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Rob Klepper and his family were looking forward to a few hours of fun Saturday at the NBA Crossover, the extravaganza featuring player appearances and interactive experiences at the Indiana Convention Center.
The family of four from Brownsburg had spent $120 on pre-paid tickets to enter the hall at 3 p.m. Saturday. Instead, they waited for nearly 90 minutes standing in line at the door, not getting into the Crossover until almost 4:30, as an unexpected backup caused a huge bottleneck.
“It was kind of chaotic,” Klepper told IBJ. “Nobody really knew where to go. There were some event people kind of directing us from the beginning. But once we kind of got around a corner, there was no real event people.”
The Kleppers were among more than 1,000 people waiting in the extended line for more than a hour, an IBJ reporter estimated. By 4:30 p.m., organizers were able to clear the line and get people inside.
Pacers spokesman Danny Lopez referred questions about the situation to the NBA. A person familiar with the situation said the league worked with convention center security and its vendor to address the logjam and clear the line.
At 400,000 square-feet, the event takes up about half of the convention center. It’s also the site of a Keith Urban and Walker Hayes concert tonight, doors for which opened at 3 p.m.
Some tickets to the event were sold ahead of time online, and visitors had to select a time they’d attend. But tickets can also be purchased at the door, organizers said.
The delay was particularly stressful for the Klepper family because they had only a three-hour window, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., to get in and out. Then they needed to sprint to the State Farm All-Star Saturday night at Lucas Oil Stadium to watch a slam dunk, three-point contest and skills challenge.
“I never guessed it would be this chaotic,” Klepper said. “I mean, obviously, we know there’s going to be a lot of people here. And it’s a big event and a big weekend. But it was pretty crazy to think that you’re going to spend so much time in line.’
He said his children, aged 10 and 8, were good sports despite the long wait.
“Luckily, we have iPhones to play with or watch YouTube or play games,” Klepper said. “They’ve been to Disney World a lot. So they are used to waiting a bit from time to time.”
After an hour in line for the @nba #Allstar #Crossover Event… we get to turn around & head back to the entrance. Buck20 for an absolute epic fail. @VisitIndy pic.twitter.com/L40UtkmKoA
— Rob Klepper (@rob_klepper) February 17, 2024
The long lines had visitors taking to social media to share their complaints.
One X (formerly Twitter) user, Andrew Sigal, said the event was one of the most disorganized he’s ever attended.
“There is no excuse to make your guests wait over an hour to even enter the event. The line is as long as the eye can see and there are no event workers around to support,” he tweeted.
Another X user, Brandon Shupe, tweeted in response to Sigal’s post saying, “Facts. I want my money back. 90 minutes in line and not in yet.”
Kenny Beasley tweeted “Indy usually does a great job hosting events. Right now, I’m not impressed with the #NBACrossover. The line to get in was insane, people were cutting after we had waited an hour, etc. Lots of activities inside but too crowded to really be able to do anything.”
Others called it an “absolute epic fail.”
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Mr. Mayor,
Take a good hard look at the nucleus of this failure and you just might see how this manifests itself in many areas and projects. Maybe put more preasure on yourself to have a more knowledgeable teàm.
Stop bragging so much before it is thought through more.
Do you have any idea what you are taking about?
The event is not coordinated by the Mayor’s office.
This was organized by NBA, Pacers and downtown indy/visitors center/. They need to accept the blame.
No, it’s more convenient to blame everything on the mayor. I mean, isn’t everything wrong with the Indiana basketball team Joe Hogsett’s fault too?
Jefferson Shreve wouldn’t coach them like that!
We ended up just leaving. Poor done.
The mayor puts his stamp on it all right. Revenue successes, Crime fixes? Homeless fixes? He brags on it all. If he takes great media credit , he should also take the shame.
As a former CEO of 3 corporations, I was the one taking ultimate responsibility for all the plans and employee partners. They represented me. I kept them happy and trained on integrity as well as functionality.
I don’t apologize for being critical about our city’s economic development and failures.
As the former CEO of three businesses, you should realize comparing a corporation to a city makes absolutely zero sense. It’s significantly harder to manage a city of nearly 1,000,000 people (who all have vastly differing desires, ambitions, lifestyles, philosophies, etc) than a corporation where everyone’s goal is to increase profits and everyone is expected to conform to a corporate culture.
It is a big city. We vote in a leader who supposedly can lead and manage his staff.
I wrote the Mayor 7 letters. Some through his on line gimmick and others direct. Not a peep response. Why post the on line option.
I reported high grass through his on line option. Still not cut in over one year. He closed off the circle for games to create family. Why disturb traffic patterns on the circle when we can direct culture to a beautiful military par, just two blocks north. There is more but the question is… when do you hold the leader responsible.
Come on guys, there are much larger corporations than this city that run smooth.
I’m happy to meet with those of you who oppose me so you can teach me what I’m missing.