So you say you’re going to Indy for the Super Bowl? As you already know, Indianapolis is the capitol of Indiana and the big game is proudly being held at Indy’s Lucas Oil Stadium. Lucas Oil opened August 16, 2008 and the stadium owns the largest retractable roof in the NFL. The stadium itself covers 1.8 million square feet and in 2009 was named Sports Facility of The Year. In the picture below you can see Lucas Oil from a bird’s eye view.

In the images below you can see the development of Lucas Oil from early beginning construction to the nearly done stage. To build the stadium it cost 720 million dollars and surprisingly took little time to build.

Lucas Oil seats over 67,00 fans while boasting a spectacular view of downtown Indianapolis. The stadium, while being a multi-purpose facility, is home to the Colts football team. The surface of the field is made of FieldTurf, which was ranked best field surface in both 2009 and ’10.

It was stated earlier that the stadium is a multi-purpose venue and it truly is. It not only hold NFL and NBA games, but concerts, national conventions, trade shows, IHSAA (Indiana High School Athletic Association) finals, band competitions and countless other events as well. The stadium consists of seven levels and contains more backstage space than any other stadium in the NFL. It contains 7 locker rooms, 11 indoor truck docks, 44,000 square feet of exhibit space and 12 large meeting rooms. If the weather is nice enough the large north facing window can be opened for a breathtaking view of downtown Indy.

So you’re sitting in the nosebleeds and can’t get a good view of the players, well don’t let that stop you. Lucas Oil sports 2 HD video boards more than large enough to see all your favorite players. A cool addition, the 360 degree ribbon board can be seen lighting up all game long advertising and sending the audience messages to “get loud” and “please be quiet, offense at work”. Receiving nearly, if not over, 1 million visitors per year, Lucas Oil is the perfect venue for any event and in this case even Super Bowl XLVI

Lucas Oil stadium replaced the RCA dome in 2008 after the stadium was finished. The stadium was designed by HKS of Dallas, Texas and, as mentioned earlier, cost 720 million dollars to build. Much financing came from the state of Indiana and the city of Indianapolis with an addition of 100 million dollars made by the Colts. The stadium is operated by the Capital Improvements Board pf Managers of Marion County. Since inception of the stadium, it was projected that Lucas Oil”s generated revenue upon completion and opening, would hit or exceed 2.25 billion dollars over the course of ten years and, in addition, create 4,200 new jobs for residents.

Some fun facts about construction

It took 130,00 cubic yards of cast-in-place concrete to build.

16,00 tons of steel was used in construction.

700 pieces of structural precast concrete were used.

1,440 pieces of architectural precast concrete were used

9,100 pieces of exterior glass were used as well.