Indianapolis' bid to host the 2011 Super Bowl is in the hands of NFL officials.
Allison Melangton, senior vice president of event management for the Indiana Sports Corp., hand-delivered the document to the NFL offices in New York City at about 11:30 this morning.
"I don't have any luggage now," said Melangton, who caught a 7:45 a.m. flight to New York and who was scheduled to return to Indianapolis this evening. "I left it all there."
Arizona and North Texas also submitted bids this morning, the deadline to be considered as a host for the 2011 Super Bowl, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said.
No other bids were expected.
The league's 32 team owners are expected to select a location for the 2011 Super Bowl at their spring meeting, scheduled for May 21-23 in Nashville, Tenn.
Representatives of Indianapolis 2011 Inc., the nonprofit group leading the effort to lure the Super Bowl here, won't divulge too many details about what Indianapolis' bid contains, saying they don't want to give their competitors an edge. But the NFL essentially requires Indianapolis to prove it could the fans that would descend on the city for the big game.
For example, the bid committee has so far secured contracts from hotels agreeing to hold more than 17,000 rooms for the Super Bowl. Ninety-four venues have also agreed to hold open their facilities from Jan. 31, 2011, through Feb. 7, 2011, to be used for parties and other Super Bowl-related events. They range from the Indiana State Fairgrounds to the Indiana Roof Ballroom and include the Eiteljorg Museum and the Indiana State Museum.
The next step is that representatives from Indianapolis 2011 Inc. will travel to Philadelphia next Tuesday to meet with NFL staff, who will review the bid and discuss possible improvements.
After that, the owners' meeting is the next major milestone.
There, each location hoping to host the 2011 Super Bowl will make a 10-minute presentation to the owners.
Owners vote by secret ballot. A location needs 75 percent of the votes to win on the first ballot. If no location gets enough support, the lowest vote-getter will be eliminated and then only a simple majority of votes will be needed.
"Now we're going to shift our attention to preparing the presentation," Melangton said.
Link
Personally I think Indy has a good shot. Lucas Oil Stadium looks amazing, and being a competitive team should count for something. I see Dallas in the front right now, us second, Arizona in third, just by guessing.
The 10-minute presentation will likely decide whether or not we get the bid. Let's hope the owners cannot understand the strong accent of the Dallas presenters
