INDIANAPOLIS TO HOST FIRST SUPER BOWL - Ingles

Lucas Oil Stadium (right) will host Super Bowl XLVI on February 5, 2012, making it the first Super Bowl to be held in Indianapolis and the fourth time a cold-weather city will host the NFL’s championship game. The three Super Bowls played indoors in cold-weather cities were XVI (1/24/82) and XL (2/5/06) in Detroit and XXVI (1/26/92) in Minneapolis.

While preparations for Super Bowl XLVI started as soon as Indianapolis was awarded the bid in May 2008, the community has been building the stage for the big game for decades. The city has hosted events such as the 1982 National Sports Festival, the 1987 Pan Am Games, the Indianapolis 500, the Brickyard 400 and an unprecedented run of NCAA Final Fours.

Indianapolis has invested more than $3 billion in three years in its hospitality industry including a new stadium, an expanded convention center, a new airport, a 1,600-room hotel complex and major investments to existing downtown hotels. Lucas Oil Stadium, the home of the Colts, was named the best new sports venue in the country in 2008 by the Sports Business Journal.

The $720-million, seven-level, multi-purpose venue connects via skywalks to many downtown hotels and entertainment options, as well as the Indiana Convention Center, which will serve as the home to the NFL Experience.
The community is filled with excitement for Super Bowl XLVI. The 2012 Indianapolis Super Bowl Host Committee was able to quickly sign up 8,000 volunteers to help execute everything that surrounds the Super Bowl, including the Super Bowl Village.
The Super Bowl Village will transform the heart of downtown into a 10-day, three-block interactive festival of football. “It’s just going to bleed NFL,” says Host Committee chairman MARK MILES. “There will be a lot of people who won’t be able to go to the game, so we want this to be a place that Hoosiers can get into the ambiance of the game. And for our guests, we want to give them something to answer the question: ‘Why play in a cold-weather city?’”

A major part of the city’s bid to host the game is the “Legacy Project,” a lasting civic legacy that will leave an impact for years to
come. The project includes redevelopment of the city’s Near Eastside by rehabbing or building about 300 housing units and constructing an indoor training facility at Arsenal Tech High School.
“You could see the quality of the bid and the enthusiasm of this community,” NFL Commissioner ROGER GOODELL said after Indianapolis was awarded Super Bowl XLVI. “It was a big factor.

“We like coming to new cities and look forward to coming to Indianapolis.”

SUPER BOWL I-XLVI HOST CITIES
HOST CITY - SUPER BOWLS
South Florida 10
New Orleans 9
Los Angeles 7
Tampa Bay 4
San Diego 3
Arizona 2
Atlanta 2
Detroit 2
Houston 2
Indianapolis 1
Jacksonville 1
Minneapolis 1
North Texas 1
Stanford 1