Did you know there’s a big football game on Sunday night? If not, you should come check out the party in Indianapolis. Our city is absolutely buzzing with the excitement of hosting its first ever Super Bowl!
The festivities began last week, about 10 days before the big game. Being the huge sports fans we are, Chris and I wanted to check out the activities downtown. But our schedules have been pretty full, and we both were a little apprehensive about the large crowds and high prices for food and parking.
On Wednesday, Chris made an executive decision that we were going downtown Thursday night after work. He already arranged for Mommaw and Poppaw Clark to watch Avery so Chris and I could have a date night in Super Bowl Village. After he went to all of that trouble, I couldn’t say no to such a special date night!
Chris scoped out the parking situation and even went online to reserve a spot for less than $15. That was a very reasonable price, considering the average price for parking we saw was probably $20 or $25. After I picked up Chris near his office, we parked on the south side of downtown (easy exit to home) and headed north on Meridian Street to Monument Circle.
Here is our first view of the Circle from Meridian Street, a portion of which is closed to vehicle traffic. As you’ll see later, many downtown streets are closed, causing headaches for normal downtown traffic but creating a festival-type atmosphere for Super Bowl guests.
Super Bowl village features several concert stages. Here is the largest one, just outside Bankers Life Fieldhouse. (Until recently it was called Conseco Fieldhouse.) These concert stages have multiple performances each night and feature many popular and well-known bands and musicians.
What’s a Super Bowl party without Elmo in a Peyton Manning jersey? This was a bizarre sight. We think Avery would have really enjoyed seeing Elmo.
One of the key attractions is this set of Roman numerals on display on the Circle. Of course, XLVI stands for the 46th Super Bowl.
You can faintly see the lights on the Roman numerals. We were at the Circle before sunset so it’s difficult to see how these numerals are lit up.
After enjoying dinner on the Circle, we walked back south to Super Bowl village and the Indiana Convention Center. (We didn’t drop the 50 bucks required for the NFL Experience at the Convention Center. I’m sure it would have been a lot of fun, but that was a little out of our price range!) I love all the signage downtown. Everywhere you look, buildings are covered with football-themed photos and Super Bowl advertisements.
One of the most popular activities is the zipline on Capitol Avenue. It’s a pretty unique attraction for just $10. The pre-order tickets sold out very quickly, as do the daily tickets. So no zipline for us!
You’re allowed to ride the zipline in just about any way you want to. Everyone was pretty traditional except for this brave young woman who did it head down!
You can’t have an event in Indianapolis without some connection to the Indianapolis 500. For the Super Bowl, IndyCar teams donated 33 cars, the same number that participate in the 500 each year. Thirty-two of the cars were decorated for each of the NFL teams, and the final car is a Super Bowl car. Last week all 33 Super Cars were lined up on the Circle. But now they’re spread throughout Central Indiana.
While this looks like a crazy mass of people, we actually never had any problems with unruly crowds. The foot traffic moved pretty well, and people weren’t the idiots they usually are in crowds (but we went pretty early in the evening before the wild partiers came out). We actually have more problems walking around at the 500 than we did last night!
Our final loop back to the car included walking by the ESPN studios at Pan Am Plaza. Above is the main set. Since it was so late in the day, there weren’t any live shows or TV personalities available. Come to think of it, we didn’t have a single celebrity spotting the whole time we were downtown. Correction…we saw local “celebrity” Anne Marie Tiernon. But she wasn’t exactly the type of celebrity we hoped to run into.
Here is another ESPN studio. This is where Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic broadcast their show each morning this week.
The crowds started growing by the time we walked back to the car. But it was a really enjoyable experience.
We passed Lucas Oil Stadium on our way to the car. I really need to learn how to take better pictures in the dark!
And we can’t have a date night without taking our famous self-portrait.
I am so proud of Indianapolis. We live in a fabulous city that really knows how to throw a party for the world. All the talk around here is that everyone is pleased with this event, from the NFL to the planning committee to foreign journalists. Let’s hope Sunday brings an exciting and memorable game!