Pacers to pay $16M bill for new scoreboard, sound system at Bankers Life Fieldhouse

The Indiana Pacers' business arm announced today that new scoreboards and a sound system are coming to Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

In fact, the sound system has already been installed -- in time for tonight's Indiana Fever women's basketball game against Washington. Its first true test comes for Friday's Blake Shelton concert, which the fieldhouse is hosting for the Indiana State Fair.

Gargantuan new suspended center-court video boards and end-court video boards are expected to be up in time for the Pacers' Nov. 3 home opener against Sacramento. Until then, temporary video screens are up.

The cost for the new scoreboard and sound system: $16 million. Pacers Sports & Entertainment will foot the bill -- not taxpayers, executives said this afternoon at a news conference inside the fieldhouse's Indiana University Health Entry Pavilion.

That answers one key question going into today's announcement. The city's Capital Improvement Board owns the fieldhouse and leases it to the Pacers for $1 a year, making the CIB the landlord. The Pacers' overall lease expires in 2019, but in 2010 the team struck a three-year deal that resulted in the CIB paying it three installments of $10 million to offset the Pacers' operating costs. The team says it's struggling to break even in one of the NBA's smaller markets.

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