Opinion: Football Championships Should Stay in Brookings

****This story was written by August our ESPN Intern

For the first time in decades, the South Dakota high school football championship games weren’t held at the DakotaDome. 

 Due to the ongoing renovations at the dome, the SDHSAA decided to hold it at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium in Brookings. This is only a one-time thing as next year the dome renovations will be fully complete. However, I believe they should keep it in Brookings for the foreseeable future. 

 Brookings itself is a larger town with more options for restaurants to eat at before the game (I’d recommend trying out Whisky Creek). The main reason, however, is cold weather is true football weather. 

 As a recent graduate of Washington High School, I’ve been to my fair share of important football games, and while going to the DakotaDome was always fun, the best atmospheres seemed to be the cold weather semi-final games where bundling up wasn’t enough to stay warm so you had to stay on your feet and cheer loudly the whole game.  

Though Vermillion is the host site for at least the next couple of years, the SDHSAA should strongly consider moving it to Brookings for the overall better fan experience.