Wednesday, February 25, 2015

If you build it, they won't care? LNI may pull out

http://www.kotatv.com/news/south-dakota-news/oglala-sioux-tribe-leaders-want-lakota-nation-invitational-moved-out-of-rapid-city/31473500

"LNI is the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center's second largest event of the year, so talk of moving out of Rapid City is a concern for the Rapid City Chamber and Visitors Bureau.  'It's a big economic impact especially the time of year. Obviously the week before Christmas is when this takes place, so we're looking at over three million dollars in direct spending and that's just basketball,' Domico Rodriguez with the Rapid City Chamber and Visitors Bureau said.
Rodrirguez says local restaurants and shops get a huge boost each year from LNI tournament goers.  He says the Chamber has a great relationship with the LNI Board and he's hopeful that they'll keep the games here.  As of right now, that's the plan. the LNI board voted earlier this month to keep the tournament in Rapid City.
If the LNI board sticks with their decision to keep the tournament in Rapid City, tribe leaders say they'll ask people who live on the reservation to boycott the event. "

We need to be careful about predicting the future. In the case of the Civic Center expansion, we NEED to try to predict the future. But we should not be dazzled with glorious predictions that may not be based in reality.  A bigger place might give us more events, but on the other hand, we might have already lost events to Sioux Falls in the meantime.

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