Although Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels won’t unveil his Capital Improvement Board funding plan until later in the week, I have made an interesting discovery along the way.

As you know the CIB has an estimated $47 million shortfall, $15 million of that comes from the Indiana Pacers asking the CIB to takeover the operational costs of Conseco Fieldhouse.

I don’t have a problem with the CIB taking over Conseco as long as they get something in return, like any and all non-Pacer related revenue.  It turns out that number is somewhere between $7-9 million, according my extremely reliable sources. 

So now that means if it costs $15 million to operate Conseco, but the city can get all the non-Pacer/Fever related revenue then the real number is now somewhere between $6-8 million in operating expenses the city would have to find.

And if what I’m hearing about the plan  Governor Daniels will unveil later this week is true, that $6-8 million will be even smaller because the operations of Conseco will be consolidated with those of Lucas Oil and the Convention Center.

This is going to be interesting.