TULSA, Okla. – Indiana Sports Corp on Tuesday was awarded Sports Commission of the Year and Event Partnership of the Year with USA Swimming for the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming presented by Lilly by the Sports Events & Tourism Association (Sports ETA). The award ceremony took place at the Sports ETA Symposium, the annual meeting of the non-profit trade association for the sports events and tourism industry.
Sports Commission of the Year
2024 was a legendary year for Indianapolis with the national and international spotlight consistently on the city. Indy hosted several marquee events such as NBA All-Star 2024, the NFL Combine, the U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Swimming , the Discover® Big Ten Football Championship Game, and numerous NCAA championships. Indianapolis continued to raise the bar for hosting through innovation, such as hosting the first opening ceremony for NBA All-Star weekend and building a 66-foot replica Eiffel Tower to anchor its downtown activation for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming.
Indiana Sports Corp launched its 25-year statewide sports strategy, called 2050 Vision, to make Indiana the epicenter of sports through five pillars of focus: Sports Events, Sports Tech, Sports Academic, Sports Business Leadership, Women’s Sports.
2024 also saw Indiana Sports Corp announcing news for future events, including a first-of-its-kind partnership with WWE, upcoming Big Ten Football Championship Games, Big Ten Women’s and Men’s Basketball Tournaments, and additional national championship games during the 2026 Men’s Final Four and 2028 Women’s Final Four.
Already in 2025, Indiana Sports Corp hosted the largest WWE Royal Rumble in history with over 70,000 attendees at Lucas Oil Stadium, over 40 NCAA Division I college basketball postseason games, including the 2025 TIAA Big Ten Women’s and Men’s Basketball Tournaments, the Division I Men’s Basketball Championship – Midwest Regional, and the NCAA Division II National Championships Winter Festival. The 2025 event schedule also features WNBA All-Star 2025, the first-ever TEDSports Indianapolis, the Discover® Big Ten Football Championship Game, and the 2025 Indy Classic.
Event Partnership of the Year
The 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming marked the first time that the event was held inside of an NFL stadium at Lucas Oil Stadium and broke numerous attendance and revenue records. On opening night, the meet welcomed a record-breaking 20,689 attendees followed the next day by 17,697 fans setting a new mark for the most-attended prelims session in swimming history. The momentum continued throughout the week, and on Wednesday, June 22, fans pushed the single-session record even higher, with a staggering 22,209 in attendance.
Across all sessions, the meet welcomed over 285,000 fans, more than a 60 percent increase from the previous total attendance record at the Swimming Olympic Trials. Record attendance was also seen at fan experiences outside of the meet at Toyota Aqua Zone inside the Indiana Convention Center and USA Swimming Live presented by Purdue University on Georgia Street. Record retail sales inside Toyota Aqua Zone added highlights to the nine-day event in Indianapolis.
USA Swimming and Indiana Sports Corp agreed to commit $400,000 to legacy initiatives throughout the state. Knowing that swimming is the only sport that can save your life, the groups decided to put most of their focus on developing the Swim IN Safety initiative. This program would aim to teach 50,000 people to be swim or water safe in the state of Indiana by the end of 2024. Eli Lilly and Company immediately signed on as a sponsor for the program after hearing about this goal, and in November, USA Swimming and ISC exceeded their goal.
For more information and to learn more about upcoming events coming to Indianapolis, please go to IndianaSportsCorp.org.
About Indiana Sports Corp
Founded in 1979 as the nation’s first sports commission, Indiana Sports Corp is a not-for-profit organization focused on bringing premier sporting events to Indiana to drive economic vitality, facilitate a vibrant community with civic pride and garner positive media attention. Because of this, Indiana Sports Corp is able to provide positive, sports-related opportunities for youth in the community. For more information, please visit IndianaSportsCorp.org.