Buy Indiana Pacers Tickets Now!

Stadium:
Conseco Fieldhouse
Conseco Fieldhouse is a sports arena in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. It is the home of the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association and the Indiana Fever of the Women's National Basketball Association. The Indiana Ice of the United States Hockey League also use Conseco Fieldhouse as their home arena for a few games a year. Additionally, other entertainment events such as concerts are frequently scheduled there. The name is a result of the naming rights to the venue being sold to Conseco, the financially-troubled financial services organization based in nearby Carmel. Conseco Fieldhouse replaced Market Square Arena as the home of the Indiana Pacers on November 6, 1999. It is notable for being the first modern "retro"-styled facility in the NBA. In 2002, Conseco Fieldhouse served as one of two sites for the FIBA Men's World Basketball Championship, sharing the honors with RCA Dome. The venue has hosted three Big Ten Conference Men's basketball tournaments (2002, 2004, and 2006) and it will host it for 5 straight years starting in 2008 after it won the Big Ten bid over Chicago and the United Center. Conseco also hosted the 2004 FINA short course World Swimming Championships.

Seating Chart:
Conseco Fieldhouse Seating Chart

Team History:
The ABA folded in 1976, and the Pacers were one of four ABA teams invited to merge into the NBA beginning in the 1976-77 season (the other three were the New York Nets, Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs). Financially, the Pacers were by far the weakest of the four ABA refugees. They had already begun selling off some of their star players in the last ABA season. They were further weakened by the price required to join the NBA. The league charged a $3.2 million dollar entry fee to each former ABA team. Because the NBA would only agree to accept four ABA teams in a merger, the Pacers and the three other surviving ABA teams also had to compensate the two remaining ABA franchises which were not a part of the merger. The new NBA teams also were barred from sharing in national TV revenues for four years. As a result of the steep price they paid to join the NBA, the Pacers were in a dire financial situation. It took a $100,000 contribution from a group of local businesses to keep the franchise going through June 1977. The team announced that unless season-ticket sales reached 8,000 by the end of July 1977, the club would be sold to someone who might take the franchise elsewhere. WTTV (Channel 4), which aired the Pacers' games at the time, offered to hold a 16.5 hour telethon to keep the team in Indiana. The telethon began on the night of July 3, 1977, and the next day, 10 minutes before the show was set to go off the air, it was announced that team officials had reached the 8,000-ticket goal. In part because of the telethon, the Pacers' average attendance jumped from 7,615 during the 1976-77 season to 10,982 during the 1977-78 season.

Season Preview:
Larry Bird returned to Indianapolis liking what he saw from the team’s rookie/free agent camp and summer league play here, despite the Pacers losing 78-66 to Miami Thursday night at the RDV Sportsplex. I always like camps and summer leagues, said the Pacers' President of Basketball Operations. You get a lot out of it. The effort has been great, they’ve been playing hard and our play has been pretty consistent.The key things for Bird were evaluations of second-year player Shawne Williams, and free agent signees Kareem Rush, Stephen Graham and Andre Owens. It was important for Shawne to get minutes and more practice time, said Bird. I thought Kareem Rush in the two games he played here proved he could shoot the ball, which is what we need. I think all the guys we signed can help us out. Bird also liked Coach Jim O’Brien’s rookie/free agent camp. Obviously, it was a different style than what we’ve been used to,he said. There’s a lot of picking and pops. He wants to run it, but he wants guys to stay within the offense if we can’t get anything pushing the ball up. I liked what I saw.

Official Site:
http://www.nba.com/pacers/