INDIANAPOLIS — The out-of-season warm weather in the Super Bowl’s host city has created an envious problem: Record crowds descending on the city’s downtown.
An estimated crowd of 250,000 people jammed into the city’s open-air festival site known as Super Bowl Village on Friday evening, filling a space created for about one-tenth that size.
Temperatures that reached the mid-50s were part of the draw. So were the free concerts, the food and beer booths, the 800-foot zip line that 8,000 people had ridden by Friday night, and the multiple opportunities for a celebrity sighting.
“We said at the beginning of all this that we wanted to make the Village into something like ‘Times Square meets the Super Bowl’ and I think we did it,” said Mark Miles, president of the Indianapolis Super Bowl Host Committee.
That’s meant some logistical challenges, though. On Friday evening, Indianapolis police had to shut down some downtown streets near the village and reroute traffic to accommodate a big but generally well-behaved crowd. They called in reinforcements from the Indiana State Police.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Deputy Chief Michael Bates said there were 13 minor injuries and 22 arrests, mostly of intoxicated people, on Friday evening. The bigger concern, he said: “There were lots of lost children.”
And lots of trash. The city’s public works department reported picking up four tons of garbage overnight.
The family-friendly atmosphere of the village was due in part to its proximity to the NFL Experience, an interactive theme park located inside the Indiana Convention Center. More than 25,000 people paid to get into the NFL Experience on Friday, bringing the total crowd for the past week to a record-breaking 216,000.
Social media may also be playing a role: The posts on Facebook and Twitter about the Super Bowl downtown experience have been overwhelmingly positive, according to a social-media monitoring company the host committee hired to track such feedback.
Another factor may be the “Know Before You Go” website created by the host committee that offers frequently updated information about downtown parking and traffic. By Saturday morning, more than 200,000 had visited the website.
Celebrity sightings at multiple downtown venues may also be goosing the crowd numbers. Former NBA star Shaquille O’Neil walked into Hilbert Circle Theater on Monument Circle in pink underwear — in front of a large crowd — to settle a bet with NBC late show host Jimmy Fallon. Fallon has been broadcasting his show from Indianapolis since Wednesday.
The warm weather crowding is just the opposite problem from the cold weather complaints at last year’s Super Bowl in Dallas, when a freak ice-and-snow storm hit the city, nearly paralyzing traffic around the sprawling Super Bowl site.
Indianapolis’ compact downtown has pulled in more foot traffic and made it easier for people to get around. The Super Bowl venue, Lucas Oil Stadium, sits at the edge of an eight-block area that includes the Super Bowl Village and 18,300 hotel rooms.
Some members of the host committee were anxious not to jinx their good luck by bragging too much; as they noted, they still have game day to go.
But Miles was feeling pretty confident, going as far as predicting the total downtown crowd numbers for the week leading up to, and including, game day.
“We’re within striking distance of one million people,” Miles said Saturday. “I think we’re going to do it.”
• Maureen Hayden is the CNHI Indiana Statehouse bureau chief. She can be reached at maureen.hayden@indianamediagroup.com
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