I might have missed it, but has there been any rationale given by someone who actually knows why this game is being played there. Absolutely mind-blowing to think about all the crappy non-conference games I have sat through, and then have a game like this played four hours away in a small arena....
The owner/promoter of the Sanford Pentagon is Sanford Health -- very large, very well-heeled health-care organization (you may recall the news a few years ago when T. Denny Sanford made the largest single donation to a health-care organization with a $400 million donation to what was then Sioux Valley Hospital -- Sanford is a U of Mn grad who had discussed making a big donation to Minnesota's then-new stadium project but that didn't work out so it went to health care...some of you will also remember (1) a couple years ago seeing the Sanford Health ad on a building that could be seen from Target Field during Twins games; and (2) Sanford proposing a major hospital acquisition in the Twin Cities which upset local interests in the Cities and got the Minnesota Attorney General involved...deal went away).
Okay, with that background, Sanford Health has put up a lot of athletic facilities in Sioux Falls and donated significant sums for projects at SDSU, NDSU etc. One of the facilities in Sioux Falls is the Sanford Pentagon. See link below. The Pentagon brings in basketball teams that normally wouldn't be seen in Sioux Falls. For example, last year I attended the SDSU v. Florida Gulf Coast -- Dunk City. TThe year before, Wisconsin played St. John's (the good basketball St. John's). Last month, Iowa State and Colorado played basketball on the Heritage Court. Today, to promote wrestling, the Pentagon hosted a wrestling meet featuring the South Dakota colleges that still had wrestling programs, SDSU, Northern State, Dakota Wesleyan. SDSU will play Middle Tennessee State after Christmas.
The CEO of Sanford Health is Kelby Krabbenhoft -- his son, Joe, was a very good basketball player for the Wisconsin Badgers a few years ago and is now an assistant coach at SDSU.
The Pentagon is doing this just to bring some different basketball teams to Sioux Falls. The teams are paid. I doubt the ticket prices cover everything and it's my guess Sanford is subsidizing the games to some extent -- it's another form of advertising.
The Pentagon is absolutely high-tech but is designed to have an old school look and feel. Not quite Hoosiers-movie old school but something more reminiscent of a 1950s gym. The building has several basketball and multi-purpose courts. The Minnesota v Oklahoma game will be on the Heritage Court which is an intimate setting. Going to a game there is fun. All of the seats are good seats. The beer selection is good.
If you're going, go a little early and walk around the place (hey, you can even see some memorabilia of Mike Miller and Nate Wolters
)
Link to the Pentagon's website:
http://www.sanfordpentagon.com/
