Sanford Helath giving $20 M to U. of S.D.

VERMILLION, S.D. — Sanford Health is giving $20 million to the University of South Dakota for a new arena. It is the third significant financial move for the Dakotas-based health network in less than a week.

The university last year began raising money for a proposed $50 million basketball and volleyball arena and adjoining sports medicine building that would connect to the existing DakotaDome. The university is "thrilled" with the Sanford donation, President Jim Abbott told the Argus Leader newspaper.

"We hope this goes a long way toward making our plans for an arena and an academic and sports medicine building a reality," he said. "We're going to be beating the bushes as fast and as fierce as we can to get our alumni to make their own commitments so we can move forward as soon as possible."

Officials also announced last week that Sanford is giving $10 million to South Dakota State University for an indoor multisport practice facility.

Sanford Health is based in Sioux Falls and in Fargo, N.D. It has a presence in more than 100 communities in seven states and bills itself as the nation's largest not-for-profit rural health care provider.

Tags: sports, stadium, health