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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowGoogle, Hennessey, Puma, Foot Locker and so many other of the world’s biggest brands have landed in Indianapolis for All-Star Weekend. And that is fantastic. It’s good for our city and our state that these leading companies are spending their money here and helping to make this NBA event bigger and more impactful than it was when Indianapolis last hosted the game in 1985.
It’s also exciting that the NBA and the All-Star Game have become so much more global than they were four decades ago. As Derek Schultz reports in our cover story about Tyrese Haliburton, interest in the All-Star Game has fallen in the United States but has risen significantly internationally, especially in Asia. One in four Chinese adults consider themselves “avid” NBA fans, according to a recent study, and NBA League Pass interest has spiked considerably in Portugal, Turkey, Italy and Mexico, among other places, Schultz writes.
As a result, the All-Star Game—with images of and discussion about Indianapolis—will be broadcast in 250 countries and in 50 languages. That’s exposure for the city and the state that only an event like the Indianapolis 500 can muster—and to a completely different audience.
We’re thrilled to see state and local officials taking the opportunity to entertain companies and business executives who could decide to make investments here. It’s easy to dismiss the idea that someone could bring a company to Indiana because of a fun experience at a relatively meaningless basketball game. But as the Indiana Economic Development Corp. officials explain in a story on page 23A, three-quarters of the people the agency plans to entertain have never been to Indianapolis. It’s important that a sports event can make that introduction to the city possible.
But we don’t only need to look globally to see the big impact of this NBA All-Star Weekend. Locally, we appreciate the work that has been done by the arts community and its supporters to create a celebratory atmosphere and showcase the work of established and emerging creatives, many of them people of color.
The work has emerged from partnerships among the All-Star Host Committee, Indy Arts Council, cultural startup GangGang, Indiana Sports Corp., Capital Improvement Board and others. And the result is an explosion of artwork—including 24 basketball murals, dozens of canvases hung along key downtown corridors and a fine arts fair called Butter at Indy’s Home Court, which is taking place in the Indianapolis Artsgarden.
These types of collaborations aren’t new. In 2021, the Indianapolis arts community played a key role in the region’s hosting of the entire NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. With attendance limited, not enough people saw the visual art and concerts that infused the event with life. But that work paved the way for the arts and culture that is woven into the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend.
We are thrilled for the international attention this weekend will bring but just as much so for an arts showcase that is meaningful locally.•
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