- Details
- By Tribal Business News Staff
- Economic Development
The Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians is expanding its presence in Southern California sports and entertainment, announcing a new retail partnership at Acrisure Arena that adds to a growing trend of tribal enterprises partnering with major sports and entertainment venues.
The tribe will bring its Shelee's Travel Center brand to multiple Grab N Go Market locations throughout the 11,000-seat Palm Springs venue, which serves as home to the American Hockey League's Coachella Valley Firebirds and has hosted major sporting events including NBA preseason games between the Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves, and the Lakers and Phoenix Suns in October 2024.
"The Tribe is excited to expand on our Founding Partnership with OVG / Acrisure Arena to include our newest Tribal brand, Shelee's Travel Center," said Chairman Darrell Mike of the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians. "We value our partnership and the opportunity it provides to share this unique, high-quality brand with our Coachella Valley community when visiting the Arena."
The expansion builds on a founding partnership established in May 2022, when Spotlight 29 Casino became the arena's exclusive casino sponsor. "We're both in the entertainment business, so we complement each other," Mike told The Desert Sun at the time. "We figured that there was a bigger vision.
The $300 million privately-funded arena, which opened in December 2022, represents a significant investment in the region's entertainment infrastructure through partners Oak View Group, Seattle Kraken, and Live Nation.
The expanded partnership announcement follows another recent business expansion by the tribe. In December, Twenty-Nine Palms opened its third Red Falcon Tribal dispensary in Yucca Valley, California, joining existing locations in Twentynine Palms and Coachella. The Coachella facility features what the tribe identifies as the first cannabis food and beverage lounge with outdoor patio space in the United States.
The Twenty-Nine Palms Band operates multiple enterprises including Spotlight 29 Casino, Tortoise Rock Casino, Shelee's Travel Center, Red Falcon and 29 Brews. The tribe's reservation spans two counties and is separated by Joshua Tree National Park.
The markets will debut January 8, coinciding with World Desert Day activities at the arena. The brand's design incorporates imagery of the desert tortoise, an endangered species native to the region, aligning with the event's focus on desert ecosystem awareness.
