Super Bowl 2012 going to Indianapolis

Super Bowl 2012 going to Indianapolis The NFL said today that it has awarded Indianapolis the hosting privileges to the Super Bowl 2012.Last year Indy came second to Dallas in their bid for the Super Bowl, but this year Indianapolis beat Houston and Arizona to host the first Big Game in the city. The game will be played in the Lucas Oil Stadium, a new $700 million retractable roof sports facility currently under construction, scheduled to open in August that will seat about 73,000 for a Super Bowl. According to the plans, Lucas Oil Stadium will have a retractable roof that divides lengthwise, with each half sliding down the sloping roof of the stadium and in 9 minutes the roof panels will simultaneously move to the open position at the touch of a button.

The NFL requires cities bidding for the Super Bowl to offer stadiums that seat 70,000 or more people, at least 27,000 hotel rooms within an hour's drive of the stadium, a media center for 4,000 journalists, practice facilities for both teams, and 800,000 to 1 million square feet of space for an interactive league theme park. Indianapolis also pledged in their bid to build a practice facility downtown that will be left in place for local residents to use. The Super Bowl 2012 will be the fourth Big Game taking place in a cold-weather city (two Super Bowl games in Detroit and one in Minneapolis). The three Super Bowls before the 2012 in Indianapolis will be in Tampa, Miami and Dallas. The 2012 Super Bowl in Indianapolis will be played on Feb. 5th.

Published on 05/20/2008