Indianapolis goes from 'no place' to spotlight thanks to Super Bowl

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INDIANAPOLIS - When Bill Benner first went to work at the Indianapolis Star in 1969, he had a choice of three restaurants downtown for dinner. Not three that he liked. Three, total.

"Now there are 200 in the downtown core, and probably another 200 if you go out a few blocks to Mass(achusetts) Avenue or to Fountain Square," Benner said. "It's just been an amazing transformation for this city."

In the coming week, Indianapolis will receive a global spotlight as next Sunday it hosts Super Bowl XLVI, the most-watched single sporting event in the world.

Benner, once a sports columnist who now works as an associate commissioner for the Horizon League, is one of the more than 12,000 volunteers making sure that Indiana's state capital puts its best foot forward. His office at Pan Am Plaza is in the shadow of Lucas Oil Stadium, where the game will be played, and overlooks Georgia Street, where the Super Bowl Village fan experience will unfold every day.

"I'm literally at ground zero, with the ESPN (broadcast) set right below me," he said. "And it's the neatest thing I've ever been involved in."

It's been a long time coming for a city once derided as "India-No-Place" and "Nap Town."

"If you were in Indianapolis in the 1970s, then came back today, you wouldn't believe it's the same city," said Fred Glass, a native son who now is the athletic director at Indiana University in Bloomington. "And it's all because of some leaders who had a vision and wouldn't take no for an answer."

In large part, the new Indianapolis was built on the backs of athletics -- just as the old Indianapolis, every Memorial Day weekend, was locked in on the massive West Side Motor Speedway for the Indy 500 car race (and, now, the summertime Brickyard 400 NASCAR race).

Glass, familiar with the players, can tick off the names of mayor after mayor and their roles in the city's growth.

There was John Barton, a Democrat who established the Indiana Convention Center. Richard Lugar, now a Republican U.S. senator, who championed Market Square Arena to bring the NBA's Indiana Pacers from the State Fairgrounds to downtown. William Hudnut, a Republican who pushed through the Hoosier (later RCA) Dome and brought the Colts to the city. Stephen Goldsmith, a Republican who brought about Conseco (now Bankers Life) Fieldhouse and finished up Circle Center Mall. Bart Peterson, a Democrat who set the stage for Lucas Oil Stadium and the expansion of the convention center. And now Greg Barton, a Republican who gave the final push for a just-completed major hotel complex.

With each new facility came bigger and better events -- and more to do around downtown.

There was the National Sports Festival in 1982. The arrival of the Colts in 1984. The Pan Am Games Competition in 1987. NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four tourneys in 1980 (at Market Square), 1991, 1997, 2000 and 2006 (at The Dome), 2010 (at Lucas Oil) and now guaranteed at least every five years, next in 2015, along with regional tournaments and women's events. The Big Ten Conference men's and women's basketball championships, and, this year, the inaugural Big Ten football title game.

With more events came more hotels, culminated with the opening last year of the blue-glass-faced JW Marriott with its 1,000 rooms and 25 luxury suites.

The Super Bowl, though, remained the biggest star high in the sky -- one that most Indianapolis residents believed was out of reach.

"We call it the Indy-feriority complex," said Benner. "We'd be talking to national media, to team owners who talked about how much they enjoy coming to the city for Colts games and for Final Fours and for Big Ten tournaments, how they like how the city works and that they were all for it, but some of our own populace somehow didn't feel that we were worthy of putting on the game.

"Sometimes people want to look back instead of looking forward, so there were attitudes that had to change."

It didn't help when, in Indy's first Super Bowl bid, headed by Glass in 2008, the city came up two votes short of approval. By a vote of 17-15, NFL owners awarded the 2011 game -- Super Bowl XLV -- to Dallas, which not only also had a new stadium but had 30,000 more seats.

"We came within a vote or two of getting there, and with their extra seats and extra suites we had a $20 million wind in our face," said Glass. "But at the same time, we were strongly encouraged by the owners and (NFL) Commissioner (Roger Goodell) to bid again."

So Indy bid again and got the game.

While the NFL estimates the economic value at a broad range of $125 million to $400 million -- not to mention the possibility of positive publicity and the chance to impress corporate and media leaders -- there remain concerns.

While everything is within walking distance once you're downtown, Indianapolis lacks in public transit. The bus system isn't great, though a "Super Route" has been established for this week, and the city has only 700 licensed taxis.

And even with all of the new dining and entertainment options, restaurants and nightclubs will quickly fill up. Many places, including some as far away as Fishers, a half-hour drive from downtown, have been bought out for the entire week. One of the most famous, St. Elmo's, has been booked for six months.

So for a week, while visitors and residents alike have hundreds of dining and entertainment choices downtown, it may once again be tough to get a meal in Indianapolis.

INFO BOX

Super Bowl XLVI

When: 6:20 p.m. EST, Sunday, Feb. 5

Where: Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis

How much: Face value of tickets ranges from $600 to $1,200 (sold out)

Who: AFC champion New England Patriots vs. NFC champion New York Giants

Television: NBC

Pregame entertainment: Indiana University's Marching 100

National-anthem singer: Kelly Clarkson

"America the Beautiful" singers: Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert

Halftime entertainment: Madonna

Fun facts: Tiffany and Co. crafts the Vince Lombardi Trophy for the winning team for $25,000. ... The NFL pays up to $5,000 each for up to 150 rings for the winning team, and half that for 150 pieces of jewelry for the losing team. ... Each player on the winning team receives $88,000 (in addition to money earned for earlier playoff victories); each player on the losing team gets $44,000. ... Companies are paying $3.5 million for each 30-second commercial spot. ... This is the first Super Bowl for Indianapolis. The cities with the most Super Bowl games are South Florida (Miami / Fort Lauderdale) with 10, New Orleans with nine and Los Angeles with seven. The 2013 game will be played in New Orleans, followed in 2014 by New York/New Jersey.

(Contact Tim Ethridge at ethridge(at)courierpress.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com.)