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Central Indiana is getting back into the indoor football game, with the launch of a Fishers-based professional team in 2025.
The team will be a member of the Indoor Football League, with plans to play home games at the under-construction Fishers Event Center starting in March 2025.
The team will be owned by Jim Hallett through holding company Indiana Football Club LLC. Hallett also owns the Indy Fuel minor league hockey franchise. The team will share a front office with the Fuel, which is expected to begin playing at the 8,500-seat entertainment and sports venue by the end of 2024.
The name and logo for the football team have not been finalized and will be announced at a later date.
“We are excited to bring another professional sports team to the Indianapolis area,” Hallett said in written remarks. “The new event center in Fishers is going to become a hub for sports and entertainment, and I’m excited to offer another affordable family fun experience in our city.”
The Fishers team will be the 17th member of the IFL, which has been operating since 2009, making it the longest continuously operating indoor football league in the United States.
The league’s franchise roster includes teams in San Antonio, Las Vegas, Green Bay, Jacksonville and Tulsa, among others. IFL teams play a 16-game regular season, with eight games at home and eight on the road.
Indoor football differs from traditional football in several ways, including the number of players on the field for each team (eight instead of 11), field length (50 yards, instead of 100) and the height and width of the goalposts (nine feet wide and 15 feet high, not 18 feet, six inches wide and 10 feet high). There are also differences in scoring, out-of-bounds catches and pre-snap movement on offense.
“We’ve got an exciting product that happens to [play] during a slow time of the sports year,” Todd Tyron, the league’s commissioner, told IBJ. “Our No. 1 goal is to attract families and to bring families into the arena. We really say we’re going to throw a big party and at some point a football game is gonna break out.”
Larry McQueary, president of the Indy Fuel and the new football team, said the franchise won’t compete with the Colts for fans, but rather supplement what he considers “a growing appetite” for football throughout central Indiana, including in Fishers.
He said while many sponsorship slots have already been sold for the Fishers Event Center—the Fuel and Fishers city leaders are in talks with at least two parties about naming rights for the building—he thinks the new team will offer additional marketing opportunities for would-be sponsors.
“I think it’s going to be well received, as it adds more dates and more activity for our sponsor,” McQueary said, adding that team officials are considering ways to enhance the experience for fans, such as field that isn’t colored green, which is legal in the IFL. “ We’re going to explore all the opportunities, but it’s new and we haven’t got that far yet.”
To join the league, Hallett was required to pay a franchise fee and prove financial stability to the league’s board of directors. While the fee amount was not disclosed by Tyron or McQueary, a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2020 indicated the cost at that time was about $150,000.
All players in the IFL are paid $250 per game, with travel expenses, meals and some in-season housing covered by the team.
Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness said he thinks Fishers and the region will embrace the team.
“Since the very early plans of the Fishers Event Center came together, we’ve always been driven to create a place that brings the community, families, and entertainment enthusiasts together,” Fadness said. “With today’s announcement, we’re excited to bring some of that vision to life and we are thrilled to support our new team in the Indoor Football League.”
The Indoor Football League team will be the first significant indoor football franchise based in central Indiana since the Indiana Firebirds of the Arena Football League ceased operations in 2004 after three seasons at the then-named Conseco Fieldhouse.
The region has had other flirtations with indoor football, including the Indianapolis Stampede and the Indianapolis Enforcers which played intermittently from 2011 to 2022, most recently at Off the Wall Sports in Carmel.
Season tickets for the Indoor Football League team start at $135, including a $50 refundable deposit per seat, with reservations now open.
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Wow Fishers has exploded in growth and entertainment Indy’s metro area is just as developed as any major city in the USA
Whole metro is Growing rapidly!