The Formula 1 team that will soon call Fishers home hit another rough patch Sunday, as both Cadillac cars failed to finish the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest.

Valtteri Bottas was the first to go. On Lap 15 of the 70-lap race, the Finn pulled into the pit lane with his left-front brake on fire, even using the pit wall to help slow the car, according to PlanetF1’s race report. Teammate Sergio Perez, who had started from the pit lane, limped back to the garage late in the race and joined Bottas in retirement. Both drivers are officially classified as DNF (Did Not Finish) in the official results, where Lando Norris took the win for McLaren.

The double retirement extends a frustrating pattern for the first-year American team. Just four weeks ago in Austria, both Cadillacs dropped out within the opening laps with brake fires — Bottas’ third straight retirement after brake-related exits in Monaco and Barcelona, RacingNews365 reported. After that race, Bottas said the team should accept an aerodynamic penalty in exchange for bigger brake cooling. “We’ve got to start finishing races; that’s when we learn,” he said.

Why does any of this matter in Hamilton County? Because the team’s growing pains are, in a real sense, ours. Cadillac’s world Formula 1 headquarters — a $200 million, 400,000-square-foot facility — is rising right now between 96th and 106th streets west of Hague Road, near Indianapolis Metropolitan Airport. The Fishers campus is expected to employ about 300 engineers, technicians and staff who will design and build the team’s race cars.

For now, Cadillac is running its debut season out of a temporary base in Silverstone, England, while construction here is completed. That means the solutions to problems like Sunday’s brake fires will eventually be engineered a short drive from downtown Fishers.

New F1 teams almost always struggle in year one, and reliability — not speed — has been Cadillac’s biggest hurdle. The next chance to turn things around comes Aug. 23 at the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort. By the time the team’s operations move to Fishers, locals will hope the hard lessons of 2026 have already been learned.

Indianapolis Business Journal reporter Mickey Shuey, who is new to the publication’s North of 96th beat after years of reporting on other IBJ beats, has hit the ground running, reports that Fishers District now represents more than $900 million in completed and committed investment—and city officials say it is far from finished.

The district began with The Yard, which opened near East 116th Street and Ikea Way in 2019. It has since expanded to include restaurants, housing, hotels, offices and the 8,500-seat Fishers Event Center.

Mayor Scott Fadness told Shuey that additional development could easily push the district’s total investment beyond $1 billion.

Indianapolis-based Thompson Thrift has worked with Fishers on the district since 2015. The master developer is nearing completion of The Union at Fishers District, while construction continues on an expansion called The Crossing.

At the district’s southern end, Buckingham Cos. is developing apartments, town houses and a sports facility. The company is also working with JD Sports on plans to move the retailer’s North American headquarters from Indianapolis to the former Navient office complex along Interstate 69.

The Yard has maintained an overall occupancy rate of about 95%, according to Thompson Thrift. Its restaurant and retail spaces are full, while only two small retail vacancies remain in The Union.

More than 500 apartments and nearly 40 town houses have been developed within the broader corridor, with most leased or sold. Union Flats is expected to add 251 apartments later this year.

Thompson Thrift CEO Paul Thrift said The Yard’s restaurant-centered model was unusual when planning began. Rather than relying on a grocery store or traditional retailer as an anchor, the development made dining and entertainment its primary attractions.

Housing was also essential to creating activity throughout the day. The district benefits from nearly 171,000 people living within five miles and from its location near an I-69 interchange.

Upcoming additions include Indiana’s first AC Hotel by Marriott. The Crossing is expected to feature a 10,000-square-foot Prime 47 steakhouse and the state’s first hotel under Hilton’s Curio brand.

Professional sports have become another major draw. The $170 million Fishers Event Center is home to the Indy Fuel hockey team, Indy Ignite volleyball team and Fishers Freight indoor football team.

The Ignite is also building a 29,000-square-foot headquarters as part of Buckingham’s planned fieldhouse development. Fishers will own the 180,000-square-foot fieldhouse, projected to cost $65 million.

The growth has required substantial public support. Fishers has issued $56.6 million in tax-increment-financing bonds for multiple phases of the district, in addition to building the event center and committing to the fieldhouse. JD Sports is also set to receive a 10-year tax abatement for its headquarters relocation.

City officials argue those investments will encourage long-term commercial and entertainment growth. Fishers’ population has risen from about 38,000 in 2000 to approximately 106,000 in 2026.

More development could occur on both sides of East 116th Street. About 60 acres north of The Yard are owned by Sunbeam Development Corp., while additional land remains near Buckingham’s projects south of the event center.

Fadness said discussions with property owners and development partners are underway. For Fishers District, reaching $1 billion might be less a finish line than the start of its next chapter.

You can read Shuey’s entire story at this link, but you will need an IBJ subscription to access the piece.

Continue reading Fishers Road Construction: What to Know This Week →

Four men face burglary, theft and criminal vandalism charges following an investigation into a July 21 break-in at a home on Eller Creek Drive.  This is based on reporting by Leila Kheiry of Current In Fishers  

According to a probable cause affidavit, the burglary occurred between approximately 10:37 a.m. and 12:24 p.m. while the residents were away. Investigators said the intruders cut a hole to gain access to the master bedroom, which was reportedly the only room searched.

The homeowners, who own a jewelry store in Indianapolis, told police that approximately $300,000 in cash was taken from the home. Other missing property included a Rolex watch, jewelry, designer purses and additional valuables.

The homeowners had departed early that morning. Their son left the residence at 10:37 a.m. after activating the alarm and returned shortly before 12:30 p.m.

Investigators identified two vehicles believed to be connected to the burglary. Using Flock camera records, police tracked one vehicle to Ohio, where law enforcement officers located and stopped it. Officers stopped the second vehicle in Centerville, Indiana.

Searches of the vehicles reportedly uncovered large amounts of cash, expensive bags, dark clothing and tools that police said could have included a drill or saw. Investigators also recovered items bearing the Eller Creek Drive homeowners’ names.

One of the two men stopped in Ohio allegedly admitted taking part in the burglary and implicated the other suspects, according to the affidavit.

Authorities had not confirmed the identities of the four defendants when the affidavit was filed. However, a defendant identified in court documents as John Doe No. 4 has been tentatively identified as 25-year-old Sebastian Martinez. Online court records showed Martinez in custody at the Hamilton County Jail with bail set at $500,000.

The charges are allegations. Each defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

Black lights, fog machines and lasers will take over the Nickel Plate District Amphitheater on Saturday, Sept. 26, as Fishers Parks brings back Glow in the Park, one of the city’s most popular fall events.

Tickets went on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, July 24, and will remain available until the event sells out.

The night is split into two sessions. Family Hours run from 6 to 8 p.m. and cost $5 per person. A 21-and-older session follows from 9 to 11 p.m. at $20 per person.

Both sessions feature live DJs, neon splash zones, a foam cannon, water and inflatable activities, food trucks and glow-in-the-dark fun throughout the gated event footprint. The 21+ ticket also includes a reusable silicone Silipint cup that earns holders a $2 discount on every beer purchased from Mashcraft Brewing.

Fishers Parks is emphasizing one rule in particular: every attendee needs a ticket, including all adults and children entering the event footprint.

Parking

Free parking is available throughout the Nickel Plate District in garages, surface lots and on the street. Free garages include The Depot, 8594 E. 116th St.; Flats at Switch, 9 Municipal Drive; Nickel Plate Station, 8700 E. 116th St.; the Fishers Police Department, 4 Municipal Drive; The Edge, 8890 E. 116th St.; and First Internet Bank, 8701 E. 116th St.

Surface lot availability varies, but spaces can typically be found at Flexware, 12 Municipal Drive, or The Ellipse building, 11 Municipal Drive. Free accessible parking is located in the lot at the City Services Building, 3 Municipal Drive.

Food and drink

Outside food and beverages are not permitted under Indiana State Excise Law. Food, beverage, treat and snack vendors will be on site, with the vendor lineup announced closer to the event.

Weather

The event happens rain or shine. Parks staff monitor forecasts before and during each event, and nearby lightning may prompt a temporary shutdown until conditions clear. Updates will be posted to Fishers Parks social media channels and announced on site.

Volunteers wanted

Fishers Parks is recruiting volunteers to help run the event. Roles include mixing glow paint — a job that requires lifting 5-gallon buckets — staffing the goggle station, keeping the highlighter tent stocked and monitoring water inflatables to ensure one participant uses each at a time. A general float role covers breaks and other needs.

Shifts run 5 to 8 p.m. for the family event, 5:30 to 8 p.m. for water inflatable monitors, and 7:30 to 11 p.m. for the 21+ event. Volunteers working the late shift must be at least 18.

Volunteers receive snacks, drinks and a meal, a volunteer T-shirt and service hours.

More information and tickets are available through Fishers Parks. Find tickets at this link.

A playoff berth will be on the line Sunday when the Fishers Freight host the Orlando Pirates at the Fishers Event Center.

The equation could not be simpler: Win, and the Freight are in.

Fishers enters the regular-season finale with an 8-7 record, while Orlando is 9-6. The winner earns the final playoff spot in the Indoor Football League’s Eastern Conference. For the Freight, a victory would secure the first postseason appearance in the young franchise’s history.

Kickoff is set for 4 p.m. Sunday, July 26. The game is also Fan Appreciation Night.

It has been quite a journey to reach this moment.

The IFL announced in October 2023 that an expansion franchise owned by Jim Hallett—whose organization also owns the Indy Fuel hockey team—would begin playing at the new Fishers Event Center in 2025.

My first real introduction to the plans came the following month, when I recorded a podcast with Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness and Larry McQueary, who was then president of the Indy Fuel and the new football franchise.

I became curious about the IFL and started watching games, which were available on YouTube at the time. I quickly discovered an entertaining, fast-paced version of football that I believed local fans would embrace.

Indoor football is a different game. It is played eight-on-eight on a 50-yard field, with narrower goalposts and rules designed to encourage scoring and keep the action moving. The walls surrounding the field are part of the playing surface, placing fans close enough to hear the collisions and conversations.

The timing also fills a gap on the sports calendar. Once the NFL season ends, the IFL offers professional football from spring into summer.

When the Freight hired Dixie Wooten as their first head coach and general manager, the Hallett organization arranged for me to interview him. I learned a great deal about the league during that conversation.

Wooten brought substantial credentials to Fishers. He was named IFL Coach of the Year in 2017 and 2018 and guided the Iowa Barnstormers to the 2018 league championship. He later served as offensive coordinator for the Bay Area Panthers when they won the 2023 IFL title.

Wooten told me he had passed on other coaching opportunities for the chance to build a new franchise from the ground up in Fishers.

The inaugural season delivered the challenges one would expect from an expansion team. The Freight won their first two games, then endured nine consecutive losses. Even after being eliminated from playoff contention, however, they did not quit. Fishers won its final five games to finish the 2025 season with a 7-9 record and create genuine optimism for year two.

Wooten and his staff brought back key contributors from that late-season run and continued building around them. The 2026 season has included its share of highs and lows, but the Freight have earned the opportunity now in front of them.

They will play the most important game in franchise history Sunday—and they will play it at home.

Orlando won the teams’ first meeting this season, edging Fishers 60-57 on a touchdown as time expired. The narrow loss showed how evenly matched these teams can be, but Sunday’s rematch carries much greater stakes: The winner advances to the playoffs, while the loser’s season ends.

One of the most encouraging parts of the Freight story has been the core group of fans that has supported the team from the beginning. Team officials are projecting a crowd of approximately 4,500 for Sunday’s game, which would be the team’s largest attendance since this season’s home opener.

There are no bad seats for indoor football at the Fishers Event Center. The compact field and close proximity to the action give spectators a view and atmosphere that cannot be duplicated while watching from home.

Good seats also remain available. Fans can attend Fan Appreciation Night, support the home team and potentially witness the first playoff-clinching victory in Fishers Freight history. Tickets are available here.

I have covered the Freight since their first game at Northern Arizona in 2025. I have attended all but two of their home games and watched their road contests by video.

What I have seen is a legitimate professional football organization that has worked to establish roots in this community. The Freight do not simply play in Fishers—the city’s name is displayed across their uniforms.

This is Fishers’ team, and it is a franchise worthy of the community’s support.

If you have not attended a Freight game, Sunday would be an ideal time to experience one. Once you see indoor football in person, I suspect it will not be your last game.

Tickets for the inaugural Big Ten Volleyball Tournament at Fishers Event Center will go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. Monday, Aug. 3.

The tournament, scheduled for Nov. 20-25, will bring the conference’s top 15 volleyball teams to Fishers for six days of postseason competition. All-session tickets will be available through FishersEventCenter.com.

Three matches will be played in the opening round, followed by four second-round matches. The tournament will continue with the quarterfinals and semifinals before concluding with the championship match on Nov. 25. The schedule will also include one off day.

The conference is introducing the tournament as part of a revised volleyball format. The Big Ten regular season will decrease from 20 matches to 17, with teams playing a single round-robin schedule before the top 15 advance to Fishers.

Big Ten schools have combined to win 22 NCAA Division I volleyball championships, including 12 of the past 20. The conference has also led Division I in attendance every season since 2007.

Eight of the nine most-watched college volleyball matches on record have included Big Ten teams, according to the conference. Six Big Ten regular-season matches last season drew television audiences of more than 500,000.

Fishers Event Center opened in November 2024 and seats approximately 7,500 people. The venue is also home to the Indy Ignite of Major League Volleyball, the Indy Fuel of the ECHL and the Fishers Freight of the Indoor Football League.

This week’s edition of the Fridays with Larry podcast is now available, featuring a conversation with Matt Nettleton, an Indianapolis-area sales trainer and host of the Default Profitable podcast.

Nettleton has worked with hundreds of businesses since 2003, from local trades to Fortune 100 companies. His podcast — nearly 190 episodes strong, with most guests from the Indianapolis area — focuses on a subject he says too many startups ignore: actually making money. He shares why most successful owners failed at earlier ventures before finding their footing, the one question he asks anyone thinking of going into business for themselves, and the story of High School Hustle, a nonprofit helping more than 3,000 Indiana high school students launch their own small businesses.

Also in this episode, Larry looks at a New York Times opinion piece by Emi Nietfeld on why today’s graduates are losing faith in ambition, examines how corporate consolidation under Lucky Strike Entertainment (formerly Bowlero) has driven up the cost of a once-affordable night of bowling, and closes with the story of a Colorado bear that trapped itself in an SUV and honked the horn all night.

Fridays with Larry is sponsored by Citizens State Bank, Member FDIC and Equal Housing Lender.

Watch using this link, listen at this link,  or use the links below.

The Fishers Freight will play the biggest game in their two-season history Sunday when the Orlando Pirates come to the Fishers Event Center for a 4pm kickoff. The stakes could not be simpler — the winner claims the final playoff spot in the Indoor Football League’s Eastern Conference, and the loser goes home.

Coach Dixie Wooten and his team have had two bye weeks sandwiched around the July 11 win at Quad City to prepare, and the coach told fans at this week’s Coach’s Corner, recorded live at King Jugg Brewery with Freight play-by-play voice Andrew Smith, that his team is ready for the moment.

“We’ve been working hard all year for this,” Wooten said. “Now we’re playing meaningful football at the end of the season. The guys are ready, the coaching staff is ready, the fan base is ready. Everybody’s ready.”

Orlando (9-6) won the first meeting, 60-57, on May 9 in Florida, a game decided on a catch over the wall as the clock hit zero. The Freight (8-7) can even the season series Sunday, and with the strength-of-schedule tiebreaker in their favor, a win puts Fishers in the postseason.

“They got away with one against us when we went to their field,” Wooten said. “Now they come play us, and it’s going to be a different story.”

The Pirates bring one of the league’s most dangerous offenses, led by rookie quarterback Paxton DeLaurent, who has completed 71 percent of his passes, and Pooka Williams, the IFL’s leading rusher.

“A guy like him, you can’t stop him,” Wooten said of DeLaurent. “We just want to contain him, make sure we hit him a little bit, and make him see some different things.”

The Freight counter with a league-best running game behind an offensive line featuring Devon Donaldson — plucked from the very team Fishers faces Sunday — along with Winston Sharpe, Cordell Brewster and Jeremiah Rogers. A defense that struggled early in the season has held opponents mostly in the 30s since Wooten simplified the scheme and added personnel at midseason. And kicker Calum Sutherland leads a special teams unit that produced more than 20 points in the Quad City win. “In my eyes, he should be Special Teams Player of the Year,” Wooten said.

Two defensive standouts joined the show as well. Defensive back Jaiden Roe, who had an interception and a team-high nine tackles in the first Orlando game, can’t wait for Sunday.

“You wouldn’t want it any other way as a football player — for it to come down to the last game with your destiny in your own hands,” Roe said. “This is what you lace your cleats up for. If we could play tomorrow, I’d want to.”

Defensive lineman Jaylin Swan, a first-team All-IFL selection last season, pointed to the value of playing at home, where the Freight faithful have been loud all year.

“Some of us have never been in the playoffs before, so having the opportunity to play in the playoffs is amazing,” Swan said. “But to have a home advantage to get in is unreal to think about.”

Wooten closed with a message for the fans: “Sunday’s going to be fun. If you have nothing to do at 4 o’clock Sunday, come to the game, because you’re going to see a great game. I promise you that.”

Fans are encouraged to come early and bring school supplies for the backpack drive benefiting kids throughout Central Indiana, beginning at 2:30. Tickets are available at this link.

A new community art display at the Hamilton East Public Library’s Fishers location is encouraging visitors to reflect on the meaning of home and learn about the need for affordable housing.

Housing Rocks, an initiative from Hamilton County Area Neighborhood Development, features rocks painted by elementary students, church groups, volunteers and community-event participants. Each artist created a design representing what home means to them.

Together, the rocks form a colorful collection of personal stories and perspectives.

Visitors can scan a QR code accompanying the display to learn more about Housing Rocks, local housing needs and HAND’s work with community partners.

The initiative comes as rising housing costs place greater pressure on Hamilton County residents. According to the 2026 United Way ALICE Report, 34,764 county households are living in poverty or below the ALICE Threshold.

ALICE stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. The term describes households with working adults who earn more than the eligibility limits for many assistance programs but still struggle to pay for housing, child care, food, transportation and health care.

If those households formed a separate county, it would rank as Indiana’s 19th largest by number of households, according to HAND.

“Home means something different to every person, but everyone deserves the opportunity to have a home,” HAND Executive Director Andrea Davis said. “Housing Rocks invites people to reflect on what home means, learn more about the housing challenges many of our neighbors face, and consider how each of us can help create communities where everyone has a place to call home.”

HAND hopes to expand the initiative through partnerships with schools, churches, businesses, community organizations and volunteers. Groups interested in painting rocks, hosting the display or bringing the program to another community may contact HAND Marketing and Fundraising Manager Kerri Hubble through the organization.

Founded in 2003, HAND builds, preserves and advocates for affordable housing in Hamilton, Boone and Tipton counties. More information is available at handincorporated.org or by calling 317-674-8108.