A powerful blizzard failed to keep fan from attending the Lakota Nation Invitational in Rapid City.
Wind gusts over 60 miles an hour and snow descended upon the entire state. That negatively affected driving conditions the day before the tournament started.
Bryan Brewer is the founder of the LNI, which is in its 45th year. He said the blizzard brought an unexpected wrinkle.
“A lot of the fans came up early. Right now, we have fans that are calling and they’re trying to get up here hopefully tomorrow to watch the games. Many of them are watching on pay-per-view," Brewer said. "Last year we sold for four days for pay-per-view, we sold that same number in the first four hours of the first day.”
Brewer said that's because there's a deep connection to the tournament.
“We have our third generation of kids. We have boys that play, and their grandfathers played in the tournament when we first started. It’s really something, and you can see the excitement and how proud they are to represent their school," Brewer added. "It’s really a good feeling just to watch our kids.”
Brewer says decades in, the LNI continues to gain in popularity. He says finding space for other events is still a challenge. That’s despite Rapid City completing a new arena last year.
“Last year was our first year in the Summit Arena. With the addition of the Summit that has really helped us," Brewer said. "There is a lot of other activities that we would like to do, but we don’t have enough room. So, we’re trying to figure out how to get those other venues started.”
The LNI runs through this Saturday.
