Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowOn Saturday, the University of Oregon defeated Penn State University 45-37 to win its first Big Ten Conference football championship in front of more than 67,000 fans at Lucas Oil Stadium in downtown Indianapolis.
Indianapolis is set to host the conference’s big game through 2028, and Indiana Sports Corp President Patrick Talty says the city has hopes to continue beyond that time.
“We’re hopeful that we can keep the Big Ten game here forever—the only place it’s ever been. We don’t want it to go anywhere else,” Talty said.
Indianapolis received a four-year extension earlier this summer to host the championship game. With the Big Ten’s addition of Oregon—along with other West Coast universities UCLA, USC and Washington—Talty said the competition to stay the host city was extremely stiff.
“The last round of bidding, we were lucky enough to get all four years that takes us all the way through 2028,” he said. “We thought we would be lucky if we got two years of those four. It really takes us executing this game at a high level every single year to show the Big Ten why Indianapolis is the best place to host this game.”
Talty, who spoke to Inside INdiana Business prior to this year’s championship, said the Big Ten wanted to make sure that the new teams received the same welcome that previous championship contenders know well.
“Of course [this year], we have Oregon in the championship game. They wanted to make sure Oregon got that Big Ten experience that the fans have been getting for the last 13 years,” he said. “They wanted that same feeling for those new teams, and that’s what they’re going to get. So they knew that, and that’s why they said, ‘Indy is the place for us to really continue to grow our championship football game.’”
And the competition for the Big Ten conference extends beyond football. Indianapolis is set to host the conference’s men’s basketball championships in 2025 and 2027, as well as the women’s basketball championships in 2025 and 2026.
However, Las Vegas will host the women’s tourney in 2027 and the men’s tourney in 2028. Talty said Vegas has been very vocal about going after events typically held in Indianapolis.
“They have the ability to build new facilities. They have got all kinds of things that they’ve been building. So we can’t compete with that,” he said. “Wo what we have to do is we have to make sure that we compete on the strengths that we have, and our strengths are we have a walkable, connected downtown campus. We can out welcome anybody … and we come together better as a community to execute and host people than any other city.”
Talty noted that having the undefeated Oregon in the championship game brought additional national exposure to Indianapolis.
“To be on prime time on CBS for the first time ever, to have all of those in and out commercial breaks to say you’re live from Indianapolis. I mean, people will hear that. They see it. They’ll see the the skyline shots. They’ll see the activities that happen during the day, and realize Indianapolis is pretty cool.”
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.
Keeping it unlikely. Best hope is for a rotation, which is also unlikely.
Indy needs to understand that all the recognition it gets for hosting BIG events and the money that’s generated has become the envy of other cities. It’s clear they’re out spending Indy on developments to host events and entertainment districts to entertain visitors. Indy has to provide more than Hoosier Hospitality as a talking point to keep sporting and convention events in the city. When the JW and other hoteliers complained about the new Hilton, they complained how it was being financed through the city and that its existence would over saturate the cities current inventory, yet they had no alternative plan to help keep Indys largest conventions from moving to other cities with more hotel rooms. With Indys succes comes others who want to take it from you. Indy just has to keep doing what it’s been doing but add more things to do and new exciting modern buildings to host events. I suggest turning the Union Station into a casino and building major amusement and water park by the old airport. Visitors need things to do besides eating at a typical restaurant.