INDIANAPOLIS | Work on a new home for the Indianapolis Colts was under way well before Peyton Manning and Co. tamed the Chicago Bears 29-17 in a soggy Super Bowl XLI victory in Miami 19 months ago.
The elements shouldn't be an issue tonight as a national television audience -- and the Bears -- get a look at Lucas Oil Stadium, the radiant retractable-roof replacement for the RCA Dome.
Originally dubbed the Hoosier Dome, the old stadium, set for implosion later this year, helped lure the Colts out of Baltimore 24 years ago. Lucas Oil Stadium is designed to keep the NFL franchise in the Circle City for at least three decades -- until the bonds on the $720 million pad are repaid.
The RCA Dome was known as one of the loudest places to play in the NFL, and Colts owner Jim Irsay said he can't wait to hear fans crank up the decibels tonight at Lucas Oil Stadium. Irsay also told The Times he hopes Northwest Indiana residents will be rooting for the Hoosier home team.
"They're a great team, and we know that they're going to give us a great battle," Irsay said of the Bears. "We hope that at least people in the state of Indiana will stick with the Colts, though. We won't take any of the Illinois people. We just want the Indiana people (to root for the Colts)."
The financing for the new stadium, primarily local taxes in Indianapolis and surrounding counties, was made possible by the same 2005 state legislation that created the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority. State Rep. Chet Dobis, a Merrillville Democrat who was instrumental in pairing the economic development causes, said tonight's TV broadcast will give him his first look inside the new stadium.
"I'm amazed at the difference in size between the two structures," said Dobis, a Bears fan. "I can't wait to see it."
Lucas Oil Stadium debuts a month before the expected ribbon cutting for the RDA's first brick-and-mortar project, a $9.2 million lakefront park in Portage that came in nearly $2.9 million above its original budget.
Dobis still has his sights set on bigger things, namely an RDA-backed $1 billion plan to extend South Shore commuter rail lines to Lowell and Valparaiso. Proponents say the project could create 26,000 jobs over three decades.
The new Colts stadium and an accompanying $275 million Indiana Convention Center expansion to be built where the RCA Dome now stands also promise a big economic boost for central Indiana. A study by the firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers forecast $2.25 billion in economic gains over a decade, including 4,200 permanent jobs and 4,900 temporary construction jobs.
"The driving force behind the construction of Lucas Oil Stadium has been the need for more convention and trade show space inside the convention center," said David Sease, a spokesman for the Indiana Stadium and Convention Building Authority. "So what had to happen was the dome essentially needed to be moved to expand the convention center. As is commonly known, Indianapolis doesn't have the mountains, doesn't have the oceans. But because so many of the hotels are in close proximity to the convention center area, it makes us a destination for conventions and trade shows."
The convention center expansion, expected to be complete by the end of 2010, will nearly double the available exhibit and meeting space to 1.2 million square feet. Crews have been tearing out the insides of the RCA Dome since January. The fan system that keeps the domed roof inflated will be shut off by the end of this month, and charges will be set in December to implode upper portions of the building.
