Fort Wayne Panel Says New Downtown Sports Arena "Desirable And Necessary"

That didn't take long. Billionaire Herb Simon's Indiana Pacers acquired Fort Wayne's Mad Ants, a minor league basketball team, just last year. The city commissioned a study by Hunden Strategic Partners, the same consultant that told Indianapolis' Capital Improvement Board how critical it was that Indianapolis taxpayers start paying tens of millions of dollars in annual subsidies to the Pacers, which naturally recommended a new arena. That's followed by a mayoral committee to study a new arena and, surprise, the committee tells Fort Wayne taxpayers they need a new downtown arena.

The arena committee's chairman, Sweetwater Sound CEO Chuck Surack, announced at a press conference yesterday that his committee found that a new downtown arena was "desirable and necessary" if the city wants to be able to attract the "best and brightest." According to Surack, businesses are just sitting back and waiting to see if Fort Wayne is willing to make investments in "quality of place amenities" before making a decision whether to locate in Fort Wayne. Surack assured Fort Wayne residents that if a new arena is built downtown, it will attract follow-along investments of 7-10 times, none of which I'm sure will require massive public subsidies like all of the rest of Fort Wayne's recent downtown development projects.

How will Fort Wayne pay for the $65 million arena? There could be a new 1% tax on food and beverages. Money from the Legacy Fund could be tapped. Some funding from Fort Wayne's capital improvement board, which would likely issue bonds to finance construction of the 4,500-seat arena. The proponents say the new arena could host college and high school sporting events, musical entertainment and more, in addition to becoming a new home for the Mad Ants to play. According to Surack, having the new arena will free up other events to be hosted at Fort Wayne's Memorial Coliseum, a 13,000-seat multi-purpose arena that was built in 1951 and extensively renovated in 2002 at a cost of $35 million. About $4 million was spent on upgrades at the Coliseum in 2013.