On Friday, the Indianapolis Colts announced that the team’s training camp will be moved from Grand Park in Westfield, Indiana, to franchise headquarters at its W. 56th street, Indiana Farm Bureau Football Center beginning in the 2027 offseason.
This offseason will mark the team’s final training camp at Grand Park, at least as it stands.
As the team announcement notes, the Colts will join the NFL’s 26 other teams who host their team training camp at their own practice facilities—meaning there will be five or fewer clubs who have their training camps off-site in 2027.
Outside of a few aberration seasons (including during the COVID-19 pandemic), the Colts have typically held their team training camps off-site. They had been in Grand Park since 2018, excluding the 2020 COVID year.
The Colts have also hosted training camp at Anderson University and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.
Late team owner Jim Irsay, who passed away last May, always seemed to be a big proponent of hosting training camp off-site for additional exposure and having it open to the general public. It provided Colts fans, particularly families, a unique opportunity to see the team up close and personal, who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford the typical game day experience during the regular season.
The big loser in this could be Colts fans in that regard.
It’s quite possible that W. 56th Street may still be open to the general public in some regards, but I would have to think that their capacity could be more limited compared to Grand Park going forward. However, we’ll just have to wait and see for sure. Maybe there ultimately won’t be a meaningful capacity difference at all.
There’s probably some reasoning that the Colts are going to do this, along with 26 other NFL teams in the fairly near future, including costs, logistics, efficiency, and likely the quicker medical treatment component. However, let’s hope it’s not the end of what has been a longtime offseason perk of being Colts fans, live and readily accessible team training camp.
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