From the roominess of the concourse to a state-of-the-art locker room, Sioux City Musketeers Executive Vice President Rich Zaber calls the Tyson Events Center a "fantastic facility" for hockey.
According to Zaber, the building is the perfect place for the team to practice and compete in and a great space for more than 200 NHL and college coaches to scout players annually at the Fall Classic.
"It's just ideal for them," he said. "They say it's a great place for hockey."
Erika Newton, Convention Bureau manager, said the building's size makes it feel full when a large number of people are attending an event, which she said creates a high-energy level perfect for sporting events.
"It's not such a massive, huge building that it feels empty," she said. "It's easy to get the number of people in the doors enough to make it feel like there's something special going on."
People are also reading…
IDEAL SIZE FOR NAIA TOURNAMENT
This March, the NAIA Division II Women's Basketball National Championship will celebrate its 15th year in Sioux City.
The tournament made its debut at the Sioux City Auditorium in 1998. Since 2004, the NAIA Division II Women's Basketball National Championship has been held at the Tyson Events Center.
Tom Padgett, Sioux City mayor pro tem and this year's NAIA Tournament director, said NAIA championship officials "really liked" the Municipal Auditorium as a venue. After the Tyson Events Center was built, they liked that facility even better, according to Padgett.
"It's a nice size without being huge," he said of the building. "They like the fact that it can hold enough people - 5,000 to 6,000 - that they can do well at the gate, but also, when the finals are televised, that it won't look like 1,500 people sitting in a 10,000-seat arena."
SPORTS KEEP THE LIGHTS ON
The presence of the Sioux City Musketeers hockey team and the Sioux City Bandits football team help keep the doors open at the Tyson Events Center, according to Newton.
"Those two teams are vitally important to the building because they fill a lot of days that otherwise the building would just be sitting here dark and unused," she said. "They get people into the building and get people exposed to the Tyson Events Center, possibly encouraging them to come back to another event later."
Newton said the Tyson Events Center also makes revenue by selling concessions to fans during the games.
Hosting tournaments like the NAIA Division II Women's Basketball National Championship further benefit the Tyson financially and the entire community as players and fans spend money at restaurants, hotels and stores around the city.
"It's not an event that the city is going to make $100,000 out of as a city entity, but if we can turn $1.5 million over in the community that's certainly a winner for the citizens of Sioux City," Padgett said.
