Please excuse me for using this blog post to brag about Slingshot SEO’s home city of Indianapolis, which is hosting one of the biggest and most anticipated events in the United States— the NFL’s Super Bowl —this weekend.
Although some members of the media, including The New York Times which described Indianapolis as a “Low-Key City,” have expressed a bit of surprise that this Midwestern city landed this prestigious event, we’ve been in the business of hosting large sporting events for years … in fact, nearly a hundred years. Every year, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway hosts the Indy 500, billed as the Largest Single Day Sporting Event in the World.
In Indiana, we’re fanatical about our sports — from high school basketball (the inspiration for the movie Hoosiers with Gene Hackman) and college basketball (think about those Butler University Bulldogs) to the Indianapolis Colts, winner of Super Bowl XLI. But we’re not just about sports, of course. Slingshot SEO is proud to be a significant player in the city’s sprouting technology scene — a significant addition to Indianapolis’ reputation for exceptional healthcare, leading pharmaceutical technology, and life sciences, as reported in The Wall Street Journal.
This week leading up to the Super Bowl XLVI has been to many in our city the crowning evidence of the remaking of our national image from that of “Naptown” to a major event showplace! This old blog post truly spells that what Indianapolis used to be. I have even heard stories about people firing guns in the central downtown area to shoo pigeons away a few decades back. My, how the downtown has changed!
With the hosting of this year’s Super Bowl, I’m sure many more people will get a glimpse of what Indianapolis has to offer.
I personally know several of the people who are on the various committees formed to plan for hosting this year’s Super Bowl. All of them have worked diligently for years to make this happen in the manner which might actually set us apart from other venues. As this week unfolds we will see if their dream becomes reality.
I am betting strongly it will, if for no other reason than my personal experiences of being part of that huge extravaganza called the NCAA Final Four. To keep it relevant, I will compare a few key items from the last two Final Fours – one held in Indianapolis in 2010; the other in Houston in 2011.
Both cities are fortunate to have outstanding dome-covered stadiums capable of holding huge crowds for this final event in the college basketball season. Ironically, my seats in Houston were much better than my seats in Indianapolis, but that did not alter my overall experience.
You see, in Houston, all I remember is the vast amount of time I spent on chartered buses. The various key venues were so many miles apart it was impossible to walk and even worse to park. In Indy, every venue is so close you can literally walk from one to another and, in the process, truly experience so much more flavor of the city. This ranged from walking by gift shops, street vendors, performance stages and, of course, the spirit of other fans attending.
From what I have seen so far in our local papers and on the Web, this same key fact of proximity will ring true for Super Bowl events in Indianapolis. Enjoying the benefit of proximity allowed the Final Four event planners in Indy to offer so much more in the way of building an experience. Time will soon tell if this is the case again for our city as the thousands attending this year’s Super Bowl descend upon Slingshot SEO’s hometown.
I will end with this Super Bowl Activity video, this news article about Indy’s preparedness, and this interesting article about how ‘Indy lured the big game.’ Please let me know if you were here and what you thought of Indianapolis as a host city.