Super Dilemma XLV
As the city of Indianapolis puts together its materials to bid on Super Bowl XLV (45), there is one big hurdle the city will have to overcome, where the teams will practice. I ran into Mayor Bart Peterson tonight and he confirmed something I had thought for the past couple days.
Hotel space, tax incentives, places to party are relatively easy to come by. The big challenge will be finding a place for the teams to practice before the Super Bowl. You can forget about Lucas Stadium. The way I understand it, no team gets to practice on the actual field. There is the Colts facility on 56th Street, but it may not be up to par for what the two teams will need.
So the real challenge for the city will be where to get people to play. As it will be the middle of winter in the Midwest, any outside facility is out of the question. In addition there is no University infield to play on. IU and Purdue are too far away to send a football team to practice. So with all the challenges the city faces to get a Super Bowl, the biggest appears to be something a simple as finding a place for folks to practice for a few days.
