IU Indianapolis is Getting an Arena Upgrade
The Indiana University Board of Trustees officially approved a $110 million arena that will be built on their satellite campus, IU Indianapolis.
The IU Indianapolis Jaguars (formerly IUPUI) will be playing in a brand new $110 million dollar arena on their campus in downtown Indianapolis. This is a major upgrade for the Jaguars and will help the new head coach Paul Corsaro recruit adequate talent to compete in the Horizon League.
The Jaguars have been playing in the Indiana Farmers Coliseum on the Indiana State Fairgrounds since 2014. I’ve actually been to a couple of games and a graduation at this arena and I thought it was a decent arena every time. The problem is, it’s 4.6 miles away from IU Indianapolis’ campus. Depending on the day, if your start time is 6pm for a game, with traffic you are looking at 15-20 minutes to get there. Students are not willing to drive that distance for a basketball game where the team has won less than 8 games a year for the past 5 seasons (29-114 overall in that stretch). Last season, they averaged just 1,026 people per game.
This will be a multi-use arena, with community spaces, office space, an auxiliary gym, volleyball court, training facilities, etc. This is an all-in-one major upgrade IU Indianapolis’ athletic program. The best part is, this will be on campus.
First year head coach and Indiana native, Paul Corsaro has already been taking a step forward with IU Indianapolis in the recruiting world. This is one of the toughest schools to coach at, but Corsaro is getting the Jaguars pointed in the right direction. Now, the Jaguars will have a brand new on-campus arena, a head coach that’s an Indiana native and long-time player/coach in Indiana at various schools. All of this, is a recipe for success for IU Indianapolis.
Indianapolis itself is seeing growth as well. Last year, the Indy Eleven (a member of the USL) announced that they were going to build a 20,000 stadium in downtown Indianapolis, with other development as well (apartments, retail, hotels, etc.) by the Keystone Group. This was obviously in hope of potentially moving to the MLS where they were previously turned down for membership. Although, the Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett is trying to back out of this deal and bring in an MLS Expansion team with a potentially other new stadium. Regardless, there will probably be another new stadium in the city skyline for Indy residents as their city council approved a new stadium inline with Hogsett’s maneuver for an MLS team in May.
The Colts, Pacers, and Fever all have young teams that are rising. IU Indianapolis could be the next on the list of Indianapolis athletics that are on the rise.
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