Nate Taylor

nate.taylor@indystar.com

Initial plans have been made, securing Downtown hotel rooms has been discussed and the convention center’s calendar for the month of February in future years remains open. All the Indiana Pacers need is for the NBA to release its requirements and specifications to bid to host a future All-Star Game.

“We will be looking at all the dates and all the time frames that are in the specifications,” Rick Fuson, the Pacers’ president and chief operations officer, said last week in a telephone interview. “Once we get the specifications, we’ll try to determine what we think the best year or years are that we would bid for.”

The earliest year the Pacers could make a bid would be for 2019. Charlotte, N.C., is scheduled to host the All-Star Game next season, and the NBA awarded the game in 2018 to Los Angeles in March. A league official confirmed Monday that the league has not opened the bidding process for subsequent years and that the specifications could be sent out to teams as soon as the conclusion of the NBA Finals. A committee will review each bid and recommend certain destinations for Commissioner Adam Silver and the owners before they select the winner.

Fuson said the Pacers do not know for which specific years the NBA will allow teams to submit bids. In the past, the league has done its bidding process on a two-year basis. Before Los Angeles was awarded the event in 2018, Indianapolis and Miami were known to be on the league’s short list of possible cities for 2018, according to USA Today.

The only time the Pacers hosted the All-Star Game was in 1985.

Since December, the Pacers have been aggressive in their pursuit of one of the NBA’s biggest events. Led by Fuson, a seven-person delegation from Indianapolis — including Ryan Vaughn, president of Indiana Sports Corp., and Leonard Hoops, president and CEO of Visit Indy — went to Toronto in February to see the Raptors host the All-Star events. Fuson said he and others in the group learned a lot by examining why Toronto was selected by the NBA.

“It’s a much, much, much, much, much bigger event than it was in 1985,” Fuson said. “It’s a huge event when we went up there. It’s grown exponentially over the years, so it will be a citywide event.”

Pacers to make case for hosting NBA’s All-Star Game

In previous years, cities have needed to secure at least 6,000 hotel rooms to accommodate league officials, corporate partners and fans. A host city would also need to prove to the NBA that it has enough facilities and square footage near the arena to hold festivities beyond the 3-point shooting contest, skill challenge and slam-dunk contest.

The Pacers and Indianapolis could use Lucas Oil Stadium and the convention center to help host the event. Representatives for the Indiana Sports Corp. and Visit Indy declined to comment on the Pacers’ upcoming bid since the league has not released its specifications.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt that we’re all partners in this,” Fuson said of Indiana Sports Corp. and Visit Indy. “I think everybody in this town continues to work as well together. It will take a commitment on all our parts to make sure that this thing is the best ever.”

Silver said earlier this month that the NBA could remove the All-Star Game from Charlotte by the end of the summer if the league does not find a satisfactory solution to the controversial approval of North Carolina House Bill 2, which nullified local ordinances that gave protections and rights to the LGBT community. Silver said the NBA is looking at alternative cities for the All-Star Game if no resolution is made. Atlanta lobbied in March to have the league relocate the game to the Hawks’ Philips Arena.

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Fuson said the Pacers have not had any discussions with the league about being an alternative if Charlotte losses the All-Star Game.

“I’m not going to speculate on speculations,” he said. “We’ll leave that situation to the NBA and Charlotte.”

Instead, the Pacers are preparing to make their case to the NBA once the league notifies teams that bids are being accepted. When Silver was in Indianapolis in May during the Pacers’ first-round playoff series, Fuson and owner Herb Simon, who is the longest-standing owner in the league, made it clear to Silver what they wanted.

“We’ve proved 30 years ago we can do it in its infancy,” Fuson said of hosting the event in 1985. “Every time we have an opportunity to see Adam we’re expressing our interest in making sure that they continue to know that we’re the right place to have the NBA All-Star Game in the future.”

Call IndyStar reporter Nate Taylor at (317) 444-6484. Follow him on Twitter: @ByNateTaylor.

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