MITCHELL — You might have heard that the Hanson Classic on Saturday had a bit of a hiccup. The Corn Palace had to be evacuated during a basketball game due to a fire alarm sounding.
The culprit? What else — popcorn.
In anticipation of the biggest crowd of the season, the Corn Palace opened up the South Side concessions for the first time and had some issues with the popcorn machine.
“An oil injector on that popcorn pot didn’t function like it was supposed to,” Corn Palace director Doug Greenway said. “… Guys were making popcorn and it got hot but never popped. The oil got too hot, so it gave off smoke.”
Luckily where there’s smoke, there isn’t always fire!
“There was never any fire,” Greenway said.
Luckily the game was at halftime, so the warmup clocks were reset and everything resumed as normal.
“You know it does create some chaos,” Greenway said. “I will say it was good for concession sales because we had everybody up and moving around, and they went and picked something up.”
Something similar happened two years ago involving a frozen sprinkler – where alarms and sprinklers went off during a Classic. But in case you’ve heard any rumors – Greenway would like everyone to know that the Corn Palace has not POPPED!
“No,” Greenway said, “There will be lots of jokes.”
The Dakota Wesleyan Tigers will play at the Palace against Dordt this Wednesday at 6 and 8 p.m. – pregame coverage on KMIT will begin at 5:40 p.m.