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The professional indoor football team set to kick off at the new Fishers Event Center in 2025 now has a name: the Fishers Freight.
In tribute to the railroad’s role in the history of the city, the team will wear a logo featuring a Nickel Plate Road freight train with a blue, black and and yellow color palette.
Fishers was originally platted along a railroad line in 1872 by Salathiel Fisher, who called the area Fisher’s Switch after the train station. The town was incorporated in 1891 as Fishers Station, a name that remained until 1908, when the Post Office changed the name to Fishers.
“We wanted to pay homage to the history behind the city we will be calling home,” said Jim Hallett, who owns the team through holding company Indiana Football Club LLC. “We’re very excited to be the Fishers Freight and can’t wait to begin play in the Fishers Event Center.”
The Freight will begin home games at the event center in March 2025 and will be joined in the venue by the Indy Fuel hockey team, also owned by Hallett, which will occupy the 8,500-seat entertainment and sports venue by the end of 2024.
The teams will share front office staff, with the Freight serving as the 17th member of the Indoor Football League. The league has been operating since 2009, making it the longest continuously operating indoor football league in the United States. The league’s franchise roster includes teams in San Antonio, Las Vegas, Green Bay, Jacksonville and Tulsa, among others.
Trains began rolling through Fishers in the 1850s and didn’t stop until 2016. For most of the 1900s, the rail line through Fishers was dominated by the freight trains of the Nickel Plate Road, a huge Midwest rail system originally known as the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad.
Today, the Fishers downtown municipal and business area is known as the Nickel Plate District even though the rail bed that crossed through the area has been stripped of its tracks and converted into the recreational Nickel Plate Trail.
The team said the colors it chose are the same ones that appeared on “the Nickel Plate Road train that last rumbled through the streets of Indianapolis in 2015.”
The Freight will be the first significant indoor football franchise based in central Indiana since the Indiana Firebirds of the Arena Football League ceased operations in 2004 after three seasons at the then-named Conseco Fieldhouse.
IFL teams play a 16-game regular season, with eight games at home and eight on the road. Rules for the sport also differ from traditional football in several ways, including the number of players on the field for each team (eight instead of 11), field length (50 yards instead of 100) and the height and width of the goalposts (9 feet wide and 15 feet high, not 18 feet, 6 inches wide and 10 feet high). There are also differences in scoring, out-of-bounds catches and pre-snap movement on offense.
All players in the IFL are paid $250 per game, with travel expenses, meals and some in-season housing covered by the team.
“We’re thrilled to have the Fishers Freight representing this community and continuing to help build the new event center into a hub for sports and entertainment in our city,” Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness said in written remarks.
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Fight song idea:
Who are we?
Fishers Freight!
All aboaaaaard…
Nope, too late!
Pave the tracks
and don’t look back
Fishers Freight
Attack, attack!
Well Done Brad W. Funnnny!!!
Upon TD’s, they need a pre recorded, blasting freight train sound with train horn. Woooo woooo.
Brad W. you are sadly absolutely correct. How ironic they named the team for the Nickel Plate Railroad after the city destroyed over 165 years of rail history by pulling up the very tracks that gave life to Fishers. Instead of enhancing the railroad experience for citizens and visitors they threw it all away. Think collaboration with Noblesville, Connor Prairie and even once again going all the way to Union Station. Colts, Pacer and State Fair Specials, bringing convention and downtown Indy visitors to Fishers to dine and shop.
The only thing hated more than IndyGo by the Indiana Legislature is the idea of trains being used for transit. I believe it’s specifically prohibited by law, just like abortions, which should give you an idea of their disgust.