INDIANAPOLIS — Basketball tournament games are set to tip off soon at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
13News asked Pacers Sports & Entertainment President Rick Fuson what it takes to prepare a venue like Bankers Life Fieldhouse for the dozens of games scheduled in March.
“You just use your expertise,” Fuson said. “The people we have here have done this kind of thing before. Not the NCAA with this many basketball games, with Big Ten, Big Ten women, Big Ten men, with IHSAA girls and boys, with Pacers games, etc. You just gotta pull from that experience. We have a great relationship with the NCAA, so everybody working together and trying to make sure those pieces come and in a quick period of time."
13News Sports Director Dave Calabro asked Fuson what it says about a city like Indianapolis, being selected to host all of March Madness.
“Well, I don’t think there’s any doubt about it,” said Fuson. “It says nearly 50 years ago, some of the pillars of our community that are still here made the right decision to say ‘Hey, sports are something we can put down as our mark in the sand.' They did that. Certainly they built the right things over the years downtown. Hotels have come, Lucas Oil Stadium, there used to be the (RCA) Dome, (we) had Market Square. Bankers Life Fieldhouse, the convention center, etc. And so it’s all come together, and on top of that, you go back to years past, like the (Indiana Farmers) Coliseum, like Hinkle Fieldhouse, using Assembly Hall, using Mackey Arena. We’ve got it together for the game of basketball, there’s no doubt about it."
Fuson said they’re working to prepare for the crowd restriction, set to permit up to 25 percent of Bankers Life Fieldhouse's seating capacity.
“Well, being ‘up to 25 percent’ doesn’t mean you can have 25 percent,” said Fuson. “You gotta do the pods, the two, the four, whatever the case may be, the number in the suites. It’s worked pretty well, I think we’ve got it down now where we space people coming in, we try to space people coming out, try to keep people’s masks on them all the time. I think people are still learning about it because they haven’t been to a lot of events. It’s a new learning process for both our staff and the patrons coming in."
