Fishers selects manager for planned $170M event center

Construction on the Fishers Event Center is expected to be complete by December 2024. (Rendering courtesy city of Fishers)

An operator has been chosen for the planned $170 million event center at Fishers District, which will be home to the Indy Fuel minor league hockey team.

ASM Global, a Los Angeles-based facility management company, has agreed to terms with Fishers officials to oversee the venue, which is expected to hold 6,500 fans for Fuel and basketball games and about 8,000 to 8,500 people for concerts and other entertainment events.

ASM, which bills itself as the world’s largest venue-management company, oversees more than 350 entertainment, sports, and exhibition facilities on five continents, including several NFL stadiums. Those venues host 20,000 events and 165 million guests annually, the company said.

The company’s initial five-year contract was approved by the Fishers Board of Public Works on Tuesday.

Ground is set to be broken on the facility next month. The Fuel could begin playing games at the event center as soon as the 2024-25 season if construction goes as scheduled.

In addition to running day-to-day operations, ASM will be responsible for hiring building employees, securing maintenance service agreements, executing capital improvements (paid for by the city), and advertising the facility and its events.

ASM will also oversee event-attraction efforts for activities such as concerts, family-focused shows, recreational sports, trade shows and community events. In its first two years, ASM is expected to bring in up to 130 events (including 36 home games for the Indy Fuel), with that figure increasing to at least 160 total events by the contract’s fifth year.

Terms of the deal call for ASM to receive a $5,000-per-month consulting fee during the first phase of construction, increasing to $7,500 for the 12 months prior to the event center’s opening. Once operations begin, the company will receive 6% of the venue’s first $5 million in adjusted gross income (up to $300,000), then 7% of anything over that amount. It will also get 30% of the $3 surcharge instituted by the city on all hockey tickets.

“We have been able to bring together a best-in-class team to bring the Fishers Event Center to life,” Ashley Elrod, director of community and public relations for Fishers, told IBJ in an email. “ASM Global’s experience of operating venues large and small around the world will bring a new sense of vibrancy to our community, and we couldn’t be more excited to launch into Fishers’ next chapter.”

The facility is part of a larger $650 million expansion plan for Fishers District that also includes new apartments and garden homes, an office building, a new hotel and at least 60,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space. The development is planned east of Interstate 69 between East 106th and East 116th streets and southeast of Ikea.

The Indy Fuel, a minor league affiliate of the National Hockey League’s Chicago Blackhawks, will be the venue’s primary tenant. The Fuel’s home arena has been the Indiana Farmers Coliseum at the Indiana State Fairgrounds since the franchise began play in 2014-15, but it has long used the Fuel Tank, a hockey and skating facility at 9022 E. 126th Street in Fishers, as its practice and residential facility.

Fishers approved a 1% food and beverage tax in October to help fund the venue.