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NBA team wants city to pick up $15M tab to run Conseco

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

by Bill Ruthhart@IndyStar.com 

The Indiana Pacers would consider all options — including moving the NBA franchise to a new city — if the city doesn’t agree to cover the cost to run Conseco Fieldhouse.

Since the 18,345-seat venue opened 11 years ago, the Pacers’ lease with the city has required the organization to pay for the building’s general operating costs, estimated at $15 million per year.

But since March 2009, owner Herb Simon and the Pacers’ top brass have insisted the economics of operating a small-market NBA franchise make it fiscally impossible to also pay to keep the arena running.

The Pacers signed their current 20-year lease with the city in 1999, but a clause in that contract allows the team to renegotiate its terms with the city’s Capital Improvement Board after 10 years.

The Pacers, members of the CIB and Mayor Greg Ballard’s administration have held behind-closed-doors negotiations on that lease, which have centered on the team’s push to have the CIB pick up the $15 million operating tab.

Those negotiations now, however, have reached a critical stage.

On Tuesday, Pacers Sports & Entertainment President Jim Morris said if a deal isn’t inked by June 30, Simon would have to start searching for other solutions, and nothing would be off the table.

“We’ve been having conversations with the Ballard administration for two years,” Morris said, “and we’re now at the point where we need to wrap this up in the next 30, 40 days.”

If that doesn’t happen, he said, “Herb would have to look at all of his options.”

Including moving the team?

“Herb would look at all of his options,” Morris repeated.

Then, he quickly stressed, that the Pacers and city leaders are working hard to make sure that doesn’t happen.

“We have not had conversations with other cities. We do not want the team to move,” Morris said. “In the event that we’re not able to address the issues, you have to look at all your options, but Herb has never threatened to move the team, and it’s not a matter of leverage; it’s a matter of trying to find a way to make this work.”

June 30 is Pacers’ deadline

Most recently, the Pacers and CIB set a goal to reach a deal by the end of the season, but when the Pacers play their final game tonight in Washington, an agreement won’t be in place.

Morris said June 30 is a crucial deadline because that marks the end of the team’s fiscal year and the beginning of the next.

CIB President Ann Lathrop did not offer a timeline to reach a deal with the Pacers but said that discussions were ongoing and that “there’s definitely been progress.”