Indianapolis is buzzing. On my walk into work this morning, I passed no less than five members of the media filming live, and I'm certain one of them was from ESPN Deportes. My office is located next to the JW Marriott hotel, where the media members are converging for the week, as well as the Indiana Convention Center, site of the NFL Experience (I am 100% going to challenge Old Man to a timed 40-yard dash at some point). The Final Fours have been fun, but this whole Super Bowl hosting thing is on a completely different level.
Spent Friday night scouting the scene with ToddFather and others, checking out the set-up downtown (no open container laws in the streets, yay!), while rockin' out to Bret Michaels, who was performing on the stage set up in the street featuring Conseco Fieldhouse as a back-drop. Though the temperature dropped to around 20 degrees that night, there were thousands of people everywhere, plus a few pets (why are you walking your dog through this scene on a Friday night, sir?), and far too many strollers - save the strollers for the NFL Experience where it is a bit more family-friendly, folks.
In any event, one of the reasons we wanted to scout things out: booze factor. Here's a little piece of advice - bring your own booze downtown. If you don't, you'll pay $8 for a can of Bud Lite. Everywhere you went, people were walking the streets with mixed drinks, bottles of beer, cans of beer, bottles of liquor, you name it. There's no way to tell where it came from, or from which vendor you purchased your libations, so just put some in your coat pockets or purses (in Statboy's case, your European man-bag), and don't pay the ridiculous marked up prices.
As far as local bars downtown, Kilroy's is likely your featured spot. Perfect location, large heated tent out back, and reasonable draft beer (domestics) inside. Question is, how many times will someone try to walk out of there with the Indian statue this week? I know I considered it many times back in college; even tried to negotiate a price with a manager once. It wasn't for sale. Whatever. If you're hanging with ToddFather, though, he'll demand that you go to Ike & Jonesy's at some point, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Just don't go early. You'll regret it. Eh, you might regret the experience no matter what time you get there, depending on what you're looking for (here's a hint, if you aren't into the "older" crowd, don't waste your time). We didn't make it to "The Huddle" - a temporary venue set up in a previously vacated Nordstom facility downtown, which will become a make-shift bar/club/store/warming station for the week. To pique your interest, though, we saw a large number of scantily clad females walking in there at various points throughout the night.
No celebrity scene on Friday night, but that's expected to change this week as people start landing at the Indianapolis airport on a daily basis. For the sports junkies, ESPN and various national outlets are set up on "Radio Row" in front of Union Station, so you can watch/listen to all of your favorite sports talk shows throughout the day, or catch a live taping of The Michelle Beadle Show - err, Sports Nation (with her douche-bag co-host). For the TMZ crowd, I'd give it a few days before the likes of the Kardashians, Diddy, Jay Z, etc. make their way here. It's cool and all, but not cool enough to entertain those folks for more than a couple of days at a time.
Here's the view from outside my office:
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