The text, discussion and welcoming of another major event: Indianapolis to host 2025 WNBA All-Star game
The Indiana Fever received a request from the league office six weeks ago. How they responded and what they have in store when hosting the WNBA All-Star game for the first time.
Another star-studded event is coming to Indianapolis.
Indy will host the WNBA All-Star game for the first time next summer.
The 21st annual WNBA All-Star game will be played at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Saturday, July 19. The skills challenge and 3-point contest will be held the night before. And the weekend begins for the players with an orange carpet event on Thursday.
Unlike typical big events hosted by the city, they agreed to do this one on short notice. Mel Raines, who was promoted to CEO of Pacers Sports & Entertainment after Rick Fuson retired two months ago, said they received a text message about six weeks ago from the league office asking if the city could pull this off.
They talked it over and checked on availability of everything — from buildings to hotels to personnel to help host and put on the events — and then they embraced it.
“I think we felt pretty good I'd say three weeks later or so, but it was timing with the Olympic break and we had to work out, obviously, the business terms and iron out all that,” Raines told Fieldhouse Files.
They are available. The Fieldhouse is available. Enough hotels and convention space is available. However, there was already one big event scheduled: Indiana Black Expo’s marquee annual event, its summer celebration.
“So we talked to IBE,” Raines said. “We wanted to be sure they were comfortable that both events could help each other and (IBE’s President/CEO) Alice Watson was great and thought that they would be complimentary.
“We were able to work out the space and just understand the weekend. I had not been so we went to Phoenix (for the All-Star game), got a sense of it, met with the league there and felt really comfortable coming out of that that not only could we host it well in a short period of time, but we could raise the bar and do things the way we do them here really well. And then we quickly got the co-chairs together and we are off and running pretty quickly.”
In addition to the events at The Fieldhouse, the Indiana Convention Center will be another prime spot. That’s the prime area for everyone to get involved in the festivities.