Best-of list · Sports Guide
Eight ranked Indianapolis sports bars, from Tom's Watch Bar near Lucas Oil to the Broad Ripple rooms that carry every Colts and Pacers game.
The short answer
8 ranked rooms follow. How we picked is at the end of this guide.
Indianapolis is a Colts and Pacers town, and a Fever town now too, so the screens here stay busy from the NFL Sunday into the NBA and WNBA nights. A real game-day bar in this city clears four things: enough screens that no seat misses the play, the package access to find any out-of-market game, sound on the fixture that matters, and a crowd that turns a touchdown into a roar. Downtown holds the biggest rooms near Lucas Oil Stadium and Gainbridge Fieldhouse, with the Broad Ripple strip a short drive north. These eight get game day right.
These rooms sit steps from Lucas Oil Stadium and Gainbridge Fieldhouse, which makes them the pre-game and post-game base on a Colts or Pacers day.
How we picked
We rank Indianapolis sports bars on screen count and sightlines, package access for out-of-market games, sound policy, proximity to Lucas Oil Stadium and Gainbridge Fieldhouse, and the crowd. We checked every bar here against its own current listing and at least one independent source, including Visit Indy, Indianapolis Monthly and Life In Indy. For the wider picture, see our pillar guide to the best bars for watching the game, our ranking of the best cities for sports bars, and the Indianapolis sports bar hub.
Last reviewed June 9, 2026 by the barsforKings editorial desk.
Tom's Watch Bar downtown runs more than 100 screens with 360-degree viewing, so every seat reads the play. The District Tap and Brothers Bar and Grill also carry walls of screens, each able to run several out-of-market games at once.
Tom's Watch Bar and Kilroy's Bar and Grill sit blocks from Lucas Oil Stadium, which makes them the pre-game and post-game base on a Colts Sunday. Both fill early for a home game, so arrive before kickoff for a seat.
The downtown rooms near Gainbridge Fieldhouse carry every Pacers and Fever game. Tom's Watch Bar and Kilroy's both sit a short walk from the arena, with sound on the headline game and the out-of-market matchups on the side screens.
Yes. Average Joe's Sports Pub runs 18 televisions on the Broad Ripple strip, and Broad Ripple Tavern and The Bulldog both carry every game with a neighbourhood crowd a short drive north of downtown.
Tom covers sports bars and beer halls across the United States. He ranks game-day rooms on screen count, sightlines, and how a bar handles a Colts kickoff that clashes with the early NFL window.
Last reviewed 2026-06-09 · The editors recheck hours and closures against current local coverage.