Hey, remember way back on Friday when I wrote here that the owners of the Indy Fuel ECHL hockey team were looking for a new arena with no indication how much it would cost or who would pay for it? Welp, there’s been an update:
Fishers officials are proposing to use a 1% food and beverage tax to help fund a new $170 million event center that would be home to the Indy Fuel minor league hockey team…
The city would make annual debt payments of $9.7 million that would be paid from four different sources: the city’s cumulative capital development fund ($3.5 million), the food and beverage tax ($3 million), operational revenue ($1.7 million) and a payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, fund ($1.5 million).
That $9.7 million a year is over 40 years, so we’re talking roughly $166 million in present value, meaning Fishers, an Indianapolis suburb, would effectively be on the hook for the entire cost of the arena. (It’s possible “operational revenue” would include some things like team rent payments, in which case one could argue that’s a team contribution toward construction, assuming that the rent wouldn’t be needed to cover year-to-year operational costs; but that’s a small sliver of the funding regardless.) And yes, that’s $170 million for an 8,500-seat minor-league hockey arena, which I’m pretty sure would be a record — the priciest comparable arena I can find in a quick search is the Henderson Silver Knights building, which cost only $85 million, exactly half the Fuel’s projected price.
The Fishers City Council has set a public hearing on the food and beverage tax surcharge for Oct. 6, followed by a vote on Oct. 10, because who needs more time than that to decide whether to build the most expensive minor-league hockey arena ever?
“One of our goals early on was to ensure we do not raise property taxes to fund this project,” Fishers Deputy Mayor Elliott Hultgren told the Indianapolis Business Journal, which, yup, they indeed are not raising property taxes, only food taxes (from 8% to 9%), unless of course those PILOT payments will cannibalize tax revenues that otherwise would have gone to pay for city services and now everyone else’s property taxes will have to be raised to compensate. But who can put a price on keeping a team like the Fuel, whose long local history goes back to … okay, 2014, but still! With the Fuel currently drawing 3,000 fans a game, at least a couple of those have got to be 2nd graders who otherwise could lose the only minor-league hockey team they’ve ever rooted for, are you really suggesting tearing out the hearts of small children? You monster.
Used to live in Fishers. It has grown a lot, but that still seems ambitious for a town of 94,000 people.
We all knew this was coming. I guessed they would propose a new PSDA but instead Fishers wants to increase their Food & Beverage tax. Because Hamilton County already has a 1% tax, this would increase the tax in Fishers to 2% (+6% sales tax = 8% total). Only Indiana counties with that high a tax rate are Marion (Indianapolis) and Orange Counties. Marion’s tax is one of several taxes that pays for Lucas Oil Stadium (Colts), Gainbridge Fieldhouse (Pacers) and the Convention Center. I’m not 100% sure but Orange’s tax may be applicable only at the two historic hotels – French Lick and West Baden.
Looks like IN sales tax is 7%, so adding an extra 1% surcharge to the existing 1% surcharge would make it 9% total.
https://www.stats.indiana.edu/about/sales_tax.asp
That 40 years is a long time. Who would cover the multiple upgrades and repairs this will require over the years?
It would just take 40 years to pay off the initial bonds. I would hope nobody thinks that this means the team will actually stay at the arena for 40 years without upgrades.
Shouldn’t Fishers wait until
building materials are less expensive due to demand / supply issues?
170 million is a ton of money for a Town in Indiana .
The day-to-day operations of the Indy Fuel are horribly mismanaged. They just had about half of their full time staff quit last season. There is no way they will grow, let alone sustain their attendance numbers with their current leadership.
Amenities have really taken a nosedive, as well. The pandemic (yadda-yadda-yadda) played a role, but used to be you got some variety in concessions. Now everything is premade before the game and your options are limited to the most basic arena grub.
The new arena that broke ground in 2019 in Savannah, Georgia cost $165 million. It is anchored by a team in the ECHL – which is the same league that the Indy Fuel plays in. Given where inflation has gone in the past two years, $170 million is in line from a cost perspective. It is also important to note that Carmel, Noblesville and Westfield already collect a 1% Food & Beverage Tax on top of the Hamilton County 1% rate – what Fishers is attempting to do is to bring the community in parity with the other large cities in the county to invest in quality of place.