Indianapolis, IN
‘Red Carpet Treatment’ of Indianapolis Olympic Trials Could Open Door for Other Big Venues
‘Red Carpet Treatment’ of Indianapolis Olympic Trials Could Open Door for Other Big Venues
U.S. Olympic Trials won’t be the last swimming event held in an NFL stadium. World Aquatics made that official on Friday.
The success of the event at Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium opens the door for more swim meets to expand beyond their previous attendance limits, USA Swimming President and CEO Tim Hinchey said Friday.
Hinchey said that the meet in Indianapolis has exceeded expectations on several fronts, including the target for ticket sales. USA Swimming had aimed to set the record for attendance at an indoor swim meet, which it did with 20,689 spectators Saturday’s opening night and 22,209 Wednesday. Hinchey also aimed for a nighty average of around 16,000, using the 2016 Rio Olympics as its guide. The attendance is well over that: Three of the first five prelims sessions topped 16,000, and only one finals session has fallen under it.
“We’ve surpassed that significantly,” Hinchey said. “We’ll do a lot of debrief when we get down into the analysis that we’ll share with everybody openly about how many tickets we sold and how we did it. One of the unique learnings here was the 17 individual sessions versus what we’ve had previously, it gave people a chance to really pick and choose what they wanted.
“We’ve never had walk-up before. We’ve never had tickets on sale the day of before. So we’re watching those trends quite a bit to see what we’ve been doing. That has been a pleasant surprise, because selling those nine-day packages is really consistent with the endemic swim families that we’ve done previously. So we kind of had that audience early, just like we had a lot.”
The Indianapolis program is much vaster than in the past. The COVID-19-affected 2021 Trials notwithstanding, USA Swimming has gone from eight days, 15 sessions and around 9,800 tickets to sell in Omaha in 2016 to nine days, 17 sessions and a capacity up to 32,000 spectators. Add in some 50 suites and a set of premium options and inclusive packages, and USA Swimming has gotten creative with its offerings.
Hinchey said his big concern entering the meet was the ticket-selling infrastructure, and USA Swimming has leaned on the Indiana Sports Corporation to bolster their efforts there. The growth of walk-up sales and other activations like the fan zone, which is drawing around 10,000 visitors a day, are a big part of what’s making the event successful.
“It’s incredibly important to me,” Hinchey said of the sponsorship with the city and Indiana Sports Corporation. “I think they’ve shown that this week, I think some of the feedback we’ve received more than anything has been, just fan reactions walking to the airport, all lanes lead to Indy, looking at Georgia Street. When they were talking about the kind of activations they were going to do, we were incredibly excited. And I feel like for the first time in a long time, our sport’s gotten the red carpet treatment here as hosts.”
The proof of concept of a temporary pool in a larger stadium opens the possibility for more. Hinchey said that the request for proposal process for 2024 trials involved four finalists: Indianapolis, Omaha, St. Louis and Minneapolis. The latter two candidates have visited Indy this week, and the kind of infrastructure that makes Indianapolis work is the kind that a handful of major cities have to host such an event.
Hinchey stresses that it doesn’t have to be a football stadium. But with this step taken, it would be a priority to push the momentum toward something as big or bigger next time around.
“Once you take something to the next level, it’s hard to kind of go backwards,” he said. “So I think we’ve set an expectation. And there’s a lot of things we’ve learned from this, there’s a lot of things we can do better. And I’m excited about that prospect.”
Indianapolis, IN
Indianapolis councilman says ‘No Data Centers’ note was left at his home after someone opened fire
The home of a councilman in Indianapolis was shot at early Monday in what local police said was an “isolated, targeted incident.”
The incident came less than a week after the Indianapolis Metropolitan Development Commission voted 6 to 2 on April 1 to approve rezoning to allow the construction of a data center.
Ron Gibson, a Democrat who represents District 8 on the council, spoke out in support of the rezoning and the efforts to build the data center in his district.
“Earlier this morning, between approximately 12:45 a.m. and 12:50 a.m., just a few hours after Easter Sunday, an individual fired 13 rounds at the front door of my home and left a note on my doorstep that read, ‘No Data Centers,’” Gibson said in a Monday statement.
Councilman Ron Gibson
The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said it was called to the home on Monday morning, and officers found evidence that gunshots had been fired at the house. Police said no injuries were reported.
“I understand that public service can bring strong opinions and disagreement, but violence is never the answer, especially when it puts families at risk,” Gibson said in his statement.
The Indianapolis-Marion County City-County Council did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
The data center is set to be built by Metrobloks, a data center developer based in Los Angeles. Following the vote last week, Gibson shared a statement on social media promoting the project.
“Metrobloks has the potential to bring significant investment, create jobs, and generate long-term tax revenue that supports infrastructure, housing, and essential services,” the statement said.
A data center boom is happening across the US, with companies pouring billions into building the infrastructure to keep up with demand in the era of AI. The data centers have faced increased opposition, with critics pointing to the high resource costs, from water to energy, and other issues like noise pollution, as detailed in a Business Insider investigation.
Indianapolis, IN
Recorder Rewind: NCAA Division III basketball championship (Photos)
Indianapolis, IN
Indianapolis City-County Councilor says IMPD officer shoved him during protest
INDIANAPOLIS — An Indianapolis City-County Councilor says he was shoved by a police officer during a protest Saturday night.
In a post on Facebook, Jesse Brown — who represents council district 13 — indicated that a member of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department approached a group of protestors and began shoving and grabbing them.
“Tonight, an IMPD officer approached a group of protestors from behind/beside them, did not identify himself or issue verbal orders, but started grabbing and shoving people and cussing at them to move (we were stuck behind other people blocking the sidewalk),” Brown wrote on Facebook.
Brown added that he asked the officer for his badge number and told him he was a City-County Councilor.
“I told the IMPD officer who was shoving people that I wanted his badge number,” Brown wrote. “He refused to give it. I told him I was a City Councilor. He said that he didn’t care WHO I was and grabbed my arm to shove me as well.”
Brown finished his post by confirming that he filed a formal incident report on his encounter with the officer. He also offered some criticism for the officer in the final sentence of his post.
“Officers have a difficult job, but if this is how he treated two white male candidates / elected officials, I do not trust him to serve the public and de-escalate tense situations.”
Jackson Franklin, who is running for Indiana’s fifth district seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, was also involved in the incident. He made a Facebook post with greater detail on the incident.
Franklin said he, Brown and others were protesting near Lucas Oil Stadium ahead of Saturday’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Final Four games. Franklin said he and other protestors were at the Final Four “to demand the NCAA stop using the same airliners that ICE uses to break apart and deport families in this racist injustice system.”
A report from The Athletic that was syndicated by Yahoo Sports indicates that at least one airliner has contracts with the NCAA to transport student-athletes to tournaments and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport undocumented immigrants.
In his post, Franklin said the officer involved in the incident “shoved/assaulted many of the protestors, including Indianapolis City-council person Jesse Brown.” Franklin added that the officer did not provide any warnings before he began shoving protestors
“I thought initially it was going to be some MAGA person just walking past that was offended by our anti-ICE chants, but I turned around and noticed that he was wearing a uniform,” Franklin wrote in his Facebook post. “It was only then he gave his commands to continue to move and he immediately went to push around many others, using his uniform as an excuse to harass those he disagreed with politically.
“There was absolutely no need for violence and the protest organizers filed a complaint, but I have no hope of any action occurring because of this complaint. While the lone officer assaulted us, there were about 10-15 other officers looking around awkwardly unsure of what to do, not protecting our first amendment right while also probably realizing the officer was way out of line and should have just asked us nicely to keep the movement on the public sidewalk going quicker rather than using violence as the first and only answer.”
FOX59/CBS4 reached out to IMPD for a statement on Brown and Franklin’s comments. As of this article’s publication, the agency had not responded to those inquiries.
Brown has been at the center of multiple city-county council disputes over the last 14 months. In February 2025, Brown — whose district encompasses portions of downtown and the near east side of Indy — said the city-county council’s democratic caucus expelled him from their ranks.
Brown also introduced a motion to remove the council’s president and vice president in July.
As of this article’s publication, no additional information on the incident Brown, Franklin and others were involved in had been made available.
This is a developing story; check back for updates.
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