Indianapolis Super Bowl bid team heads to NYC

A leader of Indianapolis' bid effort for the 2018 Super Bowl says this winter's snow and polar-caliber cold haven't dampened the city's prospects — and neither have complaints about weather in the New York-New Jersey area, which is hosting the big game Sunday.

Susan Baughman of the Indiana Sports Corp. will join three other bid team members Thursday on a three-day fact-finding trip to New York ahead of Sunday's Super Bowl. Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos will play the Seattle Seahawks.

The delegation members will see how the National Football League is pulling off the Super Bowl Boulevard village on Broadway in Manhattan. It's modeled on Indianapolis' much-lauded Super Bowl Village in 2012.

And they will get tours of the massive media center and of preparations at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. — an open-air stadium for which ticket prices have been lower than some analysts expected. Some have speculated that the cold winter is keeping some fans away.

But Baughman, ISC's senior vice president of strategy and operations, told reporters during a news conference this morning that Lucas Oil Stadium's roof and Indianapolis' extensive weather-planning efforts would insulate the city from any fallout.

"I think (NFL team owners) have confidence in what we can do, and I think that what happens in New York specifically doesn't really affect our chances," Baughman said. "I think the weather that we've experienced — and all up and down the coast the last couple of days — is extraordinary, and I think they would be more apt to look at what we've done under more normal weather conditions."

Still, she and other bid officials acknowledge that Indianapolis got lucky in 2012, with temperatures well above average in the week leading up to the game.

Many commentators and visitors left with positive impressions of the city, and with little reminder that during the same time in 2011, the city was thawing out from an ice storm.

Indianapolis is competing against another cold-weather city, Minneapolis, that has a new stadium to tout, and against more balmy New Orleans. That frequent Super Bowl host is hoping to nab the 2018 game to coincide with the city's 300th anniversary.

Baughman and other delegation members will depart New York Sunday morning, before the game.

Because the retractable-roof Lucas Oil Stadium and MetLife Stadium have such different conditions in cold weather, Baughman said, there's less for Indianapolis to learn during the game itself.

Others in the delegation are David Lewis, an Eli Lilly and Co. executive who is vice chairman of the bid committee; Cathy Langham, president of Langham Logistics and the committee's vice president; and Rafael Sanchez, a partner at Bingham Greenebaum Doll who is the committee's secretary.

They are among more than 50 people who are working on the bid, Baughman said. The team will deliver the city's preliminary bid in April and then meet with NFL officials in New York City to get feedback.

The three cities will make final bid presentations to the 32 team owners during their spring meeting May 19-21 in Atlanta. The owners will vote on the 2018 host city selection afterward.

Indianapolis' bid committee has secured pledges from corporate partners for more than half of the $30 million its leaders hope to raise, Baughman said. That's slightly more than the amount raised in private donations in 2012.

And they have been talking to city and state public safety officials to examine what did and didn't work in 2012, from a security standpoint.

What about the new bid's flashy components — to rival 2012's zip lines, vibrant village and massive Near Eastside legacy project?

The bid committee wants those parts to stay under wraps to keep its rivals in the dark.

Besides the uncertainty of what New Orleans and Minneapolis will promise in their bids, Baughman says she worries about what Indianapolis, despite its best efforts, can't control.

"The other thing would just be NFL owners — what their priorities might be at the time of the vote," she said, "and what might drive them to vote for any of the three cities."

Call Star reporter Jon Murray at (317) 444-2752. Follow him on Twitter: @IndyJonMurray.