Indianapolis is betting that an ambitious project to study safety issues at all levels of football, plus expanding and snazzing up the Super Bowl Village, will help win the 2018 Super Bowl. And Jeff Saturday will help deliver the message.
The city on Wednesday turned in a 900-page bid to host the 2018 Super Bowl that mentions the possibility of two new downtown hotels. Meanwhile, a Colts official said owner Jim Irsay plans to help lobby for the city’s bid at the May 19-21 NFL owners meeting.
Indianapolis officials plan to use a downtown light show and $30 million in pre-raised corporate cash to wow the NFL’s team owners into granting the Circle City the title of Super Bowl host for the second time in six years.
The game Feb. 2 and the week-long run-up to it will be fresh in the minds of the 32 NFL owners when they gather for their annual meeting in Atlanta in May to hear 2018 Super Bowl bid presentations from Indianapolis, Minneapolis and New Orleans.
The city will make its case at the May 19-21 owners’ meeting in Atlanta, alongside fellow finalists New Orleans and Minneapolis.
Indy joins Minneapolis and New Orleans as the three NFL cities invited to bid on the big game. The 2012 Super Bowl had a $176 million direct economic impact on the city, a study said.
League sources say Indianapolis and Dallas will be among the finalists announced Tuesday for the 2018 Super Bowl. That will pit Colts owner Jim Irsay against powerful Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
Indianapolis officials hope to include plans for a new downtown luxury hotel in their bid for the 2018 Super Bowl, but they’re not sure all the pieces for a deal—potentially on Pan Am Plaza—can be put together before a bid presentation for 32 NFL owners in May.
Indianapolis will seek to host its second Super Bowl in 2018 after a highly praised debut in 2012. “We’re going after the Super Bowl on the merits of our greatness and what we accomplished” in 2012, said Colts owner Jim Irsay.
Indianapolis-based MainGate beat out more than a dozen bidders to sell merchandise at 40 NFL-sanctioned hotels during the 10-day Super Bowl festivities next season.
Allison Melangton, CEO of the city’s 2012 Super Bowl Host Committee and leader of the 2018 Super Bowl Bid Committee, is promising to come up with another attention-grabber to deliver the bid early next May—if the city proceeds with a bid as expected.
Pregame emergency plans help MainGate Inc. go into scramble mode and keep Super Bowl merchandise shops at the Superdome open even while the lights were out.
Attendance this year for the Super Bowl-related NFL Experience and downtown village in New Orleans fell far short of what was achieved in Indianapolis last year.
Asking prices for tickets on the secondary market for Sunday’s Super Bowl in New Orleans are dramatically lower than they were last year when the game was in Indianapolis.
The 1985 NBA All-Star Game remains the only all-star game the league has held in Indianapolis—a curious omission given the city’s propensity for landing big-time events.
I must admit feeling a little wistful as I watched the run-up to Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans.
Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance will unveil two new ads during game-day coverage Sunday as part of its successful “Stop Knocking on Wood” marketing effort.
Thinking that brothers Jim and John Harbaugh might go head to head in this year’s Super Bowl, Roy Fox last year filed applications to register “Harbowl” and “Harbaugh Bowl” as U.S. trademarks.
The companies, newly appointed to handle merchandise sale for the mega-event, are bringing in talent from across the country to staff the game in New Orleans.
The state's labor landscape changed, and the housing market improved. Indianapolis basked in the glow of a flawless Super Bowl, and big-name CEOs were shown the door. IBJ's reporters and editors recall the year's biggest stories.
