Pacers owner announces new name for Noblesville-based G League affiliate

Here comes the Boom—the Noblesville Boom, that is.

Pacers Sports & Entertainment announced the new name for its developmental G League affiliate on Wednesday, part of a branding overhaul for the team ahead of its move to the Hamilton County suburb this summer.

The team has been known as the Mad Ants since it was launched in Fort Wayne in 2007 as part of the NBA’s then-named D League. That name, which predated Pacers Sports & Entertainment’s 2015 acquisition of the club, paid honor to the city’s namesake, “Mad” Anthony Wayne.

The new name is a nod to late Pacers coach and announcer Bobby “Slick” Leonard’s signature “Boom Baby!” catch phrase and the ongoing growth of Noblesville’s population and economy, said Todd Taylor, president of Pacers Sports & Entertainment’s business operations.

The moniker was finalized in recent weeks after more than two years of discussions that at one point involved some 400 different suggestions, with the organization eventually winnowing the list to seven finalists.

PS&E held numerous internal discussions on the name and completed the rebrand in-house following consultation with the NBA, Noblesville officials, residents and historians, as well as the Leonard family.

“We had the league work on it, we had our internal people work on it, we had outside agencies involved,” Taylor told IBJ. “We talked the name through with the city of Noblesville, walked them through the process and made sure that they they were in agreement, and that’s where ultimately we decided to go.”

The new name, Taylor said, draws a direct line between the Boom and the Pacers, down to the team’s two logos sharing the same basketball iconography in their logos. The Boom’s logo is largely a word mark featuring the ball and a starburst shape in the background. The color scheme uses the Pacers’ colors, while adding in the bright electric blue the team has used for its City Edition uniforms during the past couple of seasons.

“Ultimately, we really wanted to be able to cement that relationship with Pacers Sports & Entertainment and the DNA of our franchise,” he said. “We think that we can create a lot of new traditions, a new fan [focused] game experience around something like ‘Boom,’ where with your ‘River Monsters’ or your ‘Prairie Cats,’ it would be a little more difficult to craft out a brand identity.

Noblesville Mayor Chris Jensen said it might take some time for local basketball fans to embrace the new name, but he thinks it presents an opportunity to start a conversation about the value his administration sees in the city being home to the minor-league team. That includes the $93 million investment in The Arena at Innovation Mile project that is scheduled to be completed in late June and will begin hosting Boom games in the fall.

“It’s not easy, because the public isn’t going to get it right away,” Jensen said. “This is a long-term term conversation and I know the Pacers are committed to that. I think this is something that is going to take a little bit of time for folks to catch on to, but I genuinely believe it’s going to be a household brand, much like the Indiana Pacers are to those around the state of Indiana.”

Jensen said that in addition to the Boom being tied to Leonard and Noblesville’s growth, he sees additional significance to the name.

He said he thinks of the Innovation Mile itself, between East 141st Street and Interstate 69, east of Olio Road, as an opportunity for the community to “boom” even further. He also pointed to the founding of Noblesville during the natural gas boom across the state in the late 1800s.

“It’s not just [another] name, it’s a name that’s linked directly to Noblesville,” he said. “It honors our investment in the team and it honors our city’s history.”

When completed, the 3,400-seat arena is expected to host about 18 to 20 G League games annually, drawing about 65,000 total visitors to the venue every season as part of a 10-year agreement between the city and Pacers Sports & Entertainment. The venue is expected to be in the bottom one-third for capacity in the 31-team league.

PS&E has agreed to pay $5 million toward the construction costs over the decade-long deal, about $500,000 per year, and is working with the city to procure a naming rights partner and other sponsors for the venue that organization officials have said could net another $500,000 for the arena annually.

In Fort Wayne, the Mad Ants played home games at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, which has a capacity of 13,000. The team averaged 2,175 spectators per game in the 2022-2023 season. A figure for the 2023-2024 season, played at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, was not immediately available, but the league as a whole averaged about 1,640 spectators per contest.

Westfield-based Patch Development is building The Arena at Innovation Mile and Arlington, Texas-based REV Entertainment will serve as the venue’s operator when it opens.

The 123,000-square-foot venue, which also has an adjacent parking garage, will feature conference space and is likely to be used for numerous community events, concerts and amateur sporting events, as well as smaller state, regional and national conferences.

The venue will serve as the team’s game day venue and will be home to a handful of team executives, although practices and training will continue to occur at the Ascension St. Vincent Center in downtown Indianapolis, Taylor said.