KCRag Forum

http://www.indianapolissuperbowl.com/

You young guys and gals really really need to work on doing this for KC. It is absolutely wonderful what this is doing for Indianapolis. Granted Indy has a lot going for it when they were chosen a few years back. It was already vibrant with a vibrant DT, etc. I can just see the beautiful KC with this going on. KC is compact like Indy as well. Of course the big new downtown covered stadium was the clincher, but anything is possible in KC if the citizens get behind it.

It is just a beautiful experience for all of Indiana and has canceled out Indianapolis as "flyover country."

Every day is a new big time experience in Indy.

Granted, the weather has been perfect all these 2 weeks. Just crisp and cold enough to be perfect football weather.

Georgia Street was once again shoulder to shoulder at midnight last night with Superbowl folks. All the hotels in my town of Columbus (45 miles away) are booked solid and charging unGodly prices as well. (Imagine $250 plus for a Day's Inn 45 miles away)

The committee is saying that Dallas had 200k visitors for the whole thing. 2 days ago, they reported that Indy had already had 600k and game is still 2 days away. I don't pretend to know how they got their numbers, but I'm sure they are close. Everyone from private citizens like me (not a big sports fan anyway) to "My Man Mitch" is totally behind it and workiing hard every day. Their committee is composed of course as the movers and shakers of the area right down to the little old ladies all over the state knitting and crocheting the scarves for each and every Superbowl worker.

There are many many DT restaurants that are seeing HUGE business and have brought in wait staff helpers from all over the state. Huge revenues.

Just the DT excitement is amazing. For instance, Eli took his whole team to St. Elmos the night they arrived in Indy. St. Elmos is world renowned for it's shrimp cocktail and steaks and has been for like 100 years. Anyway, TV had them on the 11 oclock news showing all the big tough football players choking and squeaking through the shrimp cocktail which is good because of the sinus clearing sauce they make with fresh ground in the kitchen horseradish. It was a laughing till they cried good time for all of them. The zipline is a big success probably because it is affordable for most folks. Some of the other things have priced people out.

There are tons of free concerts and performances like Jimmy Fallon and Larry the Cable guy to name a few. I've forgotten the names of all the bands but there are like 4 concert stages set up for performances of all kinds. Every amenity of any kind is enjoying huge business.

The NFL has updated some school practice facilities to state of the art with new playing surfaces, buildings as needed, locker rooms, etc. No expenses barred. Those stadiums are now going back to their schools as a gift from the NFL. The NFL "owns" Lucas Oil Stadium and has for a couple of weeks now. No one in Indy has anything to do with what is going on there till SB is over.

Yeah-I could go on and on and I haven't even been there, I hate crowds, but I'm soooo impressed. It is truly awesome for Indy and the whole state.

The reason I say that you younger people need to get to work on this is because I recognize that it would be a huge long term undertaking from start to finish and a person my age might grow old too soon to see the fruits of labors. Older people have more experience, more contacts, as much fire and vision, but younger people have vision and are still receptive to learning curves and have enough stamina and energy to see something like this to it's grand finale.

Indy is perfectly suited for this - everything is centralized, they are a major convention city, and they have an indoor stadium. We have none of those things.

Glad you're having a great time. Everyone seems to be raving about what a wonderful job Indy is doing hosting this. Indy made a very concerted effort many years ago to be #1 at this type of thing and it seems like they are succeeding. I don't think KC should follow suit, but I think we do need to make a concerted effort at being #1 at something and start working toward that goal.

Strike it.

KCMax wrote:...but I think we do need to make a concerted effort at being #1 at something and start working toward that goal.

We have Ross Dress for Less. What more do you want?

Indianapolis provides a super lesson for Kansas City

This is Indianapolis’ big opportunity, and the people here know it. Pull this off and the league is sending messages that this won’t be their last Super Bowl. Restaurants are paying their best servers and bartenders overtime. Locals are proud to offer directions. The vibe here is nearly opposite of last fall, when I came for the Chiefs game.

This week, a Midwestern city with a bit of an inferiority complex is using an international sporting event to show the world it’s more than its sleepy reputation.

In July, another Midwestern city with a bit of an inferiority complex will use another international sporting event to show the world it’s more than its sleepy reputation.

You might have heard about that one.

I would not be surprised if some KC officials made it to Indy to try to learn key ways at having a successful event.

I forgot to mention part of my reason. I remember when I still lived there everyone was wanting a DT stadium. That stadium is one of the reasons for it being a long term goal.

Go Eli!!!!

Indy is a good example of what you can do when you put all of your eggs in one basket.
The outlying urban neighborhoods range from run down to barely average midwestern urban. There is something to be said for a solid downtown, when most metropolitan residents will never visit neighborhood nodes anyway.

Indy has what ducks it has in a row. Most other midwestern cities have more ducks, but they need to be lined up.

There really is nothing to make me want to visit Indy very often, even though it's right up the road. The gap is closing between downtown Indy and say downtown KC and downtown STL.

However, kudos to Indianapolis for doing the right things, and that's what matters. It sounds like this superbowl is going to be a smashing success, and it's great to have it in a midwestern downtown instead of a sunbelt sprawler.

Here are a few reasons for the success in Indy.

http://hosted2.ap.org/CARIE/a4cb5a6027c ... b3b5f6c294

The whole city got behind it from before the beginning. A citywide common goal.

Great for Indy. I don't think it should be a KC goal. Maybe in the future if arrowhead is rebuilt from the ground up this could be a factor in the rebuild.

Why would it need to be completely rebuilt? I think that would be tragic, honestly.

totally agree. I'm saying if it came to that for whatever reason maybe we consider a super bowl as a factor but honestly that should be pretty low on our goal as a metro area.

Super bowls belong in warm weather destinations if you ask me.

Huh. I've always thought that having the super bowl mostly in warm weather was lame.

Just personal preference. If the chiefs ever go to the super bowl again as a fan I'd be much more excited to go to the game in new Orleans or Miami in February vs Detroit or Indy.

As a fan you're not going to the game anyway

That's a myth. Unless you mean because I'm a chiefs fan. Lol.

It's a great rah-rah, anecdotal story about the community making it a success because everyone was behind it - but I don't buy it. I'm not saying that community support wasn't great - but they had 10K volunteers in Jacksonville - and that Superbowl had horrible reviews across the board. Community support isn't what pushes something like this over the top - it's the cost of entry. To even have a chance at success, you need that.

However, I'm still of the belief that a centralized downtown near the stadium is the key. I could be wrong, but we could have all of the community support in the world, and it would still be a transportation disaster. Especially if there's inclement weather.

Will be interesting to see how the Superbowl in NYC plays out. If they pull it off AND the weather's bad - could be interesting for KC. If people think the weather ruins the experience, we're going to have to get a dome/indoor option.

Indy did luck out in that the weather was pretty nice all week for the outdoor fan events. Dallas and Houston both hosted recently and were plagued with unseasonably cold weather.

I agree with WSPanic, having things centralized was huge. But it also helps that the ethic of the city seems to be to cater to tourism and large events like this, and I believe that was a concerted effort the city made decades ago.

Indy seems almost to be a midwestern model of pursuing tourism in a similar way to what San Antonio has done. It's like they said, "Hey, we have this race track... let's take it over the top!"

.