Fewer assistant coaches will watch those prospects run through drills in person this year, and downtown Indianapolis bars and restaurants should be quieter as many of the on-field drills move from morning and afternoon into prime time.
Read MoreWith a late-night vote, on the slim majority approval of the 32 team representatives, the NFL Players Association was preparing Wednesday to send the collective bargaining agreement proposal to the full union membership for potential ratification.
The extension, announced Wednesday, means Indianapolis will keep the event through at least 2021. It has hosted the combine since 1987.
Indianapolis is making moves to host the NFL Draft in coming years, but it’s unlikely the city will aggressively pursue it until a slew of previously scheduled events have occurred.
The five-day NFL Combine has been hosted in Indianapolis since 1987, and efforts are underway to ensure the showcase calls the city home for the next several years.
Mike Fox, who spent 33 years as stadium director at Lucas Oil Stadium and the Hoosier Dome, will now oversee facility operations at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Visit Indy projects the launch of the Combine’s first fan activity zone will increase the 30-year-old event’s economic impact 25 percent, to a total of some $10 million.
Mathematic and scientific advancement have taken player appraisal to places far beyond 40-yard dash times, bench-press repetitions and vertical leaps.
Football fans see the annual NFL Scouting Combine as a chance to see players’ times, jumps and drills. NFL executives are just as interested in getting behind-the-scenes answers through medical checks and personal interviews.
Indianapolis has hit pay dirt with a multiyear deal intended to keep the lucrative NFL Scouting Combine here through 2020, just as competition to host the high-profile event intensifies.
Unite Here, a Chicago-based hotel workers union, has been trying to organize employees at the Westin Indianapolis, Hyatt Regency
Indianapolis and Sheraton Indianapolis Hotel & Suites.
The two sides held their latest round of negotiations in an Indianapolis hotel ballroom as the league’s annual scouting combine
began.
The NFL has signed Maryland-based Under Armour Inc. as the presenting sponsor for the 2009 NFL Scouting Combine, which will
be held at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
