Sioux Falls was center stage on national television for four major events that took place in the month of March.

Having grown up in Sioux Falls, the idea of how far we have come as a city in regards to sports is incredible. Everything used to seem to be contained to the Skyforce, Stampede, Canaries, or Storm. I remember how excited I was when ESPN2 came into town to broadcast the first Summit League Men's Championship at the Sioux Falls Arena in 2009. Heck, I even put it on my DVR to watch it back after I returned home from the game.

Fast forward to 2018 and we have just closed another busy stretch of high-profile events that included The Summit League Basketball Tournaments, NAIA DII Men's Basketball Tournament, NCAA DII Elite Eight, and an NCAA DI Hockey Regional. This month went by so fast!

The growth of the sports world in Sioux Falls has also given plenty of opportunity for the city to be showcased. During the month of March, Sioux Falls has been on national television four times.

The Summit League basketball championships had broadcasts on ESPNU (Women's) and ESPN2 (Men's) on March 6. This past Saturday (March 24) the DII Elite Eight final between Northern State and Ferris State was shown across the country on CBS. Later that night, the NCAA DI Hockey Regional final between Air Force and Minnesota Duluth capped off a busy day on ESPN2.

This is all great exposure for our city to be consistently shown on national TV for major championships. The crowds for all the events were great and that's only going to help our chances for more events in the future.

We earned this as a city, and it still amazes me to see this "smaller city" I grew up in showcased on a national stage. But, frankly, we aren't much of a smaller city any more when it comes to our sports.

Congratulations for another great run of events, and thank you to the Sioux Falls Sports Authority, Denny Sanford PREMIER Center, Sanford Pentagon, and all the people that bring these types of events to our town!

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