INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A new era for IU Indy Athletics is about to begin.

“It’s going to be the nicest mid-major basketball arena in the country,” IU Indy director of athletics Luke Bosso said. “It’s going to be the newest. and we’re excited to fill it up every night, not just with baskets, but also with people.”

Progress on the James T. Morris Arena continues on IU Indy’s campus as the new facility remains on track to open this fall. The arena will include space for a basketball court or volleyball court, along with locker rooms, training facilities and offices, which includes space for USA Track and Field.

“100% a gamechanger,” Bosso said. “This eliminates a barrier we’ve had for a long-time here by having this on-campus venue. State-of-the-art venue for our basketball and volleyball teams and just something as schools are recruiting against us and recruiting against other schools, they can’t say they don’t have a place to play basketball on campus anymore.”

The arena is named after the late Jim Morris, who passed away in 2024. The IU alumnus served in many distinguished roles during his career including as vice chairman of Pacers Sports And Entertainment.

“I tell our student-athletes that they’re going to learn who Jim Morris is and we’re going to honor him every day we walk in this building by playing hard and putting up a team that he would be proud of in all our sports,” Bosso said.

When done, the arena will have 4,200 seats and will be just 19 rows deep. The goal? To create great sight lines for everyone in attendance, including the students, who will have a great vantage point during basketball games right behind the basket.

“A lot of the discussion was how can this contribute to the sports complexes that we do already have in this city and this is a really unique piece to that puzzle,” IU architect Brett Hatchett said. “It provides an intimate facility”

The 110 million dollar facility broke ground in February 2025. As it gets closer and closer to completion, the excitement keeps building.

“The question I’ve gotten as students start to return to campus is when do they get to go in and practice,” Bosso said. “We tell them we’re still working through some of that, but they’re ecstatic. And the whole community has been excited.”

Excited, as IU Indy Athletics prepares for the future.