Q&A: Colts Owner Excited About '08 Season, Lucas Oil Stadium

Irsay Has High Hopes For Colts Heading Into '08 NFL Season

Colts Owner Jim Irsay, in a Q&A with the INDIANAPOLIS STAR's Mike Chappell, said with the return of Coach Tony Dungy and the opening of the new Lucas Oil Stadium, "it just doesn't get any better than this." Irsay: "It's a new era in that (you're) going into a new facility, but it's an extension of an era, too. You're very appreciative and realize how hard it's been to have a decade of excellence. It's hard to have a two- or three-year period of excellence." Irsay, on Indianapolis making another bid to host the 2012 Super Bowl, said, "That's what we're working hard on getting. We've been having intense meetings. The lobbying effort and that push is there." When asked if he was "more optimistic after coming so close to being awarded" the 2011 Super Bowl, but eventually losing it to Dallas by a 17-15 vote, Irsay responded, "It's a new bid. It's a new time. But it's really about not taking anything for granted. It's about putting together an outstanding bid. We're competing against ourselves in some degree because we put everything into that last bid. It was called by many -- direct comments from owners to me -- the finest bid in terms of presentation, the video, the concepts of being creative" (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 3/27).