Doyel: Prepare to see a lot of blue this week

You'll see them, except when you won't. Big bad Kentucky's undefeated basketball team is coming to Indianapolis this week for the Final Four, and Big Blue Nation is coming with them. The BBN, as it's called, goes everywhere the Wildcats go – Maui, Anchorage, Indianapolis, you name it – and they are not subtle about it.

Except when they have a plan.

And the Big Blue Nation has a plan this week, dastardly as it may be, to infiltrate Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday for the Final Four and then again Monday for the national championship game. So you'll see the BBN this week, and you'll see them all week. They'll be everywhere, in bars and hotels and malls. They'll be walking Downtown sidewalks in that deep blue they wear, talking with that deep Southern accent they share, and you'll see them. You can't miss them.

Except when they want you to miss them.

See, they have a plan. And they know their plan for Final Four domination will collide with the plans of pretty much everyone else in the vicinity. The BBN wants every ticket they can get, and they know most everyone else – fans of the other three Final Four teams (Wisconsin, Michigan State and Duke), plus others with a rooting interest – wants to prevent big bad Kentucky from turning Lucas Oil Stadium into Rupp Arena North.

"People don't want to sell us their tickets," says Thomas Younce, 48, a Kentucky fan from Haysi, Va., roughly 10 miles east of the Kentucky border. "They never do."

So here's what the Big Blue Nation does: It wears camouflage. It buys gear of the other team, puts it on, walks around and buys tickets in disguise. That happened last month in Nashville, site of the Southeastern Conference tournament, where Bridgestone Arena was close to 90 percent blue for the SEC title game between Kentucky and Arkansas.

"We wore Arkansas stuff and got tickets," Younce says.

They will do it this week in Indianapolis, too. For anyone wanting to prevent the Big Blue Nation from taking over Lucas Oil Stadium, beware the ticket buyer in blue. But beware also the ticket buyer in Wisconsin red or Michigan State green. Because that could be a Kentucky fan, too.

They're coming, Indianapolis. They're coming to our city, and to our arena, and there's not a damn thing we can do about it.

"They're nuts," says Kentucky coach John Calipari. "But it makes them what they are."

* * *

Brian Shapiro isn't scared. The owner of Shapiro's Delicatessen Downtown won't mind all that Kentucky blue, because it will lead to all that U.S. Treasury green.

"Kentucky travels," Shapiro says. "And they pay in cash."

This is why Indianapolis chases the sporting events it chases. Yes, yes, we love sports and it is part of our fabric, and our trio of bustling stadiums and arenas – homes of the Colts, Pacers and Triple A Indians – helped turn around Downtown Indianapolis, making it a magical place to visit and work and live. But also Indianapolis chases events like the Super Bowl (in 2012) and the Final Four (seven since 1980) because of the economic boon they provide. Hotels, restaurants, bars, the local tax base: Everyone wins.

This Final Four will be an economic winner the likes of which the Indiana Sports Corp. couldn't have imagined in 2004 when it negotiated with the NCAA to bring the Final Four here every five years, including the 2015 event. Kentucky is here. So are Wisconsin, Michigan State and Duke. Wisconsin fans famously travel, and they can get here by car – Madison, Wis., is a five-hour drive from Downtown Indianapolis – and Michigan State fans are similarly rabid and even closer (3 hours, 45 minutes by car). Plus Duke. We're talking national powerhouses with enormous fan bases, three of whom who happen to be from the Midwest.

The perfect storm? It's about to hit, and it will be raining blue – and green.

"I always say, there are really no bad draws when hosting a Final Four," said John Dedman, vice president of communications for Indiana Sports Corp. "But we have a really, really good one here."

The timing is awkward, what with Gov. Pence signing into law late last week a religious-freedom bill that critics say could provide cover for establishments to discriminate against the LGBT community. Offended companies already have announced plans to funnel business away from Indiana, while giant local employer Angie's List has halted a planned $40 million expansion that would have created 1,000 jobs. The NCAA has issued a sobering statement as well, saying the bill "might affect future events" set in Indiana.

The Final Four is scheduled to be back in 2021. Might this Final Four, this perfect storm, be the last one in Indianapolis unless the bill is repealed? Dedman doesn't want to go there.

"Those aren't decisions for us to make," he said. "We're going to continue to bid on great sporting events and hope that we can continue to bring them to Indiana. Hoosier hospitality is something we're known for, and have been for a long time, and we expect that to continue."

* * *

The future is uncertain. The present? A week-long party is about to hit downtown, with open basketball practices, fan festivals and free concerts at White River State Park featuring Rihanna, the Zac Brown Band and Lady Antebellum among others

We've been through this before – the Final Four, the concerts, the fans, the delightfully clogged Downtown – but never like this. Not with a team chasing perfection, and not just any team, but the 38-0 Kentucky monster located less than 200 miles away in Lexington, Ky., with its rabid fan base starving to see it.

The BBN infiltrated Nashville for the SEC tournament, Louisville for Kentucky's first two NCAA tournament games, and Cleveland for the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight. At Cleveland on Saturday night, Quicken Loans Arena looked like a Kentucky home game – but what we're about to see isn't merely an arena infestation. It's a city invasion.

"In Nashville, the bars were full of Kentucky fans," Younce says. "If they couldn't get in to see the game, they filled the bars. You couldn't get a seat."

Quicken Loans Arena was about 90 percent blue on Saturday, including the four women – all retired – wearing Kentucky gear in the second row.

"Lexington is six hours from here," I told them. "If the Big Blue Nation can do this to Cleveland, what's going to happen at Indianapolis?"

They couldn't wait to answer that one. Here's how that went:

Said Rhonda Brooks of Marshall County, in the southwest corner of Kentucky: "Seventy-five percent of (Lucas Oil Stadium) will be blue."

And Vickie Reed, also from Marshall County: "The last gym (in Nashville) was 90 percent blue."

And Betty Harris of Pikeville, in the southeast corner: "The whole state's coming."

And Karen Pollard of Wheelwright, near Pikeville: "It'll be awesome. It'll be blue like the sky, man."

Find Star columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or atwww.facebook.com/gregg.doyel