INDIANAPOLIS -– Welcome to Lucas Oil Stadium, the Colts' swanky home and Indianapolis' newest gusher. It opens Sunday night to the Colts (live on NFL Network, 8 p.m. ET), the NFL and to rave reviews. With its two retractable roof panels that weigh 2.5 million pounds, Lucas Oil Stadium will host the men's Final Four in 2010, the Super Bowl in 2012, and Indianapolis' next generation of sports history.
It will be a gracious and welcoming host. Built over two and a half years, with the help of 11,000 people, for the cost of $720 million, airy Lucas Oil Stadium is the NFL's next state-of-the-art stadium. Visible from certain spots in the stadium is Indianapolis' skyline. It enhances the feeling of the sophisticated structure.
Colts coach Tony Dungy coached in Tampa in 1998, when the Buccaneers opened Raymond James Stadium. He remembers looking at the stadium's video scoreboards and thinking he was seeing something unique. But then Dungy got a glimpse of Lucas Oil Stadium's video scoreboards, and Dungy knew he had seen the ultimate.
In the northwest and southeast corners of the stadium are two scoreboards, measuring 97 feet wide and 53 feet high, that serve as XXXL HDTVs.
"We came away from it, to a man, saying, 'Mmmm, this is special,'" Dungy recalled this weekend.
Much of Lucas Oil Stadium is. Especially compared to the RCA Dome. Whereas the Dome had 665 toilet fixtures, Lucas Oil Stadium has 1,400.
Whereas the Dome had 80 portable and permanent concession stands, Lucas Oil Stadium has 148.
Whereas the Dome had six elevators and no escalators, Lucas Oil Stadium has 11 elevators and 14 escalators.
Leave it to Colts quarterback Peyton Manning to detect the first potential issue, though. Manning noticed that, on the Colts sideline, the sun shines on his team's bench while the opponents' bench is in the shade. Manning already is concerned that his Colts could be fighting the sun in their eyes.
But Manning cannot know for sure just yet. His Colts went through their practice at Lucas Oil Stadium at 11 a.m. Tuesday. Other than their Sunday night home opener against the Chicago Bears, the Colts games will be played largely at 1 or 4 p.m., not 11 a.m. The sun could have a different pattern at that time; the stadium still is too new for the Colts to know.
Otherwise, Lucas Oil Stadium shines.
