How does Indy compare with other Super Bowl cities?
February 26th, 2008 by Mark MilesIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Last week, I had the honor of sharing the podium with Mayor Greg Ballard, Lieutenant Governor Becky Skillman, Jim Irsay and John Lechleiter of Eli Lilly & Company as we made it official… as Mayor Ballard said, “Our hat is in the ring” - Indianapolis will bid for the 2012 Super Bowl.
We came within two votes of winning the 2011 game last year, so we’re starting from a solid foundation. But there’s always room for improvement, and we want all of the ideas and input we can gather to build a winning bid. This is a region-wide (even statewide) effort, and this website is an important way for us to engage the community in a productive discussion. I’m not the most tech-savvy person you’ll ever run across, but I do know this is a great way to reach a lot of smart people quickly.
This blog is my own way of sharing ideas and updates.
I’m excited to help keep our dialogue moving, and especially to get your ideas on issues like the downtown Super Bowl Village and the civic legacy we want the game to leave for our own citizens. (We’re already getting a lot of feedback on the legacy project and want to make this an ongoing online discussion – it’s very important to us. Watch this space for more.)
Each week, we’ll be posting a new question on our online forums (here and on our partner sites) – this week, we start at the “big picture” level by asking about your experiences with other major sports events outside of Indianapolis: What did other cities offer that we should try to emulate, and what advantages do we have that we should try to exploit?
A couple of personal observations: I lived in Jacksonville when they hosted the Super Bowl in 2005, and attended the game in Phoenix a few weeks ago, and saw a couple of similar issues.
In Jacksonville, the downtown area doesn’t really have a great diversity of restaurants, clubs or other recreational options – it’s mostly the business district and the St. John’s River, with the stadium located to the east and the beach communities about 15 miles further out. So while the community embraced the Super Bowl, it was difficult to build the kind of “village” or celebration that was centrally located and really took advantage of all of the area’s assets. It just wasn’t built that way, even though the city and NFL did put on some great events and got the citizens involved as much as possible. They also did an outstanding job on the public transportation side, and sweeping renovations to the Gator Bowl enhanced the venue and the festivities surrounding the stadium.
In Phoenix, the metropolitan area is sprawled over such a wide geography that it was literally possible to be in one part of town and have no idea that the city was hosting the Super Bowl. The region has a lot to offer, but again, it was difficult to build any kind of ‘festival’ atmosphere.
To me, this points to a key competitive advantage for Indy – we have a uniquely compact, convenient and connected downtown, with Lucas Oil Stadium easily accessible to plenty of hotels, dining and entertainment options.
We’ll dive deeper into how we can leverage our downtown into a great Super Bowl Village and community celebration…for now, let’s focus on what we can learn from our peers, good and bad. What great or not-so-great sports or festival experiences have you had outside Indianapolis, and what can we learn from them?
Mark Miles
President & CEO of Central Indiana Community Partnership
ContactUs@OUR2012SB.com
What Makes Indy a great city for 2012 Superbowl?
1) Hospitality, Hospitality, Hospitality. - We know how to make guests feel at home no matter what size the crowd.
2) Logistics - We manage the traffic flow, and people movement for the two largest sporting events worldwide, and while it is hectic, those events do not shut down our city.
3) We will have more than enough hotel rooms
4) Lots of non football stuff - In addtion to the museums already mentioned add in the NCAA headquarters and th Indy Speedway Museum. Great local music and theatre venues, and several locations IE the Rathskeller and Indiana Roof which can easily handle very large parties.
5) Great local resturants that are used to handling the crowds ( at all price points)
6) Did I mention our Hospitality and a volunteer spirit. We coordinate the efforts of thousands of volutneers to make the Indy 500 and the month long celebration flow. Those people will turn out to help coordinate this as well.
7) We are a city that loves our sports
What she said!
Let’s not forget the ability to walk inside in the core downtown area from parking to hotels to restaurants to shopping to convention center to stadium in the event the weather doesn’t cooperate.
I attended the Super Bowl in Detroit two years as the first trial run in a “cold weather,” city. While the NFL Experience was great, and the game was ok, the city and atmosphere was very sterile and corporate feeling. To me the Super Bowl is a celebration of NFL football that should be embraced by the fans. The city should be transformed much in the same way the Cubs transform Wrigley Ville 82 times a summer, but on a much larger scale. As I lifelong resident of Indiana; I have witnessed over the last 8 years the ability of the Colts, Manning, and Dungy to transform this state from hoops, hoops, hoops, to dare I say a football state first and foremost. I agree with Lorraine’s assessment of Indianapolis’s ability to logistically handle the Super Bowl and our proven track record of handling “Big Events”. Beyond that, our hunger and love of the Colts is the perfect marketing tool and showcase city for the NFL, football, the fans, and the Super Bowl.
The comments thus far are on the right path. I agree with Lorraine in the fact that hospitality and the interest of the public is another key factor for Indianapolis and Indiana in general. I also agree with Greg’s comment about the Super Bowl being “embraced by the fans.” This city and state will rally behind their leaders and the event.
One additional element that might be featured would be the innovation and ideation that will obviously flow out of the logistics and how the downtown will be transformed. It is one thing to say that the downtown is tight and could be extremely convenient for the attendees, but is there even more that needs to be shown and proven to get that benefit across?
No city does events like Indy. The whole city gets involved, whether it’s by volunteering, participating in events or simply warmly greeting everyone who comes to town. The city is a well-oiled event machine where a major event isn’t seen as a nuisance or traffic problem, but as a community-wide opportunity to show off Hoosier hospitality.
I think it is clear that the 2012 Super Bowl decision comes down to Indianapolis vs. New Orleans, the so-called sentimental favorite. While The Big Easy is deserving of special recognition in Katrina’s wake, I’m of the opinion that Indy is better suited, prepared and committed. With the persuasive leadership of Mark Miles and the Indy Super Bowl team I believe that the NFL will come to understand this and make the correct decision. New Orleans? Soon, but not 2012. Indy is it.
I think something unique to Indiana we should have perform, would be the dance team featured on America’s Best Dance Crew. Team Breaksk8, from Kokomo IN, it would definitely add some hoosier flavor and those guys are amazingly talented on their rollerskates. Theyve performed numerous times for the pacers. I think the city should really bring in some star power for the event. Big musical acts, big performances. The buildings need special lighting, a vegas look, with an indy feel.
I agree with the majority of what people are saying about Indy and why the 2012 Super Bowl should be here. We are all preaching to the choir because we all believe Indy is the place. Instead, we should be preaching to the decision makers,i.e. NFL Owners.
Why aren’t we doing Personalized Marketing Campaigns towards these people? Let’s tell them why we think the 2012 Super Bowl should be in Indy, listen to their concerns, and then follow up and put those concerns to rest.
I do this every day for my clients, why aren’t we taking this approach for the decision makers?
i also agree that indy is a very deserving city it host the final 4 the indy 500 the brickyard 400 it is very capable of handleing a large crowd and it is a very friendly city lets get a bowl here go colts
The one aspect that needs to be looked at is public transportation between different events and hotels. The more accessible public buses are during Super bowl week the less use of individual cars and less congestion.
This has a couple advantages. First, less congestion, but also more environmentally friendly.
The next thing that is important is to make sure the transportation is handicap friendly. Handicap parking needs to be available and with an appropriate amount. When a person needs the extra help because of a disability it is frustrating when you can’t enjoy it because of the lack of accessibility.
It would not hurt to have a few people that help people with disabilities specifically make their plans if asked and to have the information on what ever website is set up. These people need to be disabled themselves or check out accomidations in a wheelchair so they see how accessible things are. If you had a list of friendly hotels restaurants and other activities that would take away some of the anxiety someone with a disability has to deal with when traveling.
Also remember not all people who are disabled are in a Wheelchair and long distance of walking or many steps are not something they can handle.