After opening in November 2024, the Fishers Event Center says it is continuing to expand its role as a regional entertainment destination while adding new initiatives aimed at improving the fan experience.

The 7,500-seat venue has hosted concerts, sporting events and community gatherings during its first year of operation. Officials say the facility is also emphasizing accessibility and inclusivity as part of its ongoing development.

March is recognized nationally as Disability Awareness Month, and the event center is highlighting several features designed to make events more accessible to guests with special needs.

The facility is a KultureCity Certified sensory-inclusive venue. Staff members have undergone specialized training to assist guests who may experience sensory sensitivities or overload during events.

Guests can obtain sensory bags at the Guest Services Center near Section 109. The bags include noise-canceling headphones, sunglasses, fidget tools and other items designed to help individuals manage sensory challenges. The venue also features a sensory room presented by DAMAR, offering a quiet space for guests who need a calming environment during events.

Additional accessibility features include a universal changing table in a second-level family restroom, a Mother’s Room presented by IKEA for parents needing a private space, accessible parking and drop-off areas, wheelchair assistance and assistive listening services.

The Fishers Event Center has also expanded its food and beverage lineup with three new vendors featuring local or specialty offerings.

Among the additions is Pure Pour, a premium vending concept offering non-alcoholic beverages. Event center officials say the venue is the first in Indiana to feature the concept, reflecting the growing demand for zero-proof drink options.

Two additional vendors include BeeFree, which produces snacks sweetened with organic honey and supports employment opportunities for adults with autism and other neurodiverse individuals, and Ben’s Pretzels, which prepares hand-rolled pretzels fresh at the venue.

The event center remains home to three professional sports teams: the Indy Fuel hockey club of the ECHL, Indy Ignite of Major League Volleyball and the Fishers Freight of the Indoor Football League. Officials say themed game nights and special fan activations are planned throughout the spring sports season.

Beyond sports and concerts, the facility also continues to host community activities such as graduations, private events and other local gatherings.

Work continues at the intersection of State Road 37 and 141st Street, where motorists are beginning to see some changes in traffic patterns.

The new right-in, right-out lanes on the east side of the intersection have now opened, allowing some traffic to move more freely through the construction zone. However, drivers should still expect delays. Lane restrictions remain in place and could cause traffic backups in the area as construction moves forward.

Fishers Director of Engineering Hatem Mekky says activity on the project will increase in the weeks and months ahead. The work is part of the ongoing State Road 37 improvement project, which includes construction of a roundabout at 141st Street to handle east-west traffic. The project is currently scheduled to be completed this summer.

Meanwhile, the Fishers Board of Public Works and Safety has approved bids for this year’s road resurfacing program. Much of the work will take place on neighborhood streets, although some main roadways are also included.

Resurfacing is planned for 131st Street between Cumberland and Promise roads. Portions of Howe Road and Promise Road will also receive new pavement.

Neighborhood resurfacing will take place in Weaver Woods, Weaver Creek, Weaver Woods North, Rosewood, Sunblest and Summerlin Trails.

For more details on the planned resurfacing projects, use this link.

Bestselling author Kwame Mbalia, known for his popular middle-grade fantasy novels, will visit Fishers later this month for a special appearance at the Hamilton East Public Library.

Mbalia is the creator of the acclaimed Tristan Strong series, which blends African American folklore and West African mythology into fast-paced adventures aimed at middle-school readers. The first book in the series, Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, became a New York Times bestseller and launched a trilogy that has earned praise for its imaginative storytelling and cultural depth.

In addition to the Tristan Strong books, Mbalia co-authored the Afrofuturist adventure series Last Gate of the Emperor with Prince Joel David Makonnen and has been involved in several other literary projects that highlight diverse voices in children’s literature.

Mbalia will appear at the Fishers branch of the Hamilton East Public Library on Monday, March 24 at 6 p.m., where readers will have an opportunity to hear from the author and learn more about his work.

Ahead of that visit, Mbalia joined me for a podcast conversation discussing the inspiration behind the Tristan Strong books, the role mythology plays in his storytelling, writing for middle-school readers, and his path to becoming a bestselling author.

The LarryInFishers.com podcast series is sponsored by Citizens State Bank.

You can listen to the full podcast interview below, listen to the audio only at this link and the video version using this link…or use the links below.

Indoor football returns to the Fishers Event Center this weekend, and the City of Fishers is encouraging local residents to pack the arena for the home opener of the Fishers Freight.

The Freight will host the Quad City Steamwheelers on Saturday, March 15, with kickoff set for 5 p.m. Doors at the Fishers Event Center, located at 11000 Stockdale Street, will open at 4 p.m.

To boost attendance for the team’s first home game of the season, the city is offering a special ticket discount for Fishers residents. City officials say the promotion is designed to give local fans a chance to experience the high-energy indoor football atmosphere as the Freight begin their home schedule.

Indoor football games feature a fast-paced version of the sport played on a shorter field inside an arena, producing frequent scoring and big hits that keep the action moving. The Freight are members of the Indoor Football League and are entering their second season in Fishers.

The Quad City Steamwheelers, based in Moline, Illinois, will provide the opposition in Saturday’s contest. Quad City has been one of the IFL’s established franchises and should provide a strong early-season test for the Freight.

The Fishers Freight began play last season when the Fishers Event Center opened, joining the Indy Fuel hockey team as one of the arena’s primary tenants. The venue has quickly become a hub for professional sports and entertainment in the city.

Parking for Saturday’s game will cost $10, with payment available by scanning QR codes located in the parking lot.

City officials say the goal is to create a lively atmosphere for the Freight’s first home game of the year and give residents a chance to support the hometown team.

Fans interested in attending the game can purchase tickets online and take advantage of the resident discount ahead of kickoff Saturday evening, using this link.

The Indoor Football League has settled its television and streaming plan for the 2026 season, although fans hoping to follow the Fishers Freight will need to navigate a somewhat complicated viewing lineup.

The league announced that its games will be split between two digital platforms: a free streaming service operated by Yahoo Sports and a subscription platform called Overnght.

Roughly half of the league’s games will stream live on the new Yahoo Sports streaming service, available on devices such as Roku, Amazon Fire TV and similar streaming platforms. Fans who already have access to Yahoo Sports through those devices will be able to watch those games at no additional cost.

The remaining IFL games will be available on the Overnght platform — spelled without the “i,” though it is pronounced like “overnight.” Access to those broadcasts requires a subscription that costs about $10 per month.

The league says it will release the full broadcast schedule later this week, detailing which games will appear on each platform. Early indications are that the first two games of the Fishers Freight season will be available on Yahoo Sports.

Overnght specializes in streaming niche sports, particularly Olympic-style competitions such as rowing, fencing and water polo. The service has been compared to FloSports, the streaming platform that carries Indy Fuel hockey games.

The current arrangement came together after the IFL’s original broadcast agreement fell apart. The league had planned to air games this season on FanDuel Sports Network, but that deal collapsed when the network’s ownership group ran into financial trouble — part of a broader wave of instability affecting regional sports networks across the country.

Under the new partnership, Overnght will carry several marquee IFL events. Its premium package will include the Hall of Fame Game on opening weekend, two American Dream IFL Cup games, two first-round playoff games, one conference championship and a slate of special broadcasts including IFL Friday Night Football, IFL Monday Night Football and seven “IFL After Dark” matchups.

Overnght will also become the exclusive streaming home of the IFL National Championship games in 2027 and 2028.

In addition to live games, the platform will stream original IFL programming, including the behind-the-scenes reality series Fight for the Fifty and the league’s official podcast, Inside the IFL, hosted by Brent Stover and Eric Van Beek.

All broadcasts will be produced by the IFL and distributed directly through the Overnght digital platform.

To promote the new partnership, Overnght is offering a limited-time discount of 40 percent off the first month of a subscription using the promo code IFLFAN40. The offer runs through March 31.

As the Fishers Freight prepare for their second season in the Indoor Football League, fans now know where to find the games — even if watching some of them will come with a monthly subscription fee.

One of the most unique classrooms in Hamilton County isn’t inside a school building. It’s located in a log cabin and across hundreds of acres of historic grounds at Conner Prairie.

In this podcast episode, I talk with Amy Murch, the Hamilton Southeastern Schools teacher-in-residence at the living history museum. In that role, Murch works with every fourth-grade class in the Hamilton Southeastern Schools district, helping students connect classroom lessons with hands-on experiences on the Conner Prairie grounds.

The program, known as “Adventures on the Prairie,” brings thousands of HSE fourth-graders to the museum each school year. Instead of worksheets and desks, students learn by doing — building cardboard boats to study buoyancy on the White River, trying archery and tomahawk throwing to understand forces and motion, exploring simple machines in Prairietown, and interacting with historic interpreters to better understand Indiana’s past.

Murch previously spent more than a decade teaching in the district before taking on the unique position, which blends science, engineering, and history with the outdoor setting of the museum. Her goal is to help students see that learning doesn’t only happen inside a traditional classroom.

Conner Prairie itself is one of Indiana’s best-known living history museums, recreating 19th-century life along the White River and welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. Through the partnership with HSE Schools, the museum becomes an extension of the school day for Fishers-area students.

In this conversation, Murch discusses how the program works, why experiential learning can make such a difference for young students, and what it’s like to teach history and science in a place where the past quite literally surrounds you.

Listen to the podcast at this link or the link below.

The Indy Ignite shook off a slow start Sunday and rallied to defeat the Grand Rapids Rise, winning three straight sets for a 3-1 victory in Major League Volleyball action at the Fishers Event Center, the team’s seventh straight win.

Grand Rapids came out strong and captured the opening set, putting the Ignite briefly on their heels in front of the home crowd. But Indy quickly regained control of the match, responding by taking the next three sets to secure the win.

The victory continues a strong inaugural season for the Ignite, who have been among the league’s top teams and have turned the Fishers Event Center into a difficult place for visiting clubs to play.

After dropping the first set, the Ignite tightened their defense and became more efficient offensively, gradually wearing down the Rise. Indy’s balanced attack and improved serve-receive play helped swing the momentum, allowing the home team to dictate the pace through the final three sets.

Sunday’s match also coincided with events at the arena celebrating International Women’s Day. Before the match, Ignite President and General Manager Mary Kay Huse hosted a panel discussion featuring several Indiana women business leaders as part of the team’s community programming.

The win marked another successful outing for Indy against Grand Rapids this season. The Ignite previously defeated the Rise in four sets during an earlier meeting in Fishers.

With the victory, Indy improves its position near the top of the Major League Volleyball standings as the league moves deeper into its first season. Grand Rapids, which had played the night before, was unable to sustain its early momentum after claiming the opening set.

The Ignite will return to the court later Thursday against Orlando as the home schedule continues at the Fishers Event Center.

For Fishers, the Formula 1 season opener in Australia was more than an international motorsports event. It was the first real test for Cadillac’s new F1 operation, which is building its headquarters here, and the team came away from Melbourne with one car at the finish and a realistic picture of the work ahead.

Cadillac’s debut was modest on the results sheet, but not without meaning. Sergio Perez qualified 18th and finished 16th in Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix, giving the American team its first completed race. Teammate Valtteri Bottas started 19th but retired after a fuel-system problem.

At the front, George Russell won the season-opening race for Mercedes, leading home teammate Kimi Antonelli for a 1-2 finish, with Charles Leclerc third and Lewis Hamilton fourth for Ferrari.

For Cadillac, simply getting both cars qualified and to the starting grid was an achievement for a team that only recently secured its place in Formula 1 and is still building out its full operation across Fishers, Charlotte and Silverstone. Team principal Graeme Lowdon said afterward the weekend provided “a really good start to our journey,” while Bottas called it “a proud moment” despite his early exit.

The bigger story, however, was performance. Cadillac was eliminated in Q1 with both cars and never threatened the points on race day. Perez finished three laps down, a reminder that the new team is not yet ready to fight the established midfield, much less the front-runners.

Still, as first races go, this was not a disaster. New teams often struggle just to look organized in their debut, and Cadillac at least cleared the most basic benchmark: one car reached the checkered flag, the operation functioned, and the team gathered the kind of race data it could never simulate at the factory. AP reported Lowdon believes Cadillac earned the respect of rival teams in the paddock, even after a tough opening result.

From a Fishers perspective, that makes Australia less a breakthrough than a beginning. Cadillac did not arrive in Formula 1 ready to contend. It arrived to survive, learn and build. In Melbourne, it did enough to suggest the foundation is real.