Forrest Lucas, CEO and owner of California-based Lucas Oil, didn’t like the way the Indianapolis Colts playoff game
ended Saturday, but he has absolutely no complaints about the 20-year, $121.5 million deal his company signed to be the title
sponsor of the stadium the team calls home.
“That deal is one of the best deals we’ve ever done,” Lucas said while he was working in southern Indiana
this week. “That stadium was a great deal, no doubt. The national exposure we’ve gotten from that deal has been
even better than expected. You can’t believe the number of people that come up to me to talk about the stadium. No matter
where I go, people ask about Lucas Oil Stadium. I think it’s the nicest stadium in the world.”
Lucas Oil has myriad motorsports sponsorships, but Lucas said nothing has taken his company to a mainstream audience as much
as the stadium deal.
“Because of our stadium venture and our involvement with the NFL, twice as many people know Lucas Oil as they did before
we did that deal,” Lucas said. “It’s been astronomical.”
Lucas said the bright red neon signs on the outside of the stadium have been worth millions of dollars to the company in
marketing exposure every year. He thinks that value will be magnified next year when the Super Bowl is played here.
“A Super Bowl commercial is $3 million,” Lucas said. “If they show that building coming in and out of every
commercial break, we’re going to get a lot more value than that. It will be huge, and our image will really be magnified.”
Lucas, who has a suite in the stadium, has been so impressed by the way the stadium operates and the city hosts Colts games,
he is confident that the 2012 Super Bowl will not be Indianapolis’ last one.
“I travel a lot for business, and we do a lot of entertaining,” Lucas said. “I can tell you, what you have
in Indianapolis is special. I’m confident once people come here and experience a Super Bowl, we’ll be in a four-
or five-year rotation for the Super Bowl. I think we’ll be that much better than everybody else.”
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Welcome to The Score, your place for hard-hitting sports business news, fast-breaking updates and fuel-injected debate. Buckle up. I'm your host, Anthony Schoettle, IBJ sports reporter.
Lucas thinks Indy will get Super Bowl on regular rotation
January 12, 2011
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Can IBJ please stop referring to this property as "Kessler Mansion"? What a ridiculous title for the biggest, bloated, blight in our city. It's not a mansion. At best, it's an ideal site to shoot low-budget porn. Ahhh! Another business use!
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Its stories like these that prove that a Ball State diploma is worth less than the paper that its printed on. A real institution of higher learning would have taken care of this long ago. No way should this crap be taught in a SCIENCE class.
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It is such a shame that King Ballard has made Indianapolis into Chicago south with all of the rampant corruption.
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How many of these 1,259 bills were actually heard and voted on on the floor vs how many were shot down in committee?
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When a an arrogant young guy with essentially no experience and no qualifications for the job, was dropped into an Administrator position out of nowhere by his "mentor" in the Mayor's office things seemed fishy. Sometimes things are what they seem.
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Don't sweat Burl, he hates auto racing and the IRL in particular.
The rest pretend that the Colts, the Superbowl and the NFL do little for Indy.
If a 1 minute commercial for the Superbowl runs $3 mil, how much ad time is Indy going to get with a season, the playoffs, two weeks of build up and 12 hours plus of pre game and game going to do for Indy.
That does not include all the publicity Indy gets from having the team here, the conventions here etc....
But we have been through all this before.
Jacksonville was in the 50's for the Superbowl they had, not quite golf or swim weather. Atlanta had an ice storm their Superbowl and Dallas is in the 30's and 40's this week. Lets not forget the monsoon Miami had.
Since Indy knows it has cold weather and it is built for it, they can pull off an incredible Superbowl and avoid the problems surprise weather can cause.
1. Homelessness and panhandling
2. Housing (either tear ones down or more renovation)
3. Jobs
4. Transportation (Indygo/Light-rail)
5. Education (Making Indy a College Hub(Satellite campus of ND, and BSU)
6. Development (too many surface parking lots)
7. Modifying that horrible parking meter deal.
We get all money for other events held at the stadium, although ticket revenue is just a small portion of the benefits of LOS.
Where the City and State cash in on LOS is the money the events that come here bring in and the new development lured here by the stadium.
Income tax from the workers who are directly and indirectly employed because of the stadium. the sales tax, hotel/motel tax food and beverage taxes, gas tax, airport taxes and so forth and so on. Property taxes paid by businesses that locate here primarily because of the stadium.
Those areas are where Indy and the State greatly benefit. Add to it, the publicity that Indy gets for every major event held here. The Colts-Jets playoff game was the highest rated wild card game in 11 years. Almost 30 million people watched it. And they got to see and here about Indianapolis after coming out of every commercial break. How much is that kind of publicity worth? Indy typically plays in the highest rated games which is milions of eyeballs and ears seeing and hearing about Indy and what it has to offer.
1. Homelessness and panhandling
Hard to do more than we currently are. There are several groups, but government and private setup to help the homeless. Of course as WISH-TV pointed out, not all panhandlers are homeless and many of the homeless prefer to be and refuse permanent help. LOS does help them, by bringing more people downtown, there is more chance for them to find suckers.
2. Housing (either tear ones down or more renovation)
Every city is having this issue. You tear down houses and you are left with empty lots. Ballard did announce that millions from the sale of IWC is going to work on this problem. Not sure how LOS affects it either way.
3. Jobs
LOS is responsible for many new jobs. Be they construction jobs for it and the many other buildings being built because of it, or the jobs because of service businesse opening up because of LOS, or the jobs because of businesses that are opening because they were lured here by LOS.
4. Transportation (Indygo/Light-rail)
The City is working on a regional solution to this. LOS is bringing more people to Indy from the suburbs which obviously increases the chances suburbanites would understand and support mass transit.
5. Education (Making Indy a College Hub
(Satellite campus of ND, and BSU)
Indy three world class Universities, Butler, IUPUI and U of I. Why would ND and BSU want to move into an already crowded college market? How would LOS affect it one way or the other?
6. Development (too many surface parking lots)
The majority of the disappearing surface lots are directly related to projects that have been encouraged by LOS.
7. Modifying that horrible parking meter deal.
LOS has some impact on that? Personally anything that brings us millions of dollars that our Council does not have the balls to raise is a good thing. Why have our meter rates been the same for 30 years and the meter technology from about the same era? What Council member is going to vote to raise taxes (parking fees)?