Brian Maliske knows what is good for the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center - more events, more people in seats. As manager of the civic center he knows, and does, his job well.

And he sees opportunity in success. Case in point is the wild success of the Rapid City Rush hockey team. Talk about a success story for Rapid City - local sponsors, sold out games and generally a buzz of approval.

Maliske said the civic center can build on hockey's success and bring a professional basketball or indoor football team to town.

That would be a mistake - the Rapid City community can't handle a second professional sports franchise. Having two sports teams in town would be one too many.

Rush hockey has been a success because of the local buy in. Both ticket sales and sponsors have made the Rush possible in Rapid City. But both of those - people with expendable cash for tickets and local businesses with the same for sponsorship - are limited.

We should move forward cautiously or not all with a new team to avoid undermining the support and success of our local hockey franchise.

We do like the idea of having more options for entertainment and sports in Rapid City. Both basketball and indoor football would be a great addition on their own.

But without the population base of larger markets with semi-pro teams we see the introduction of another team stretching available resources too thin.

After all, look around the ice arena at the next game. What you won't see are national sponsorships, corporate behemoths supporting the local franchise. What you will see are local businesses that thrive right here in Rapid City. Sponsors will make or break a franchise; asking those local businesses for more will leave them with few options: Give twice as much to include both, give half as much to both or give to only one or the other.

We expect the latter would be the case. It would be either the Rush fail, or the new team would fail, but it's hard to fathom both succeeding.

In Rapid City, several local businesses and members of the community have made a serious commitment to Rush hockey because it was the right thing to do the community. It has been a success.

This community can build on that success in a variety of ways, but bringing a competing franchise to town is not one of them.