’t necessarily concertgoers, we’re considered a sports hub here and to take a team that’s been here for 24 years and tell them ”hey sorry you don’t meet our bottom line,’ it’s a tough pill to swallow,” Tryon said.
