Indy Fuel Owner Jim Hallett Talks New Event Center
Writer / Ryan Kennedy
Photographer / Walker Photography
Professional hockey is coming to Fishers.
The event center is part of the $550 million Fishers District being built just east of Interstate 69, between 106th and 116th streets. It’s the culmination of a dream Indy Fuel Owner Jim Hallett has been chasing for decades. 
Jim Hallett moved to Indianapolis from Ottawa, Canada, in 1996. Not long after, Hallett’s business partner approached him with two questions – did Hallett love hockey, and if so, would he be interested in investing in a hockey team? The answer was yes. In 1999 the pair bought the Indianapolis Ice. “Had them for two years and it was just cost-prohibitive,” Hallett says. “The economics didn’t work. Our closest road game was an 8.5-hour bus trip. So we eventually sold the team.”
It’s not that hockey couldn’t thrive in central Indiana. The timing just wasn’t right.
In 2013 Hallett got a call from Indiana Farmers Coliseum at the fairgrounds. They’d just completed a $65 million renovation and were looking to bring a professional hockey team back to Indianapolis. They asked if he’d be interested and he said yes.
The Indy Fuel, which competes in the ECHL and is an affiliate of the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks, similar to how the Indianapolis Indians team is an affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates, just completed their ninth season.
Hallett successfully returned professional hockey to Indianapolis, but he had bigger plans, and he wanted to grow.
“I had this vision of being in a part of town where there were going to be restaurants and there were going to be bars and there were going to be hotels, and there were going to be activities that you could come to for a weekend that you could go to before the game with your friends, whether it be for dinner or whether it be to socialize, or you could go there after the game to socialize,” Hallett says.
Twenty years ago Hallett commissioned a study to look into hockey and its potential for growth in central Indiana. Where was the best place to grow the game? Even two decades ago all that data pointed overwhelmingly to one place – Fishers.
Hallett’s vision grew. This project needed to be more than just a place to play hockey. It needed to be something for the whole community.
“We need to create an event center, not a hockey arena, but an event center and an event center that could host all kinds of sports, all kinds of concerts, all kinds of conventions and whatever you can put in the event center,” he says. “You should build this event center and have it be a place for what I call everyone – something for everyone from mothers and tots right up to seniors.”
He reached out to architects who worked on projects all over the world, and worked closely with the mayor of Fishers, then a town of just 37,000 people. Things started getting serous in 2018. Hallett’s work with the consultants and architects intensified. They managed to put a building design together just in time for the world to shut down in March of 2020.
With the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic in the rearview mirror, Jim Hallett says he believes the new facility will open its doors in late fall of 2024.
The Fuel will be the anchor of the event center. The team will play 36 home games and any additional playoff games at the yet-to-be-named arena. The building will also host a number of other events.
“One of the things that we did with the architects, and it was just while we’re having coffee one day, I said, ‘Let’s list how many events we could hold here,’” Hallett says. “Without working very hard we listed 56 events.”
The facility will offer 7,000 seats for fans as well as suites. There will also be standing areas where fans can eat and drink around standing bar tables while they watch.
Current season ticket holders will have priority for ticket renewals when the facility opens. Advertisers will get a few days of advance notice to recommit to their sponsorships.
The arena is still looking for a naming-rights sponsor.
Outside of the arena, Jim Hallett says they plan to build housing, luxury apartments, restaurants and more, all towards the goal of developing a fun, easily accessible place for all kinds of people to spend their time.
What started as a mission to bring professional hockey back to Indiana became a massive investment in the city of Fishers.
“By all metrics, the City of Fishers is continuously recognized as one of the best places to live in America,” Jim Hallett says. “I came here in 1996 and I love this place. When I’m talking about this place, I’m talking about all of greater Indianapolis. I love living here. My wife and kids and grandchildren are here. This is home.”
