For only the second time in 11 years, the Indiana Pacers will play a National Basketball Association exhibition game in Fort Wayne.
An official announcement will be made today that the Pacers will play the Chicago Bulls in a 7 p.m. exhibition Friday, Oct. 10 at Memorial Coliseum.
Pacers season ticket holders will receive tickets, and the remaining tickets will be priced at $85, $35, $20 and $10, and will be available beginning Sept. 8 at the box offices at Conseco Fieldhouse and Memorial Coliseum, at all Ticketmaster locations, by phone at (317) 239-5151, or online at Pacers.com or Ticketmaster.com.
It will be the second of eight preseason games for the Pacers, who will open the exhibition season two nights earlier against New Orleans at the Pepsi Coliseum at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.
The Pacers’ last visit to the Coliseum came in 1997, Larry Bird’s first year as head coach. And before a near-sellout crowd, Indiana defeated Toronto, 104-100. That season, the Pacers went on to post a 58-24 record before losing to Chicago in the Eastern Conference finals, four games to three.
"As part of the great basketball heritage here in the state of Indiana, we are excited to play a game in Fort Wayne,"
said Rick Fuson, Pacers Sports & Entertainment’s Chief Operation Officer in a statement. "This is a great opportunity to partner with our NBA D-League affiliate the Fort Wayne Mad Ants to further that strong tradition."
The Pacers are one of two parent clubs of the Fort Wayne Mad Ants NBA Development League team, with Detroit being the other.
Coliseum general manager Randy Brown said that while no future dates have been cemented, he indicated that the Pacers hope to make appearances in Fort Wayne more frequently than in 11-year increments.
"The Pacers, I think, acknowledge that they’re stronger when they’re reaching out to the whole state of Indiana,"
Brown said. He then added that there has been a discussion regarding future games.
"We’re talking about it; a specific date, not to that extent,"
Brown said. "But there’s been a dialogue that there’s a direction they want to do more of these."
Unlike the ’97-’98 season, however, the 2008-09 Pacers will be coming in with fewer expectations. Last season they finished with a 36-46 record. It was the second straight year in which the Pacers finished with a sub.-500 record.
The Pacers will hope improvement will come with rookies Brandon Rush and Roy Hibbert.
Rush, a 6-foot-6 guard from the national championship Kansas team, was the Big 12 Freshman of the Year in ’05-’06. He had three remarkably consistent scoring years, averaging 13.5 points per game as a freshman, 13.8 as a sophomore and 13.3 as a junior.
Hibbert is a 7-foot-2 center from Georgetown who averaged nearly 11 points and six rebounds in four years.
Chicago will also come in with a high-profile rookie. Derrick Rose, a 6-3 guard from Memphis, was the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA draft. Rose averaged 14.9 points, 4.7 assists and 4.5 rebounds for Memphis, which lost to Kansas in the National Collegiate Athletic Association championship game.
Mad Ants president and general manager Jeff Potter said the Pacers coming to Fort Wayne could help strengthen ties with the Indianapolis-based NBA team.
"I think it goes a long ways,"
Potter said. "Whatever part we played in getting the Pacers up here, I’m happy to be a part of it. They’ve been so good to us. They sent their mascot up to help us in games last year. They further give us that touch to the NBA, and what a great game to watch – Brandon Rush’s first games, and Roy Hibbert. And Derrick Rose from the Bulls is coming to play. I’m obviously happy for our relationship, but I’m excited for Fort Wayne. What a great opportunity they have to see some of the very best basketball in the world."
