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Indy unveils big goal: ‘Become the women’s sports capital of the world’

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Indy unveils big goal: ‘Become the women’s sports capital of the world’

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INDIANAPOLIS — Sitting on a makeshift stage crafted upon the same court inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse where women’s basketball phenom Caitlin Clark has created a following and a level of engagement never before seen in the WNBA, a panel of the city’s prominent sports leaders shared a vision.

It’s a big vision, one that no other city or state has made a claim for: To make Indy the women’s sports capital of the world.

It’s a vision that goes far beyond Clark and the Fever, one that will “create the leading women’s sports ecosystem and women leaders in sports,” in Indianapolis, Patrick Talty, president of Indiana Sports Corp. said Tuesday at the “State of Sports.”

The event at the Indiana Fever and Pacers’ home shared what the city envisions its sports landscape will look like by the year 2050 and honored those who have played a part in making Indy a leading sports destination, including the late Jim Morris and recently retired Pacers CEO Rick Fuson.

It was at a meeting in the spring when Julie Roe Lach and other Indiana Sports Corp. members learned that there is no other city that calls itself the women’s sports capital of the world.

After that meeting, board chair Lach said she was walking to her car in the parking lot when Neelay Bhatt, founder and CEO at Next Practice Partners and a sports consultant to the board, turned to her and said, ‘Hey. Why not us? Why not Indianapolis? Why not our state?”

“And on my drive home,” Lach said, “I thought, ‘Yeah, why not us?'”

Now, months later, the idea is flashier and more viable with Clark in the city. But at the time, Clark had not even declared for the WNBA draft and the Indiana Fever didn’t know it had the No. 1 pick.

In fact, at a board meeting in the spring, members challenged themselves to come up with ideas as to what being the women’s sports capital of the world would look like in 2030, 2040 and 2050.

When they broke into small groups, someone wrote on the whiteboard, “Get Caitlin Clark”

“Literally, we were laughing about this,” said Lach, who is the commissioner of the Horizon League and was a basketball All-Star at Millikin University in Decatur, Ill. “But that was a strategy, and maybe it’s manifest destiny.”

But then, Lach started to think. “We already have this immense pool of women leaders in sports in the city.”

There is Pacers CEO Mel Raines, the Irsay women who lead the Indianapolis Colts, Allison Melangton at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Kelly Krauskopf, Pacers assistant general manager, Lynn Holzman, the NCAA’s vice president of women’s basketball and the list goes on and on, said Lach.

When the U.S. Olympic swim trials came to Indy earlier this year, it was five women who helped bring the massive pool to Lucas Oil Stadium and all the other moving parts.

“We are getting it done in this city already. Let’s just keep going,” Lach said. “We already have this epicenter of women leaders. Now how do we take that to the next level to really put the stake in the ground to be the capital of women’s sports?”

While those details are still to come, there are events already on Indy’s calendar, including the WNBA All-Star game and women’s Big Ten basketball tournament in 2025 and the NCAA women’s Final Four in 2028.

Rounding out the 2050 sports vision

Talty said there is momentum behind that women’s sports vision, as well as the other goals in the 2050 plan that were revealed Tuesday. Here are the other four pillars his organization have outlined for the city’s sports landscape to focus on in the coming 25 years to become the “global epicenter of sports.”

Sports events: Host world class events (large, multisport, high visibility) with a goal to be in the top three sports event host cities in the U.S.

Sports tech: Focus on being the nucleus of entrepreneurship, innovation and acceleration with a goal of being the sports tech hub of the U.S.

Sports academia: Create and offer high-quality academic offerings and leading research tied to sports with the goal of offering the top-ranked sports education programs in the world.

Sports business leadership: Attract and retain decision makers and influential governing bodies in the world of sports with a goal of hosting the largest cluster of sports organizations and governing bodies in the world.

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on X: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via e-mail: dbenbow@indystar.com 

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