Indianapolis’ Farmers Coliseum not your typical NCAA Tournament venue

By Matt Tait     Mar 16, 2021

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Oakland and Cleveland State play at Indiana Farmers Coliseum during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in the men's Horizon League conference tournament championship game, Tuesday, March 9, 2021, in Indianapolis. The coliseum is one of six venues hosting NCAA Tournament games later this week, and is where No. 3 seed Kansas will take on No. 14 seed Eastern Washington at 12:15 p.m. Saturday, March 20, 2021.

It’s been years since the perennial powerhouse Kansas men’s basketball program has played an NCAA Tournament game inside a 6,500-seat arena and even longer since it has played an NCAA Tournament game in front of fewer than 2,000 fans.

But the third-seeded Jayhawks will be able to check both of those feats off of their list again on Saturday, after they face 14th-seeded Eastern Washington inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum in Indianapolis.

Tipoff is set for 12:15 p.m. central time on TBS.

**• SPECIAL SECTION:** [Check out our 2021 NCAA Tournament preview section][1]

Located on the Indiana State Fairgrounds property and constructed for $1 million in 1939 as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, Farmers Coliseum is the current home of the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Jaguars.

But there’s much more to this building than its current tie to its Horizon League tenant, as some of the biggest names in United States history once passed through the venue that has had a variety of names throughout the years, including Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum, Pepsi Coliseum and Fairgrounds Coliseum.

John F. Kennedy once campaigned for President inside the building in 1960. And The Beatles, in 1964, made their only appearance in the state of Indiana inside the old school venue that locals say has a hint of the same flare and style that makes Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse, just down the street, one of the better known venues in college hoops.

The Indiana Pacers called the building home during their American Basketball Association days from 1967-74, and the Indiana high school basketball state championship was held at the coliseum from 1943-45.

Farmers Coliseum closed in 2012 and reopened in 2014 after undergoing $63 million worth of renovations to modernize the facility.

Per the NCAA Tournament’s COVID-19 guidelines for the 2021 event, all venues hosting this year’s tournament in and around Indianapolis that will be used for March Madness will be allowed to have up to 25% capacity.

That allows for a crowd of roughly 1,650 fans for the Kansas-Eastern Washington game on Saturday.

A KU spokesman told the Journal-World that the school received an allotment of 350 tickets for the Jayhawks’ Round 1 game. All of them are going to player/staff family and/or donors.

It is not yet known what KU’s allotment will be for Round 2, if the Jayhawks advance, because of the potential to switch venues between rounds, the spokesman said.

Tickets for Saturday’s KU-EWU game also are available on the secondary market for anywhere between $133-$344 dollars.

[1]: http://www2.kusports.com/documents/2021/mar/14/2021-ncaa-tournament-preview-section/

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Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.