Indy Fuel
Rink: Indiana Farmers Coliseum
Capacity: 6,200
Built: 1939 (Heavily Renovated 2014)
League: ECHL
City: Indianapolis, Indiana
Home Of: Indy Fuel
Games Attended: 1
Only Game: January 27, 2024 vs Iowa
Unique Arena: #77
ECHL Arena: #3
The Indiana Farmers Coliseum is a very old building from the WWII era that sits in the middle of the Indiana State Fairgrounds, surrounded by pavilions and large buildings that host other events, and a mile-long horse track. It’s not really a building you can just walk up to, as it sits in the middle of the fairgrounds, and if other events are happening you’ve got to pay to get in. Also, while there is plenty of parking it’s not conventional parking lots. We had to park in the infield of the horse track and walk through a tunnel under the track, which popped us up in front of the building. Getting an exterior shot proved a tad tougher than one would think. This photo was taken from the grandstand of the horse track. The grandstand wasn’t exactly open, but nothing was stopping us from going up there, so we did to snap this photo and then left.
While the building was constructed in 1939, it was a coliseum-style building that hosted many events of all kinds (including sports) over the decades. But what you see now before you is all fairly new. The building was completely gutted and rebuilt on the inside between 2012 and 2014. The main street level entrance is also ice level, but to get up to the main concourse you walk up a flight of stairs that dumps you into a modern concourse between the two bowls. While everything in the concourse from the concessions to bathrooms are all brand new, there are signs of the old building, like the windows, from the outside. However, some are at an odd location and go from the floor to about hip level. That’s because the shell of the building hasn’t changed, but it’s where they needed the concourse to go so weird window heights be damned. At the top of each end of the building there are giant windows which would let in natural light if needed, but they were covered with black curtains, much like the one end of the Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto.
As I mentioned, there is a main concourse at the top of the lower bowl that runs around the building a full 360 degrees. You can access the upper bowl from this concourse in the ends, but to access the seats on the side of the upper bowl you have to go up more stairs to a super barebones concourse that runs along the top of each side of the rink. If you want to get to the other side, you would either have to walk through the seats or go back downstairs and use the main concourse, then go back upstairs again.
The main arena floor isn’t exactly designed for hockey. It’s much longer than required, so the seats behind the nets are a little set back from the ice. The upper bowl seats are high up enough that the view is still good but the lower bowl seats in the ends aren’t the best view. The seats themselves are all comfortable modern plastic style seats except for one section in the lower bowl corner (which you can see here) which are all what we assumed are original wooden seats that have been refurbished. We sat in them after the game for a moment and they seemed comfortable enough for wood, but that might not be nice for 3 hours.
The views of the ice on the sides are fantastic though, and I highly recommend the upper bowl if you like a wide view of the game.
To finish things off I want to talk about the presentation and fans in Indy. The presentation of the game is pro all the way. The ECHL is pro, but I was still impressed with how things are run in Indy. Also, the fans are fantastic. We were lucky enough to attend a sold-out game, and the fans were pretty rabid for it. Their Fuel ended up losing the game 7-3 but the fans were in there all the way until the final 6-7 minutes, when the visitors from Iowa put the game out of reach. I will say however it was a bloodthirsty crowd. It was a rough game with a lot of fights, and I could hear a lot of dumb comments hurled from the crowd. I wouldn’t have wanted to be a visiting fan that night. That said, I definitely don’t want to paint all the Fuel fans with the same brush; there are idiots in all crowds. I loved how loud and enthusiastic they were for their Fuel, which is still relatively a young franchise – only a decade old.
By the sounds of it the team was pretty limited in how things were run in this building which is owned by the state fairgrounds. With that in mind the team got a new arena built in the Indianapolis suburb of Fishers, IN. The Fishers Event Center opened in the fall of 2024 and apparently the team is in full control, and I can’t say I blame them for wanting to move out of the coliseum in that regard. I was very happy to see a game here at the Coliseum though and for lovers of old buildings fear not. The Coliseum with its new renovation is still going to be open and hosting events for a long time to come. Just not for ECHL hockey.
