BROOKINGS (8-27-26) — Major changes could soon be coming to Dacotah Bank Center.
At this week’s Brookings City Council meeting, Deputy Mayor Nick Wendell said the Dacotah Bank Center Work Group is recommending the event center — currently managed by an out-ofstate firm — revert to local management by City of Brookings staff beginning next year. They will also recommend the center shift to a focus on public recreation, primarily serving the needs of youth sports.
Wendell said they’re recommending other changes as well… “One thing phase two of the Dacotah Bank Center likely will not include are large concerts and those ticketed promoter events that I think some have associated with the Dacotah Bank Center for a long time. It’s not that we don’t love those events. We’re just living in a phase where our market is not a great place to host events like that. We don’t sell enough tickets. We don’t sell enough food and beverage. They’re not yielding hotel stays. A venue in a city the size of Brookings can’t support touring, ticketed events.”
He said although the work group is recommending a transition to an indoor recreation center, they are not recommending an indoor pool… “We know there’s a strong public appetite for an indoor recreation center in Brookings. That means something different to a whole variety of user groups and individual citizens. One thing that I think has sort of paralyzed that conversation over the last couple of years is whether or not indoor recreation should include aquatics — and that’s very cost prohibitive. And so this first version of what happens at the Dacotah Bank Center will not include aquatics.”
Wendell said despite these proposed changes, many community events can — and will — continue to take place at the center… “If you have an event on the calendar at the Dacotah Bank Center for 2027, that event is still happening. It will be managed in a City of Brookings managed facility, but your event is on the calendar. You’ll continue to work with that team. They’ll be reaching out in the coming days to affirm that with you. But we knew — as there was conversation around the future of the Dacotah Bank Center — there would be obvious questions from folks that have events in 2027 whether or not those were still happening. We are committed to fulfilling those events in the center in 2027.”
The work group’s recommendations will go before the City Council for approval on September 22.
— Brookings Radio News
