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On the roster were Dale Davis, Rik Smits and 3-point shooting phenomenon, New York Knicks-taunting Reggie Miller.

Coach? Well, his name was Larry Bird.

This was the Indiana Pacers 15 years ago today, the day the team waltzed into a shiny new arena to play its first game at Conseco Fieldhouse.

It was Nov. 6, 1999. The fieldhouse was a $183 million glitzy mix of nostalgic old-time gymnasium and modern amenities. It seated 18,500 fans and sat in the heart of a city, a Downtown that was on the brink of becoming something under then-mayor Stephen Goldsmith. It was one of five new NBA arenas opening that season.

The fieldhouse replaced the deteriorating and outdated Market Square Arena, where escalators had broken down and remained unfixed for 18 months. Where there were no luxury suites or club seating -- those amenities that make a basketball team viable in the NBA with their steady revenue streams and sponsorship possibilities.

The Pacers made the city proud that night in their first regular-season game against the Boston Celtics, their first game in Conseco Fieldhouse. They beat the green 115 to 108, overtaking a flustered Celtics coach Rick Pitino and hometown star Calbert Cheaney.

The city was celebrating. Not just the victory, but the building. It was 14 stories tall, contained 2,600 tons of steel, included seven elevators, 58,000-square-feet of glass, 600,000 bricks and covered nearly six acres. At the time of its construction, the Pacers boasted the fieldhouse would have room enough inside to park 10 blimps or, for the truly esoteric, 10 million cubic feet of Jell-O.

Later that same season, the Pacers made it to the 2000 NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers and played three of the games at Conseco. They lost 4-2 in the series, but that was OK. They were thriving and they had a new home.

That building, however, would come to be much more than the shiny home of the Indiana Pacers.

Big name concerts were coming up. Bruce Springsteen played Nov. 10, 1999, wowing the crowd with an acoustic version of "Born in the U.S.A." The city had nabbed a WNBA team. The Fever launched its first season at the fieldhouse in the summer of 2000. WWE events, Big Ten tournaments. High school finals. They all called the fieldhouse home.

How that fieldhouse came to be? The Pacers first raised the issue of a new building in late spring 1994, but they did so with the vow that they were content with the present and cozy Market Square Arena.

The Pacers had just gone to their first NBA Eastern Conference finals. People were getting excited about the team. The league was taking notice. The core of a very good team was in place.

It wasn't the time to be issuing ultimatums and threats, said Donnie Walsh, Pacers president at the time.

"From the start, we were very careful that we never wanted to be perceived as saying we would get up and leave if we don't get a new building because we never had any intention of that," he said.

But the request was well received. It didn't take much prodding to get the project started. By 1998, the construction plans were laid. And work began.

There was just one snag. What would this new building be named? For now, it would be called the Indiana Fieldhouse and some wanted to keep it that way.

But that wasn't meant to be. The Pacers started negotiating with companies who wanted naming rights to the fieldhouse.

Speculation abounded that it might bear the Eli Lilly and Co. moniker.

By 1998, it had a different name. Conseco, the Carmel financial services company, paid $40 million for the 20-year naming rights for the fieldhouse and, according to sources at the time, also agreed to a separate sponsorship deal worth about $55 million -- bringing its total commitment to $95 million.

And the fieldhouse kept that name for more than a decade. But in 2011, after Conseco (now known as CNO Financial Group) had been through its share of financial turmoil, the fieldhouse got a new name, but one that didn't forgo its Conseco roots altogether.

Bankers Life and Casualty Co. was CNO's largest subsidiary.

Today, the Indiana Pacers play in Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

As former Indianapolis Star sports columnist Bill Benner wrote the day before Conseco opened in 1999:

"I believe Conseco will reach out and draw in people of all demographics and socioeconomic strata, that it's not just for the fat cats and the suite-holders, but for all of us and especially those who love basketball. Indiana basketball."

That hasn't changed.
Follow Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow

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15 years ago: Pacers' first game in Conseco Fieldhouse

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On the roster were Dale Davis, Rik Smits and 3-point shooting phenomenon, New York Knicks-taunting Reggie Miller. Coach? Well, his name was Larry Bird. This was the Indiana Pacers 15 years ago today, the day the team waltzed into a shiny new arena to play its first game at Conseco Fieldhouse.

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General information about the Fieldhouse

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General information about the Fieldhouse

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Bankers Life Fieldhouse is an indoor arena located in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. It is the home of the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association and the Indiana Fever of the Women's National Basketball Association. The Fieldhouse also hosts college basketball games (including the annual Big Ten Conference tournaments), indoor concerts, and ice hockey.

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Bankers Life Fieldhouse on AroundIndy.com

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Bankers Life Fieldhouse on AroundIndy.com.

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Unlike Major League Baseball where the trend has been to build ballparks that reflected ones of the early 20th century, most NBA arenas built have been constructed with sleek modern designs. However, the Indiana Pacers decided to go with the retro look with their home, Bankers Life Fieldhouse. The Pacers became a NBA team in 1976-77 as a result of the ABA folding. They played at Market Square Arena that had a capacity of nearly 17,000 but lacked luxury suites and many other amenities that prompted the Pacers to begin looking into building a new arena in the 1990s. A retro style fieldhouse was designed by Ellerbe Becket that reflected high school fieldhouses in Indiana for the Pacers. This design was similar to the retro ballparks that were being built by Major League Baseball teams at the time. Construction began in July 1997 and was completed two years later. At a cost of $183 million, the Pacers contributed $57 million, $79 million came from taxes and the rest from private contributions.

FACTS & FIGURES
-Opened: 11/6/1999
-Capacity: 18,345
-Tenants: Indiana Pacers (NBA)
-Cost: $183 million
-Architect: Ellerbe Becket
-Address: 125 S. Pennsylvania St., Indianapolis, IN 46204
-Former Name(s): Conseco Fieldhouse

- Directions/Parking

Originally known as Conseco Fieldhouse, the Pacers played their first game at the arena on November 6, 1999 winning against the Boston Celtics. As fans approach the Pacers arena from the outside, they see a structure that truly resembles classic basketball fieldhouses from the past. The façade consists of brick and glass, fitting in with surrounding buildings in downtown Indianapolis. Many fans enter through the Entry Pavilion, the main gathering place before and after games. The has a nostalgic look all around including the Grand Staircase that takes fans to the different levels of the building. The Pacers home has a seating capacity of 18,345 for basketball with 69 luxury suites and 2,400 club seats. Some of the best seats are in the Founders Level, seats that are 16 rows from the court. In December 2011 the arena was renamed Bankers Life Fieldhouse after CNO Financial purchased Conseco. Annually Bankers Life Fieldhouse has been ranked one of the top arenas in the NBA.