NFL Decides To Add 5,000 Temporary Seats At Lucas Oil Stadium For Super Bowl

Recent news stories discussed how NFL officials had opted against adding nearly 7,000 temporary seats at Lucas Oil Stadium for this year's Super Bowl game as had been proposed by the Indianapolis host committee in its winning bid. Instead, the NFL chose to add only 254 temporary seats, meaning that this year's 63,000 attendees would be the lowest-attended game in 20 years. The IBJ's Anthony Schoettle says the NFL had a change of heart and decided to add 5,000 temporary seats for the game. It doesn't look like the NFL is going to have trouble with last minute fire marshal concerns as happened at last year's Super Bowl game in Dallas that left many ticketholders seatless.

The National Football League has decided to make room for 5,000 extra ticketholders for the Super Bowl in Lucas Oil Stadium.

NFL officials on Monday told IBJ that they plan to expand the stadium capacity to 68,000 during the Feb. 5 event in Indianapolis. Capacity for Colts games is typically 63,000.

The decision was made after the league evaluated how much room it would need for media auxiliary seating and for NBC’s production facilities within the venue . . .

Most of the extra capacity will come from additional standing-room tickets sold for each suite and by filling platforms that are not normally used during Colts games with padded chairs.

A club area in the stadium’s north end zone will be used for the NFL’s City View Club. Those tickets, McCarthy said, will be used for NFL on Location ticketholders. That area will include 254 temporary seats . . .

All the temporary seats have been inspected and approved by the city’s Department of Code Enforcement, McCarthy said. No bleachers or temporary structures will be built to accommodate the additional capacity, he said.

At last year’s Super Bowl in Dallas, a problem with meeting safety standards for some of the temporary seating meant 850 ticketholders were moved in Cowboys Stadium. Another 400 didn’t end up with seats despite buying a ticket and showing up for the game. Those fans were forced to watch the game on monitors in a lounge area.

Those 400 were given refund of triple face value—$2,400 per ticket. But many of the displaced fans complained that the NFL’s refund was less than they paid for the tickets on the secondary market.

Indianapolis Capital Improvement Board Executive Director Barney Levengood said that issue shouldn’t come up this year since there has been no construction needed to accommodate the increased capacity inside Lucas Oil Stadium . . .

Let's hope public safety concerns with the extra seating at the facility aren't being compromised for the sake of maximizing profits for the billionaire NFL team owners. All of the revenues from ticket sales to the game are kept by the NFL. The NFL is getting free use of Lucas Oil Stadium and the entire convention center, as well as 16,000 parking spaces downtown for its exclusive use during the Super Bowl festivities. The NFL is paying nothing to the city of Indianapolis for millions of dollars in added public safety costs associated with the event.

Speaking of the free use of parking spaces by the NFL, some IUPUI students are hopping mad about a decision by university officials to take away at least 4,000 parking spaces purchased by students who attend classes at the school for the NFL's use during the extended Super Bowl weekend. That decision has led many faculty members to cancel classes. The only possible reason for the use of these parking spaces is the fact that the AFC's New England Patriots team is staying at the University Place Hotel on the campus. WRTV has the story:

Some Indiana University Purdue University-Indianapolis students are speaking out against the school's plan to accommodate Super Bowl activities, limiting students' parking options and canceling some classes.

IUPUI made special arrangements with Indianapolis to allow the city to use 4,000 of its 16,000 parking spots on a few days surrounding the Super Bowl, RTV6's Ericka Flye reported . . .

"I think the Super Bowl is great for the city. I just think that it shouldn't hinder our education," said student Chris Gault. "It seems the school is putting the outsiders and the Super Bowl attendees before the students and their educations."
Parking has long been a contentious issue on the IUPUI campus, which has had trouble with having enough spaces to meet student demand.

"They're selling our parking spaces that are paid permit holder spaces," said student Andrew Reno. "A lot of us have taken out loans to pay for our classes, and now we're being given less time in the classroom."

Classes that would have been on Super Bowl weekend are canceled, and faculty was given flexibility to cancel or adjust classes on the Friday before the game and Monday after the game.

"(We're) trying to make it as easy as possible on students by not requiring them to attend face-to-face classes if their professor thinks that's best," said Rich Schneider, IUPUI spokesman.