Source: Indianapolis Star

Indianapolis' sports and convention board in coming months will head back to the negotiating table with the Indiana Pacers.

There's less than a year left in the Pacers' controversial three-year deal, struck in 2010 amid talk that the Pacers long had been losing money. The city's Capital Improvement Board agreed to pay the NBA team $30 million, in three installments, to offset the cost of operating Bankers Life Fieldhouse. It also spent $3.5 million on upgrades to the arena.

The CIB now has paid out all the money. The Pacers received the final $10 million installment Jan. 15, as spelled out in the agreement, which goes through June 30, 2013.

For the next round, the city's chief negotiator will be CIB President Ann Lathrop.

She said "hard negotiations" with the Pacers haven't begun yet, but she hopes to have a new deal hammered out before the current deal expires. Any terms are likely to meet some resistance in the City-County Council. The new majority Democrats were among the strongest critics of the 2010 pact.

The Pacers' overall tenant agreement at the fieldhouse lasts through 2019.

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