A site that feels like a sporting event: How Indiana Sports Corp’s revitalized its online presence

Overview

Indiana Sports Corp needed a modern, mobile‑first website that could match the energy and scale of the sporting events it brings to Indianapolis. The previous website was more than seven years old and required developer support for even basic updates; the small, multi‑role marketing team needed integrated tech they could fully manage themselves. Granicus (Simpleview) delivered a design that is built for storytelling and supported by digital accessibility, online visibility, and better event content.

SITUATION

The seven-year site itch

Indiana Sports Corp, the first sports commission in the nation and a driving force behind major sporting events in Indianapolis, faced a challenge familiar to many small but mighty teams: an outdated website that no longer reflected their brand, their impact, or the fast‑paced digital expectations of today’s audiences.

Key pain points of the previous site included:

• Outdated technology: The site was more than seven years old and faced functionality losses over time.
• Poor user experience: It was not designed with a mobile‑first experience in mind.
• Lack of brand clarity: Users couldn’t easily understand what the organization was or what it did.
• Limited capabilities: Web updates that should have been simple required developer hours; even embedding a video needed service support.

With an accelerated timeline and the need to launch before year‑end, the team needed a platform with robust integrations and a partner who understood event‑driven organizations.
 

SOLUTION

The hat-trick: discovery, design, and training

Though Indiana Sports Corp is not a traditional destination marketing organization, the team found Granicus Destinations to have a deep understanding of destination marketing — plus a powerful, ready‑to‑use content management system (CMS). Granicus Destinations produced a mobile‑first redesign completed within a fast‑moving implementation process and supported by thorough discovery, design, and training.

To start, the design team immersed themselves in Indiana Sports Corp’s brand guide and existing assets — producing a highly visual, energetic design that Celeste Ballou, senior vice president of marketing for Indiana Sports Corp, said “feels like stepping into a sporting event.”

CMS tools — like integrated digital accessibility via AudioEye — were launched roughly eight weeks faster than a typical timeline, thanks to a clear roadmap and responsive collaboration. “Onboarding was great,” said Ballou. “The team gave a thorough discovery session of what we needed to do, and we quickly started rolling with their recommendations. They were really in line with what we were hoping to achieve, so things were smooth right from the beginning.”

AudioEye also integrated seamlessly to improve accessibility across the site — a “set it and forget it” enhancement that required minimal effort from the team but delivered a big impact. “AudioEye was so simple,” said Ballou. “It was exactly what we needed, so that was a really great bonus. We've all decided it's really worth the investment.”

Thorough virtual training and detailed documentation allow Indiana Sports Corp to onboard new team members quickly. This level of training empowers the team to manage the site independently and maintain long‑term confidence in the CMS.

As part of the redesign and launch, Indiana Sports Corp also consolidated a separate Team Indiana website into IndianaSportsCorp.org. Previously hosted on a different platform, team‑ind.org is now fully integrated into the primary site — creating a more unified brand experience and enabling seamless integration of events and statewide partners.

The new site allows Indiana Sports Corp to:

• Feature statewide facilities and venues directly through its CRM.
• Replace static PDF downloads with dynamic, easily updated content that’s significantly more user‑friendly.
• Showcase partners while offering far greater flexibility and customization than the limited pages available previously.

Looking ahead, Indiana Sports Corp plans to enable an Extranet that will allow partners to update their own organizational information, as well as manage facility details, photos, and amenities — further streamlining content management and ensuring information stays accurate and current.

RESULTS

Built for fans

The result of this redesign project is a website that finally feels like a sporting experience — digitally dynamic, visually exciting, and built for fans on-the-go. In fact, eight of the previous site’s top 10 most visited pages are now webpages that did not exist before, meaning visitors can find the information they want quickly and easily.

The following boast-worthy results speak for themselves — and Indiana Sports Corp gained greater creative freedom, stronger search engine optimization (SEO) visibility, and improved online accessibility along the way:

• 10% increase in visits from organic search in the first three months of the new site.
• 11% increase in total site traffic compared to the same time last year.
• An average of 10 hours saved per week, with updates easier for internal team members to make.

Beyond the numbers, Indiana Sports Corp reports better visibility to a major revenue-generator: events. “Events are a big driver for us,” said Ballou. “On our old site, there was a page when an event was coming up but then it disappeared after the event and, once it was gone, you had no record of it. Now, we have a permanent home for our long-standing annual events and an event calendar function that drives a lot of traffic to our site. We even see spikes when those recurring events come around. Expanding that capability has been really great for us.”