We'd want to give them the impression that we're the world class city that we are right? Let's show them top shelf dining, upscale nightlife and, best of all, an arts and culture scene that will likely surprise them.

Great ideas! Thought I'd share some thoughts from our other partner communities. Anything to add to these? In particular, anyone have thoughts on demonstrating hospitality?

What are the attractions you'd like to promote to the world? Throw the arts into the football mix. Believe it or not there are many people who love football and the arts. The IRT, Indianapolis Symphony, IMA, and Childrens' Museum all downtown. Sports and the arts - it goes together.

There is no better place to have a superbowl than Indianapolis IN.

How can we best demonstrate our hospitality to our guests?

What makes us a Super Bowl city?

I think the obvious starting point is the incredible resume Indianapolis has already put together hosting major sporting events. 500, 400, *1, Final Four, NFL Combine, RCA Tennis, US Track & Field, US Swimming, Big Ten, the list of goes on and on.

Another nice feature Indy has to offer is that downtown and all of its activities are self-contained. I realize it is not ideal weather here in February, but everything in downtown is close. You can stay within a few blocks of the stadium and have first class shopping, dining, entertainment and sporting events all within a few minutes walk.

Downtown is 10 minutes from the Indianapolis International Airport! No long driving time to get to the game and attractions!

Not to mention, according to so many out-of-stater's, we as a whole, are a genuinely nice state!

What makes Indy a great location? 1) Hospitality, Hospitality, Hospitality. - We know how to make guests feel at home no matter what size the crowd.

2) Logistics - We manage the traffic flow, and people movement for the two largest sporting events worldwide, and while it is hectic, those events do not shut down our city.

3) We will have more than enough hotel rooms

4) Lots of non football stuff - In addtion to the museums already mentioned add in the NCAA headquarters and th Indy Speedway Museum. Great local music and theatre venues, and several locations IE the Rathskeller and Indiana Roof which can easily handle very large parties.

5) Great local resturants that are used to handling the crowds ( at all price points)

6) Did I mention our Hospitality and a volunteer spirit. We coordinate the efforts of thousands of volutneers to make the Indy 500 and the month long celebration flow. Those people will turn out to help coordinate this as well.

7) We are a city that loves our sports

8) Clean and compared to other cities very safe.

9) Ultimately, I think we want it more. Unlike bigger cities, as a community I think we will turn out to make it work, insuring out guests enjoy their stay.

This one is relatively obvious, but the convention center is huge, and one of the NFL's new initiatives (or so I've heard) is to have a lot of space for other events-parties, gatherings, conventions, games, etc.--plenty of room for that, and it would be a veritable bazaar of crazy NFL-ness in that place.

Plus, you can walk from Circle Centre to what is currently the RCA Dome without setting foot outside (I just did that a few weeks ago!). With The Luke being right across the street from the Dome, that makes for quite a convenience.

I think we need to work on sprucing Downtown up a little. Specifically, GETTING to Downtown is quite an eyesore from almost every direction. Get off I-70 onto (what becomes) West St. and you're in a dumpy neighborhood. Get off 65/70 on Market St. and the first thing you see is the jail, and any empty lot where MSA used to be. In general, it seems you hit these weird, randomly placed little pockets of blight whichever way you come in from. Developing the old MSA site would be a great start to remedying that. Perhaps beautifying the main exit ramps into the city, and turning them into a sort of "gateway" would make it seem more welcoming too.

I would like to see more emphasis put on the Canal. It's nice to walk along there, but there's literally nothing to do. I'd like to see it developed into something similar to the San Antonio River Walk, with shops and restaurants. With all the attractions at White River State Park as an anchor on one end, and now the Buggs Temple development at the other end, it seems like it should be easy to attract some shops and restaurants to all those empty Canal-level business fronts.

Improved public transportation is sorely needed as well, or we're going to have a traffic/parking nightmare. And I'm not talking about that hair-brained streetcar idea. Unfortunately, I think more suitable solutions would take far longer time to build that we can afford if we're going to do this in 2012.

I would love nothing more than to see this city host the biggest event in sports. The presentation will have to be flawless though! It was a great idea to turn to the fine community of indy.com for suggestions. I'm not trying to be negative here, but I'll be the one to throw out the biggest issue.

If the Super Bowl was held in May, I think we would have a 100% shot. No matter how many people say that weather isn't an issue, the simple fact of the matter is, it is a HUGE factor. Most of the people that attend the Super Bowl aren't "true" football fans. Sure, they might like the game, but they aren't Green Bay Packers fans that stay out doors for 8 hours + in sub zero weather. They are people that have DEEP pockets and view the Super Bowl as a vacation of sorts. Just look at this years Super Bowl weekend, the Friday before the Super Bowl we were forecasted to have 4-6 inches of snow and ice. Luckily we didn't get that much, but February is always our snow/ice/below freezing month.

The city, the business, the culture, the arts, the bars, public safety and downtown would have ZERO problems handling an event like the Super Bowl. My point being, Mother Nature is not on our side in this battle, if the airport has to shut down, we would be the laughing stock of Super Bowls. Detroit got lucky a few years back. If we get lucky, then it will be a great event. I'm not sure the NFL is willing to take that risk.

Best of luck to the committee

Thanks for your ideas. I'll have more questions for you in the coming weeks. For now though, just wanted to share some outside the box ideas that were posted on other forums.

Here is a idea that could get us an extra 300,000 + sqft, and another space for a concert or convention. Since the RCA Dome is coming down and the new CC will be built. Instead of scraping the teflon roof, why doesn't the city save it and somehow enclose Victory Field with it. It's right across from the CC and the new JW Marriott. It will be protected from the weather and we don't have to spend whatever on huge tents because we already have it.

Has there ever been consideration to setting up a temporary casino in Union Station with the help of all of the other Indiana casinos. They could run it as a seperate group and the profits could be split between the Casinos and the State. They could probably run it 50 days a year for major events. It beats using it as an indoor go-kart track.

Superbowl fans are looking for all forms of entertainment.