INDIANAPOLIS -- A possible NBA lockout is looming over the final vote on a long-awaited deal reached to keep the Pacers in Indianapolis.

Under the deal announced Monday, the team will stay in Conseco Fieldhouse the next three seasons while the city pays $10 million a year for running the arena and pays for a minimum of $3.5 million in fieldhouse improvements, 6News' Norman Cox reported.

But the NBA's owners and players seem headed for labor warfare, with the owners seeking massive contract give-backs to stem financial losses that the players' union said it doesn't believe exist.

"I'm preparing for a lockout right now, and I haven't seen anything to change that notion," player's union director Billy Hunter said on Wednesday.

As the Capital Improvement Board prepares to vote on the Pacers agreement on Friday, President Ann Lathrop said she's not sure if the city would still have to pay the team its annual $10 million stipend if the 2011-12 season doesn't happen.

"Well, as you know, I'm an accountant, and I'm not a lawyer, and so I would want to sit down with my legal counsel and have that discussion as well," she said.

The agreement requires the Pacers to play at Conseco Fieldhouse and has a performance clause that states, "The CIB shall be entitled ... to obtain from a court ... injunctive relief for any breach or threatened or imminent breach."

But it doesn't state specifically whether the payments would be suspended if games were not played.

Fans were mixed on what the city's best course of action would be.

"I think they should hold onto (the money) just because, if there's no revenue coming in from the Pacers, I don't think they deserve the money," one man said.

"The city's paying the money, not for the Pacers, but for the building, for their deal they made with the building. So they owe that whether they play or not," a woman said.

Whatever remedy the city might have would require it to go to court.

Lathrop said she believes the city and the team could work out a deal in the case of a lockout.

"I think we've had a positive negotiation between the two of us, and we've proven that we've been able to come up with a solution that we think is good for both parties," she said.

Lathrop said halting the payment would probably be a consensus decision by the board.