Indianapolis is My Home

16
Aug

Lucas Oil Stadium Tour

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Downtown, Indianapolis Colts, Lucas Oil Stadium, Real Estate, Sports

I was one of the few (me and another 9,999) people that were able to score some tickets for the inaugural public tour of the Grand Opening of the new Lucas Oil Stadium here in Indianapolis.

The stadium and functionality of it are very impressive. The crowd control for the event wasn’t very impressive. If there really were only 10,000 people allowed into each tour, their ability to move people into the stadium quickly left something to be desired.

The tour was basically self-guided, you couldn’t go anywhere you wanted, but you basically just wondered around at your own pace and could linger where you wanted. The problem was that you only had two hours. We arrived at the stadium right at 10am when we were supposed to and didn’t make it into the front doors until after 10:30am. We walked around a bit and eventually decided to work our way down to the field itself.  Once you make it down to the field you can’t come back up into the street level concourses, so you’re on your way out at that point. You’re then faced with the decision of just going straight-out the back loading dock ramp or divert to walk past the locker room.

When we started in the line for the locker room, it was 11:10am, we walked out of the stadium, done with our tour, at 12pm. Didn’t get to go "into" the locker room, just walk by it and take a quick picture.

You can see all my photos in my slideshow below.

09
Aug

Pan American Plaza by Polina Osherov

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Downtown, Indianapolis Colts, Indianapolis History, Local Artists, Lucas Oil Stadium, RCA Dome, Real Estate

Polina Osherov is a local photographer here in Indianapolis and she recently shared this photo with me that she took of the Pan American Plaza area downtown. I just thought this was a great photo showing some of the history of sports in this city.

From the Pan Am Plaza that was built for the Pan American Games that the city hosted in 1987.

You can see the RCA Dome, home of the Super Bowl Champion Indianapolis Colts that was built in 1984 at a cost of $82 million.

Then in the background to the south you’ve got the soon to be opened Lucas Oil Stadium, the new home of the Indianapolis Colts and the home of the 2012 Super Bowl!

02
Aug

Indianapolis Teen on USA Olympic Gymnastics Team

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Carmel, Charities, Local Residents, Sports, Students

Did you know we have an Olympic Gymnast in our town? Bridget Sloan is from Carmel and she will be representing the United States in Beijing, China along with the other members of the USA Gymnastics Team.

Now the question is how would you feel if it were your daughter that was representing the United States in the Olympics, in China, and you couldn’t afford to take yourself over there? That’s the challenge that faces Bridget’s parents and you can help. You can visit Bridget’s home gym website and donate money to their efforts to send her parents to China.

You can get more information about how you can support their efforts as a family or if you’re a business and would like to help you can get that information as well.

Visit their website at www.sharpsboosters.org

27
Jul

Colts Sign Two New Quarterbacks

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Indianapolis Colts, Indy Pro Athletes

That headline isn’t something you’d expect to read these days, but with the recent news of Peyton Manning’s surgery on his knee, it makes sense.

With Peyton being out for an unknown amount of time, Sorgi will be stepping up, but who will back him up if needed?

Gray, who played collegiately at Florida A&M, spent 2002-2007 as a backup quarterback with Jacksonville, throwing for 1,252 yards, 12 touchdowns and five interceptions. He became an unrestricted free agent following this past season and signed in March with the Houston Texans, who released him in June.

Lorenzen, who played collegiately at Kentucky, played in four games in three seasons with the Giants, throwing for 28 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions.

Jaren Lorenzen and Quinn Gray will be working out with the team because Dungy likes building on what he’s already seen with these two players instead of starting fresh with a rookie with no NFL experience.

I’m not expecting either one of them to see much action if any, but I’d like for Lorenzen to get some time being from the University of Kentucky. I think it’s also cool that he played under Peyton’s brother Eli with the New York Giants.

23
Jul

Local Indy Man Is Rubik’s Master

Author: Jason Bean, Category: People, Sports

When I was a kid the only way I could solve a Rubik’s Cube was to peel the stickers off or take it apart and put it back together. Doesn’t look like Mike Hughey got hung up on those tactics at all. This guy has figured out the secret and mastered the classic puzzle game.

In the video above he’s solving the last of 15 Rubik’s Cubes in a double-blind contest. He can take however much time he needs to memorize the pattern on each cube, then put the blind-fold on and solve the puzzle as quickly as possible.

That’s absolutely amazing! Even more amazing than this one-handed speeder.

UPDATE: If you’d like to see all the different Rubik’s events that Mike has challenged himself with and how he succeeded, you can view his official results page on the World Cube Association website.

22
Jul

More Tickets Available for Lucas Oil Stadium Tour

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Downtown, Indianapolis Colts, Lucas Oil Stadium, Real Estate, WISH - Channel 8

More tickets are going on sale today in about 10 minutes if you’re interested. I’ve already snagged my set of two tickets for my son and I to take the first tour of the day on August 16th.

Twenty thousand tickets will be available Tuesday morning at 10 at the Conseco Fieldhouse box office or Ticketmaster.com. The tickets are free and required.

Not sure if you saw the other recent coverage of some of the seats that are available for fans in the new stadium.

How do you like those puppies? You’d be a bit upset wouldn’t you? They could have at least put up a nice LCD screen on the columns couldn’t they?

You’ve got to wonder if the people that designed the seating have ever been to a game before? Or is this the case of the new stadium needing to meet a specific seating threshold number of seats available? My boss suggested they could have hung seats off the various decks like those toddler seats you clamp on your kitchen table.

WISH TV 8: Indianapolis News and Weather - 20,000 stadium tour tickets available

14
Jul

I Got My Lucas Oil Stadium Tour Tickets

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Indianapolis Colts, Lucas Oil Stadium, News, Sports, Things To Do in Indy, WRTV - TV Channel 6

This morning I got a text message from Ticketmaster reminding me that the tickets for the free, public tour for the new Colts Lucas Oil Stadium tour that’s taking place on August 16th.

I went on to Ticketmaster’s website this morning and initially tried to get 4 tickets so each member of my family could attend. I couldn’t confirm that order so I backed my order down to two so my son and I could go. That was successful. I didn’t realize how huge the demand for this was until I saw a news article about it later.

Fans began lining up at about 7 a.m. for a chance to get the tickets. Some were season ticket holders, but most were people who normally don’t get to go to many games, 6News’ Julie Pursley reported.

Now I’m in a discussion about whether or not it was appropriate for the Colts or whomever to limit the “free” tickets to only 60,000 if there was a demand for much more. Did they create a problem? Is it okay for scalpers to now sell the once free tickets at a premium? Is it worth it to you to get to see the stadium in this way?

Colts Fans Snag Free Stadium Tour Tickets - Sports News Story - WRTV Indianapolis

08
Jul

Indianapolis Monumental Marathon Coming in November

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Downtown, Outdoor Recreation, Sports

A new marathon is coming to town and I couldn’t think of news that impacts me less. You see, I’m not much of a runner (at all), but news of more events like this are exciting because it brings more visitors and interest to our city. Visitors will have the choice of a full marathon (26.2 miles) or half of that if they’re interested.

The Indianapolis Monumental Marathon will take place on November 1st and the organizers are preparing for this year and years to come as popularity increases.

"We designed the course knowing we may have 1,5000 or so this year, but it’s been designed and laid out so that we can handle the increase in numbers each year as we grow," said Ken Long, director of the Monument Marathon.

The course will take runners through loads of the city’s most popular monuments and landmarks. As a non-runner though, I’m just wondering how much “sight-seeing” the participants are going to be doing while their in the middle of their run.

Are you a runner? I’d love to hear what you think of this new marathon coming to town. Will you be running in it?

26
Jun

Pacers Trade Jermaine O’Neal to Toronto Raptors for T.J. Ford and Rasho Nesterovic

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Indiana Pacers, Indy Pro Athletes, News, Sports

Nothing has been really confirmed at this point and won’t be until July 1st and players pass their physicals. From what I’ve heard from a variety of people though, the ongoing health of T.J. Ford seems questionable to me. I also think we should be able to get a lot better than this for Jermaine O’Neal.

The Toronto Raptors have agreed in principle to acquire forward Jermaine O’Neal from the Indiana Pacers for point guard T.J. Ford, center Rasho Nesterovic, the 17th pick in the draft and a player to be named, Yahoo reported Wednesday.

In fact, I think I’d be trying to ditch some other players before Jermaine, even if I couldn’t get much out of them. We need some fresh players and fresh faces, perhaps more importantly and absence of some of the players we’ve been seeing a little too much of in the newspaper and courtrooms for things other than basketball stats.

Yahoo: Pacers to deal Jermaine O’Neal to Raptors - Yahoo! News

24
Jun

Jon McLaughlin Performing "Perfect" at Colts Fan Fest

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Concerts, Downtown, Indianapolis Colts, Local Musicians

Here’s a video of Jon McLaughlin performing "Perfect" as his opening song at the Indianapolis Colts Fan Fest event in Indianapolis this past Friday.

I’m not sure what happened to the audio a little ways in. We were right in front of the speakers, wonder if my camera’s mic couldn’t handle it?

Hmmmm