High attendance rates and naming rights changes made for a busy 2025 at the Iowa Events Center. 

Announcements for this year’s headlining events will start in the coming weeks, adding to already-announced headliners like rock band Journey and comedian Nate Bargatze. Chris Connolly, general manager of the Iowa Events Center, said the venue has a positive economic impact on the region and its events put Des Moines in the ring with major metros. 

“We’re punching above our weight. Des Moines isn’t competing against Cedar Rapids. We’re competing with Minneapolis and Chicago and Omaha,” he said. 

Visitors came from 42 states to attend the sold out UFC Fight Night at the Casey’s Center in May. The Sandhagen vs. Figueiredo bout was one of the record-setting events for the Casey’s Center in 2025 with 15,000 tickets sold. 

“Between concessions and catering and restaurant sales, we sold over $600,000 in food and beverages. That is an arena record so unreal. It was a great event and another cool thing to bring to Des Moines,” Connolly said. 

It took many partners to make a night like that a reality, he said.

Polk County, which owns the Iowa Events Center, has continued to maintain and upgrade the venue, which is not always the case in other cities, he said. Catch Des Moines, the region’s convention and visitors bureau, helped organize hotel bookings. 

“Catch Des Moines was pivotal in us being able to land this,” Connolly said. “They handled all the hotel accommodations, and that was also a humongous club volleyball weekend in Des Moines, so it’s not like there were a ton of hotels. There was a lot of maneuvering to be done, and Catch Des Moines was all over it.” 

Catch Des Moines also identified a sports tourism grant for the event, which was awarded to the events center, and was used to create event specific signage. 

“The event sold so well we took a lot of that money and basically put it into signage to really outfit the entire arena and the area around the arena that said ‘Hey, UFC is here.’”

Paul McCartney’s tour stop at the events center on Oct. 14 was another record-setter. 

“It’s the third time he’s played our arena,” he said. “One of the fun facts is he was the first concert officially announced at Wells Fargo Arena back in 2005 and he was also the first concert officially announced [after the arena was renamed] as the Casey’s Center in 2025, so that’s pretty neat. That was also a record-breaker in that ticket sales grossed over $3.2 million.”

A third 2025 Iowa Events Center record setter was comedian Shane Gillis’ performance on May 31, marking the most ticket sales at the arena for a comedian with 15,884 paid tickets, Connolly said. 

The events center hosted nine major conventions and conferences that originated from Catch Des Moines’ work and bookings, he added. 

“It’s a big deal for us, it really is,” Connolly said. “Not only does it fill our convention center, but it also fills the downtown, so that’s a big deal.”

In August, there was a day when the food and beverage team served 7,000 breakfasts and 7,000 lunches in the same day for a private event. The World Food Prize hosted its dinner in the events center ballroom with more than 1,000 guests, with a family-style meal, which is challenging to serve. 

“It was a massive challenge for us, but it went over really, really well,” he said. 

October was an especially busy month for the events center, with 53 events between the arena and convention center. 

“In Casey’s Center alone, we had eight events. We had five live shows; Adam Sandler, Gabriel, Iglesias, Paul McCartney, Jonas Brothers and Brandon Lake. We had three Iowa Wild games, kicking off their season,” he said. “Our total revenue for that month was over $2.9 million at the convention center.”

Naming rights

Not only did the Iowa Events Center turn 20 years old in 2025, it found two new naming rights partners. For its first two decades, the arena was Wells Fargo Arena. In July, it became the Casey’s Center. At the start of 2025, the exhibit hall formerly known as Hy-Vee Hall became the EMC Expo Center. 

EMC, which had been a partner in a smaller way, stepped up its participation for $6.28 million and Casey’s bought the naming rights to the arena for $18.3 million.  

“There’s a lot that goes into that and we had a great transition going from Hy-Vee to EMC,” he said. 

“Everybody knows Casey’s pizza, and I can tell you that from July until now, we’re up about 50% in our pizza sales with Casey’s pizza, and it’s been unbelievable. Not only did they jump in as a naming rights partner, but they also invested in a new concession stand, which is brand new on the south concourse.”

Community support and sustainability

The Iowa Events Center gives back to the community through food donations and charity contributions. Last year, they donated more than 27,000 pounds of food to local organizations to fight food insecurity. 

“That is super important to us,” Connolly said. “We’re catering events, conferences, conventions, weddings, dinners, so to have that program in place, we feel like that’s a big deal.”

The events center’s charity committee last year gave $35,000 to 70 organizations. 

“That comes in the forms of donating tickets, silent auction items, space, monetary contributions and then just volunteer time. That’s a big deal, and that’s one of the things that’s contracted with the county; they expect us to be active in the community, and I feel like we’ve done a pretty good job.”

Meeting sustainability goals is also important to the events center. 

“In the venue management world, there’s a GOAL (Green Operations & Advanced Leadership) program that we adhere to, and it judges us,” Connolly said. 

“Our water usage is way down, events are way up. Our LED lighting, electricity usage is way more efficient. Our recycling and diversion from landfill increased 16%. The amount of recycling that we do, the program that we have, sustainability, is very, very important to our company, and we take it seriously.”

What to expect in 2026

While big event announcements will be released in the coming weeks, events like Journey and Bargatze are already attracting attention. Bargatze’s show could be another record setter, Connolly said. 

This is also the last year that the Iowa high school boys’ state basketball tournament will host its games at the events center. Starting next year, it will be at Hilton Coliseum in Ames. 

“It’s a bummer that we’re losing that. But while that is going up to Ames, as long as I’ve been here, the first two weeks of March have been taken up with state basketball tournaments, and now with boys’ basketball going … it will open the doors to other potential events,” he said. 

“Some of the stuff that we’re working on with Catch Des Moines are some potential postseason conference basketball tournaments, wrestling tournaments and maybe even NCAA hockey at some point. While one door closes, I think another door opens where we get a little bit of flexibility.”

Convention center staff have been working with Catch Des Moines on two big events for this year: the 62nd Annual International Women’s Conference Feb. 12-15 and the 2026 Women of the ELCA Triennial Gathering in July. 

“Looking at all of our opportunities, we feel like it’s going to be a really strong year, and there’s a lot of opportunities that are out there,” he said.