More thoughts on the AFC Championship, and that game in two weeks

Indianapolis is growing

We have two weeks to write about and discuss the Super Bowl. That's an eternity. We could talk matchups to death and detail all the subtle nuances of the game until we are literally blue in the face. Rest assured, we will talk about the Super Bowl. We'll talk about the teams, players, coaches, organizations, history and all that stuff between now and February 4th. I will live-blog the Super Bowl, and I'm sure WCG will have some great stuff lined up. We'll conduct interviews with various writers, within SB Nation and outside SB Nation. We'll go back through the entire season and pick out our highpoints and our lowpoints.

In short, we've got a lot to write and talk about and it's going to be really, really cool.

Now, before we do any of that, I still want to discuss a few things about the biggest sporting event ever in the history of Indianapolis: the AFC Championship Game against the Patriots. The game generated huge ratings. Pretty much everyone with a TV was watching that game Sunday (and yet some people still thought it was old and uninteresting-- losers). The game was a serious boost to the city both in terms of national recognition and revenue. Local bars, restaurants, shops, hotels, and the like all made a killing. This is why the new Lucas Oil Stadium is such a boost to the city, and why critics of the new stadium simply do not have a leg to stand on. I realize city money is best used when channeled into education, law enforcement, civic projects, urban repair, and environmental protection. However, like any business, the city must generate revenue and the easiest form of revenue available to a city is always a sports team. Sports events bring in the green, and with that green the city can really develop itself into a healthy, vibrant community.

Now, I do not mean to belittle or demean the feelings expressed by stadium detractors. I understand their claims and some of their points do make sense. Also, this is not a political discussion. Politics has its place on other sites, and I'll explain in another entry later my deep dislike of politics intruding upon sports. This is about Indianapolis growing, developing into a modern city that people would want to come to, live in, and enjoy. The new Lucas Oil Stadium is one step in that direction. It is our job, as fans and citizens of Indy, to make sure that all that new stadium revenue from "The Luke" goes to things like education, urban health, etc. It doesn't matter if you are Republican, Democrat, Whig, Bull Moose, or Ralph Nader. We all want to see Indy prosper.

That AFC Championship Game, and the new stadium, were positive steps in the right direction.