For now only public swimming and lane rentals are allowed at the Midco Aquatic Center. Swim meets will eventually become a reality in 2017 at the new Sioux Falls facility.

Financial support came in the hundreds of thousands from the Sioux Falls Swim Team to bring about the public indoor swimming venue. Parks and Recreation Director Don Kearney explains that the current rules are temporary in order to “break in” the place.

"The City and the Sioux Falls Swim Team and their leadership have been on the same page. (They knew) we were going to 'live' this facility a little bit, determine the amount of usage we were going to have and evaluate operations. We wanted to make sure during those first few weeks the general public would have access to the facility."

It’s a cautious approach to start which Kearney believes will set the stage for competitive events to take place at the Aquatic Center in 2017.

"Based on (the interest) we've received so far, I would say we will host six to eight (meets) per year. Some being larger meets where we will have to close down the entire facility to provide access and enough space to accommodate those swimmers, but the majority of them are one or two-day meets."

According to Kearney he didn’t want to overcommit the Aquatic Center until there was an opportunity to see how it was being used.

In less than a month, the Midco Aquatic Center is averaging 500 swimmers per day with noticeable spikes in traffic on weekdays when kids were out of school.


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