The project focuses on reconfiguring the men’s and women’s basketball locker rooms and player lounges, expanding the John Wooden Club area, technology updates and more efficient use of the current space.
The four games played in downtown Indianapolis on Thursday drew about 32,610 total spectators throughout the day, split between afternoon and evening sessions that each featured two contests.
A $28.5 million Lilly Endowment Inc. grant will provide funding for plaza amenities including sculptures by Honduras-based artist Herman Mejia, a community basketball court/ice rink and public restrooms.
The Indiana Sports Corp. would be responsible for administering a grant program to disperse the funds, with the organization giving money to groups across the state as well as using a portion of the funding for its own bidding efforts.
Hospitality officials had expected an economic impact approaching $100 million for the NCAA Final Four alone, but that estimate was made before the pandemic put severe attendance limits on the tourney.
The massive hospitality and entertainment district is slated to be anchored by a $25 million multisport venue surrounded by apartments, hotels, medical office buildings, restaurants, stores, senior-living facilities and condos.
Westfield-based EdgeRock Development is working to develop the Grand National Pickleball Center on a 25-acre site on the north side of 191st Street. The facility is expected to have 36 indoor and 16 outdoor pickleball courts.
Teams are trying to earn indirect revenue from mobile sports betting, carving out areas in their facilities that cater to fans who want to follow their bets while taking in a game downtown.
The team is set to host all 16 of its regular-season home games at IUPUI’s Michael A. Carroll Stadium this season after playing the past three seasons at Lucas Oil Stadium.
The teardown of the 770-space structure began in March and is expected to be completed sometime this summer, followed immediately by the start of construction on the new 1.5-acre plaza space.
Officials on Tuesday also released attendance figures for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament’s 66 games—all played in Indiana.
By enjoying an unbroken winning streak of mayoral leadership, Indianapolis has made boldness, well…boring.
Interest in tickets to Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games in Indianapolis is generally outpacing the demand for tickets to earlier rounds. Tickets for Hinkle Fieldhouse games are seeing the strongest demand.
The figures, obtained by IBJ on Wednesday, show an average attendance of 2,180 people per game across the seven basketball courts at six venues. All venues limited crowd sizes because of the pandemic.
The seed numbers of the 16 remaining teams add up to 94, the highest total since the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament expanded in 1985. Here’s how that stacks up against some previous years.
Even with most of the seats empty, the roar of fans could be heard outside Hinkle Fieldhouse on Friday afternoon as Virginia Tech hit a three-pointer in the final seconds to send the game into overtime.
“Hoosiers” made Hinkle Fieldhouse famous by Hollywood standards, but in the college basketball world, the home court for Butler University basketball was already a star.
Lucas Oil Stadium, which will host the Final Four along with games over the first and second weeks, will hold 6,900 fans on one court and 8,500 on the other. That’s 22% of capacity, which is the largest capacity of any of the six arenas.
The Indiana House on Thursday voted 83-6 to approve Senate Bill 385, which adds two years to a 2019 bill that had called for a new special tax district—known as a professional sports development area, or PSDA—to be established in Marion County by mid-2022.
Experts say attending events like the NCAA basketball tourney is relatively safe because of how big arenas with high ceilings work to move and mix air—as long as capacity limits allow for physical distancing and masks are still worn properly.
