The Sioux City Sports Authority and the Sioux City Convention Center/Visitors' Bureau hosted their first ever NAIA Sponsorship Thank You Barbeque today (June 25). The event was held at the Anderson Dance Pavilion on the Sioux City Riverfront. The event was to thank all the sponsors for the NAIA Women's Volleyball National Championship and NAIA Division II Women's Basketball Championship. More than 100 people attended the event. A barbeque pork lunch was served with ice cream for desert.
Sioux City has hosted the NAIA Division II Women's Basketball National Championship since 1998 and will host their 13th championship in a row next March. The dates are March 10-16, 2010. The NAIA Women's Volleyball National Championship will be hosted for the second year in Sioux City this December. The dates are December 1-5, 2009. Both events are housed at the Tyson Events Center/Gateway Arena.
"This barbeque was a way to say thank you to all our NAIA sponsors," said Corey Westra, Sioux City Sports Authority President. "It was also a way to get people geared up for another championship season in 2009-2010." "The local sponsors are the key to the success of these tournaments in Sioux City, without their generous support we could not host to high caliber NAIA National Championships," added Westra. Over $150,000 is raised annually for the two events in Sioux City.
"It's amazing how these events have grown in Sioux City," said Tim Seaman, KCAU Television Sports Director and Sioux City Sports Authority Board Member. "When we bid basketball in 1998 it was played in a small gymnasium with minimal seating and now the tournament draws around 40,000 fans annually." "The NAIA events really are Sioux City's chance to shine and I hear so many positive comments each year on the experiences of the fans and players in Sioux City," added Seaman.
State Farm Insurance is the title sponsor for the NAIA Women's Division II Basketball Tournament and has extended their contract through 2012. The NAIA basketball contract is also through 2012 in Sioux City, Iowa. Sioux City Sports Authority Officials will be traveling to Kansas City next week to renegotiate the NAIA Volleyball Contract. Hopes are to extend the contract for three years, through 2012. Blue Bunny was the title sponsor for volleyball in 2009.
For more information on the NAIA go to http://www.naia.org/
