Lucas Oil Stadium Poised To Bring More Big-Ticket Events To City

Indianapolis Officials Hoping Lucas Oil Stadium Will Help City Land Big-Ticket Events

NAME RECOGNITION: Lucas Oil Products President & CEO Forrest Lucas said that putting his company's name on the stadium "raises your profile like few other things." Indiana Univ. Kelley School of Business marketing professor Ann Bastianelli: "Lucas has purchased something that his competitors cannot. He has proprietary rights to the NFL's most-talked-about stadium, its most popular NFL team, its MVP [QB], and America's coach, Tony Dungy." In Indianapolis, Robert King writes the Lucas Oil logo, aside from the 3-D signage on the building's facade, "will appear on each side of the field above the 50-yard line and on employees' uniforms." Also, a Lucas Oil display at one end of the stadium "features race cars, a stunt plane and a racing boat plastered with the logo" (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 8/22). In a Q&A with readers, Lucas, when asked what he thinks of "attempts to give the stadium a nickname like 'The Luke,'" said his company "just got done with a big lawsuit with [Russian company Lukoil] trying to make sure they couldn't look like us. So the last thing the people in Indiana want is to be thought of (as) Lukoil." When asked what "the strangest or most unexpected thing" his name will be on in regard to the stadium, Lucas wrote, "One of the coolest things I think is that you will be seeing our name on the highway signs, on the freeways, (pointing) to Lucas Oil Stadium this way or that way" (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 8/22). Lucas, on what the stadium will be called: "We paid for people to say Lucas Oil" (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 8/22).

IMPROVEMENTS APLENTY: Also in Indianapolis, Erika Smith writes the stadium will feature "massive [HD] TVs, kiosks of cell phones and Colts-themed video games." The stadium also has "two humongous scoreboards ... nearly 53 feet tall and 97 feet wide," and has Wi-Fi, "but it's unclear whether it will be free for fans." On Sprint Nextel's east concourse, "there will be touch-screen displays for browsing the company's Web site," and Sprint also "will have a 3-D video game where fans can play [QB]." hhgregg at its south concourse display, meanwhile, "will have a free interactive video game that lets you throw or kick a football that will soar across a virtual screen showing the stadium." Also at hhgregg's display will be "a product pavilion with digital cameras, computers, refrigerators, even washers and dryers" (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 8/22). The INDIANAPOLIS STAR's Jeremy Herb writes Lucas Oil's press box "is nearly twice as big" as the RCA Dome's, "with the capacity to accommodate 260 people normally and up to 352 if needed." The RCA Dome's capacity was 140, "expandable to 175." Other features include "larger 32-inch, flat-panel HD monitors" and more broadcast booths (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 8/22). The stadium's 140 suites, with prices ranging "from $40,000 for an eight-person mini-suite to $235,000 for a super-suite that seats 36," sold out for the '08 season by October '06. There also are "about 25,000 names" on a season-ticket waiting list (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 8/22).

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