jan-2018

212 213 VICTORY FIELD AT A GLANCE VICTORY FIELD WHAT: Home of the Indianapolis Indians WHERE: Indianapolis, Indiana WEBSITE: www.milb.com Indianapolis andVictoryFieldwas in the forefront.” VictoryFieldwas built as a partnership between the Indians and the Cityof Indianapolis for $18 million.“Theyhave a quasi-governmental agency called the Capital Improvement Board,”Lewand- owski says.“The CIB is the lesseewith the state. The Indians contributed $4.5million upfront,and another $10millionwas paid back in lease rental payments for the first 20 years of our contract.We are nowin our second lease as we start our 22nd season in 2018,so the deal is a little different,but we,the ball club,continue to pay tomaintain and operate the facility,just as we did the first 20 years. Andwe get to keep all of the revenue streams that we generate.” “In the first 20 years,therewere three or four million dollars that the Indians put into the ball- park,”Lewandowski continues.“We added a gift shop,we added the Coors Light Cove,which is a bar down the left field line.Wemade some audio and video improvements.As we got into the second generation of the ballparkand signed a newlease,therewere $6million in improvements to bemade over a three-year period.Prior to the 2017season,we upgraded our audio,our video,and our video control systems.We’re currentlyundergoing a $2million reno- vation of our full-season suites,and then,therewill be a third iteration that we haven’t decided on yet,in some formor fash- ion of stadiumseats,and/or a club/admin expansion–things we’re still tossing around that we’ll get in place before the 2019 season.” In addition to hosting 70 International League baseball games each summer,the stadiumalso hosts 90 to 100 events, yearly,including several college games,highlighted byan annu- al contest between Indiana Universityand the Universityof No- tre Dame.Other events include the high school state baseball championships,and various communityand corporate events and outings–runs,walks,trade shows,etc.“We are closed November,December,January,and February,”says Lewandowski. “The ballparkwas not set up to handlewinter events andwe don’t have any large enough indoor spaces that can holdmuch value to groups in thewintertime.So,we’re essentiallyan eight- We’ve led minor league baseball in attendance three of the last five years. Ironically in those two years when we didn’t lead minor league baseball in attendance, we set our own Victory Field attendance records. So, we’ve been on a really good run here over the last five seasons in attendance, and are proud of what we’ve been doing. RANDY LEWANDOWSKI, PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER RANDY LEWANDOWSKI, PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER