Indianapolis Capitols to Play Inaugural 2026 Season at Grand Park Sports Campus

Photo by Marc Viquez, Stadium Journey

Indianapolis’s newest football team has found a new home. The Indianapolis Capitols of the Continental Football League will call the Droplight Grand Park Sports Campus home for its inaugural season in 2026.

The 400-acre sports campus is located in the northwest suburb of Westfield and has 31 multi-purpose fields, 26 diamonds, a 377,000-square-foot Events Center with 3 indoor full-size synthetic fields, office space, and a full-service restaurant and bar. It is also home to the Indy Eleven women’s USL team and the Indiana Valor women’s football team.

The Caps will play a 6-week schedule, followed by two weeks of playoffs. Additional details regarding the team’s inaugural season schedule, ticket information, and community initiatives will be announced in the coming weeks. The season is expected to start in May.

The original Indianapolis Capitols played for two seasons, capturing two division titles and the league championship in 1969. The team played a 12-game schedule from August to November and even formed a basketball team that played during the offseason. However, with the team having lost $200,000 in two years, it dropped out of the CoFL and joined the Midwest Football League in 1970 after a majority of the teams were located west of the Mississippi River.

The Caps suspended operations on March 14, 1971, after a pledge to sell 5,000 season tickets resulted in only 600 orders received. Minor league football continued in town in 1972 with the expansion of the Indianapolis Caps, later renamed the Indy Caps, from 1973 to 1974. After two years without football, the Indy Superstars and later the Indy Kaps played in the MWL in 1977 and 1978.

As Stadium Journey previously reported, the league will feature a hybrid of American and Canadian football rules, featuring the first three quarters based on NFL rules and the fourth quarter, utilizing Canadian football rules of three downs, one-yard neutral zone, open-field kick, and the “rouge.”

The team will be part of the four-team Northern Division with the Ohio Valley Ironmen, Cincinnati Dukes, and Michigan Arrows. 

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Follow all of Marc’s stadium journeys on Twitter @ballparkhunter and his YouTube channel. Email at Marc.Viquez@stadiumjourney.com