For more on the Indianapolis Colts, go to Stampede Blue. You can also head over to SB Nation's main NFL hub at SBNation.com/NFL.
Feb 4, 2012 -
This has been an interesting week. I live about 2 miles north of downtown Indianapolis, and the buzz emanating from the south is palpable. Even in the unseasonably warm (for February) weather seems to be energizing the entire city. Traffic on Meridian Street in front of my apartment has been heavy, but moving as people find their way into downtown. Even before the game it is safe to call the Super Bowl a success in Indianapolis.
On Monday my wife and I went to the NFL Experience, which has been the only down side to the entire week. If I had one complaint, it is that they don't publish the list of who is actually appearing on the Autograph stage. Instead, you get a cryptic "Players making an appearance in and around the NFL Experience" message on both the website and the phone list. Some of these players making an appearance are ones I am greatly interested in seeing on the autograph stage, but I can't afford $25 to see if they might be on that stage.
That is only a minor blip on an otherwise perfect performance by the city of Indianapolis. The now famous zip line will likely be a feature at all future Super bowls, as will the idea of a downtown Super Bowl village. The crowds on every night of the week are a testament to the wonderful job the city of Indianapolis has done in hosting this event. Really, we shouldn't be that surprised, either. The city hosts the Indianapolis 500 every year, has hosted the Pan Am Games (a mini-Olympics) and six Final Fours (and counting). A Super Bowl was only the next logical step.
Best of all, it has not meant a major disruption of life for the locals. My wife works in the immediate downtown area, but aside from slightly delayed bus rides home she has had no problems with the crowds during the day. Downtown has become a perfect mesh of Super Bowl joy and real life by the working locals, with each group embracing the other.
Indianapolis embraces big events. They have already been light years more successful than Dallas in 2011, and not just because of the weather. All of the money from Jerry Jones did nothing to prevent an abject disaster. Even the game itself couldn't be pulled off without the ticket controversy that left hundreds of fans unhappy.
The success of Indianapolis already has city leaders thinking of a second bid:
It's true that when money is the only factor, the game winds up in warm-weather cities with larger stadiums. But those behind this year's game have always seen it as something more: an opportunity to prove a city once known as Naptown is ready to host events on a global stage. Including future Super Bowls.
City leaders will have to find a way to generate more revenue for the NFL and its 32 team owners for Indianapolis to muscle its way into a regular Super Bowl rotation. Lucas Oil Stadium has fewer seats than regular-rotation Super Bowl stadiums in Florida and Arizona. And the bid for last year's Super Bowl, in Dallas, promised the league $20 million more than Indianapolis could muster, most of it thanks to the Cowboys' 103,000-seat stadium.
Local reporter Bob Kravitz, often a curmudgeon in his own right, gives his highest praise possible:
How good has it been so far? It has been this good:
Reporters aren't complaining.
Except maybe about some sketchy wireless service in the media room. But reporters -- and I am at the front of the line -- are notorious complainers. We can show you Olympic gold medals for complaining, most of them from the 1996 Games in Atlanta.
Even Bill Simmons, a New England Patriots fan and notorious Colts hater, was impressed in his Friday mailbag column:
So spending Super Bowl week here is totally fine with me. Maybe it doesn't pass the Vegas/New Orleans/San Diego/Miami test, but f*** it - everything is within walking distance from downtown (including the stadium), the locals couldn't be nicer (or happier for everyone to be here), the weather came through (at least so far), and if I could pick any city outside the Big Four for one random Super Bowl, why wouldn't it be this one? As my buddy House said, "It just feels alive - it's like surround sound. Since the moment we got here, I felt like something was going on in every direction." Isn't that what a Super Bowl should feel like? I couldn't be happier to be here. So there.
It is safe to call the Indianapolis Super Bowl a rousing success, and it is my bet that the city will bid on (and win) another one within the next 15 years unlike previous cold-weather locales Dallas, Minneapolis, and Detroit. The locals have been more than accommodating, and given the city's history with hosting the Final Four there shouldn't have been any doubt about pulling this off.
For more on the Indianapolis Colts, go to Stampede Blue. You can also head over to SB Nation's main NFL hub at SBNation.com/NFL.
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