The 6,000-seat arena that will play home to the University of South Dakota basketball and volleyball teams will open next fall as construction continues Oct. 31 at the Sports Performance Enhancement Facility on campus.
Jim Lee, Sioux City Journal
A detailed rendering shows the exterior of the University of South Dakota Science, Health and Research Lab connecting the new USD Sports Performance Enhancement Facility Arena, at far left, with the DakotaDome.
VERMILLION, S.D. | As construction on three phases of the University of South Dakota's Sports Performance Enhancement Complex draws to an end, anticipation is at an all-time high.
The new, $66 million complex features a 173,000-square-foot, 6,000-seat basketball and volleyball arena. Since 1979, the men’s and women’s basketball teams have shared the DakotaDome with the Coyotes football team.
The new indoor complex will contain the new arena, two practice courts, a 7,500-square-foot weight room, a sports medicine and athletic training area and academic space for physical and occupational therapy, kinesiology and sports science programs.
Head men’s basketball coach Craig Smith said the progress is promising. When the project was just an idea, Smith said it was easy to not get too excited about. But once the facility began to take shape, Smith said the future of USD athletics became clearer.
“Once they started putting beams in the ground, the bricks and mortar, you feel the adrenaline,” he said.
Athletic Director David Herbster said the progress of the arena has been a joy to witness. What started as a concrete foundation in early 2015, now contains functional video boards and electronic ribbons.
If all goes according to plan, Herbster said, athletic programs should be able to transition into the new indoor facility by the first of August.
Additionally, the project includes an outdoor track and soccer facility. The spring season will mark the first time since the DakotaDome's construction in 1979 that USD will have an outdoor track facility.
The school made up for the lack of a track by practicing inside the DakotaDome and hosted outdoor meets in Yankton and Elk Point.
The track will come complete with an in-ground timing system for accuracy and keep spectators updated with the lap, place and time of the runners. Fans can also watch throwing events and the high jump from the stands.
To the east of the track facility is a space for soccer teams. Practice and competition fields have been installed, with seating for about 1,000 spectators for games.
Herbster said sod has been placed on the infield of the track and the practice soccer field and artificial turf will be installed on the competition field.
A structure that will house concessions and restrooms will be built between the grandstands of the soccer and track fields.
Named the 21st Amendment Bar & Kitchen, owner Jesus Sanchez said his business, which opened in May, represents an earlier, more innocent era.
The 6,000-seat arena that will play home to the University of South Dakota basketball and volleyball teams will open next fall as construction continues Oct. 31 at the Sports Performance Enhancement Facility on campus.
A detailed rendering shows the exterior of the University of South Dakota Science, Health and Research Lab connecting the new USD Sports Performance Enhancement Facility Arena, at far left, with the DakotaDome.
