Pacers want to build new training facility Downtown

Pacers Sports & Entertainment is asking the city’s Capital Improvement Board to let it build a new training facility with offices and a major tenant on a sliver of land across the street from Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

The parent of the Indiana Pacers uses that land just east of the fieldhouse for employee parking. If the CIB revises the current lease agreement and approves a new use for the land, Pacers Sports & Entertainment would build the facility with private financing, according to a statement released Friday evening by David Benner, director of media relations for the Pacers.

At the conclusion of the agreement, the Pacers would give the facility to the CIB, according to the statement.

“We are hopeful the CIB will support the re-purpose and we look forward to sharing additional details after the CIB considers the request,” the statement said.

The CIB meets Monday. Pacers Sports & Entertainment is expected to present its proposal then.

The Pacers would be the latest in a long line of teams to build new training facilities. Over the past 12 years, the Cleveland Cavaliers, Los Angeles Clippers, Utah Jazz, New Orleans Pelicans and Oklahoma City Thunder have all built new practice facilities. The Chicago Bulls opened their new training facility near the United Center last year.

In May, the Los Angeles Lakers announced plans to build a new headquarters and training facility in El Segundo, Calif., about 40 minutes from their home at the Staples Center.

In 2014, the Portland Trail Blazers renovated their 1998 training facility to try to keep up.

“It’s become an arms race around the league,” Trail Blazers General Manager Neil Olshey said then in a story reported on Trailblazers.com. “You have guys coming from college situations where they have $25-, $30-million practice facilities. Hey, right down the road there’s one for $65 million. When they set that as the bar for how they’re treated and what they have access to in college, then you’ve got to have the same resources in the NBA.”

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About the CIB

The CIB is a municipal corporation that operates and/owns the Indiana Convention Center, Lucas Oil Stadium, Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Victory Field and other facilities in Downtown Indianapolis.

The CIB decided last year to use $160 million in tax money to cover operating costs and upgrades at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. The Pacers keep revenue from all fieldhouse events, basketball and non-basketball alike.

The CIB uses money from taxes on hotels, rental cars, food and beverages — $143 million in 2013 — to pay for Lucas Oil Stadium and the Indiana Convention Center and their operation.

The Pacers operate Bankers Life Fieldhouse, but the CIB pays the expenses.

— compiled by Robert King