If you are making the trip to Indianapolis do yourself a favor and make the drive up to 49th street and visit Hinkle Fieldhouse. It truly is a great place to watch a basketball game.
On the NE side where some have indicated they will be staying there is a good sports bar, CHAMPS. Located at Keystone at the Crossing on 86th street. There are several other good places to eat at Keystone and along 86th street.
Downtown has several sports bars, bars and clubs. Almost all are walking distance to the hotels in the downtown area and a 20-25 min cab to the NE or NW side of town. CHAMPS has a place downtown at circle center too. If you can still get reservations and want to eat at a great steakhouse then go to St Elmos, www.stelmos.com. There are many quality places to dine in the downtown area and like the bars you can walk to most places. FYI Beer stops flowing in the downtown area at midnight sunday, city ordinance.
Broadripple is close to Butler and is quite fun. I have a kid at Butler and they party over there a fair amount. I did my graduate work in Indy back in the 80's and it was a hopp'in area of town then and still appears that way now. It is located slightly NE of Butler on 62nd street. Good places to eat and catch a live band. I'd say you current students would enjoy this area. Mapquest it and its easy to find off 62nd street.
I was born April 1, 1994, the year Duke lost to Arkansas in the national title game. Ever since though, my dad has turned me into the biggest sports fan that i know. Now I am 15 years old and live in Brownsburg, Indiana. Although i live in Indiana i am a huge Duke basketball fan. In 2006, the final four was in indianapolis and I was 11 and absolutley in awe of all the festivities and all of the people around the down town area and I wanted to go to the games very badly even though Duke was not playing. However, my family nor myself had enough money to buy even one ticket. So from that day on I decided to save up all the money that i would obtain until 2010 to go to the final four the next time it was in Indianapolis. I did that and kept saying i would go no matter what even if Duke didn't make it. But once this years season started i decided i was only going to go if Duke made the final four and if they didnt spend my money on other things of interest. So now on Sunday Duke was one game closer to making it to the final four and once they had won it was just so amazing to know that they had won and were coming to Indy and saving up all that money was worth it. I will be at the West Virginia game this saturday night and hopefully if duke wins again on Monday night. This has been a dream come true for me and i just wanted to share my little story with some Duke fans.
Last, I just want to know who else will be inside Lucas Oil stadium on Saturday night.
Lets go Duke!
Does anyone who has been to these games before know if they sell actual Duke gear in the arena, or is just the generic Final Four stuff with all 4 teams? Trying to decide whether I need to order rush order a new shirt, or if I can get one at the game ...
Are you sure they didn't say 141-153 instead of 151 and 153? And what about the 200-level seats? I'll be shocked if the lower level seats allotted to Duke--or to any of the other three participating schools--are all located in two sections of the end zones, and are not directly below the upper level seats allocated to the same school. Unless they change the customary practice this year, the National Association of Basketball Coaches (which convenes annually at the Final Four) will be assigned the mid-court seating section, and then the 4 participating schools will be assigned the flanking sections, with each quarter usually running from about the top of the key into the the end zone. (That arrangement conveniently ensures that fans of the teams actually playing populate the seating sections that appear on TV during the games. Lottery winners are typically relegated to the upper levels, including the "distant view" seats, which is like watching the game from the 10th floor of a building four blocks away.) In any event, there's no way that the Duke section would be separated by another section (152), and I doubt it is limited to just four sections.
They usually have gear for each of the individual teams, but it is the NCAA version, rather than the Duke store version. They also sometimes run out of the individual stuff pretty quickly. Having said that, there should be eight or nine hundred thousand shops selling shirts, hats, etc., all over the downtown area.
Another poster (sciencegeek) posted this in the Ticket Exchange earlier today:
This makes a lot more sense. Each fanbase gets a corner.In case anyone is interested....
According to the Duke Ticket Office (I just called), the Duke sections are Sections 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 152, 153, 642 and 643.
And one of those sections will be occupied by me.
In an effort to save what little money I have, I'll try to come up for the championship game if we beat WVU. Hope to see some of you there!
Just found out there is a new NCAA dress code put in place for the Final Four in Indy this year . . . NO HEELS!
FYI, discounts on the cultural attractions I mentioned for ticket holders:
http://www.ncaa.com/auto_pdf/p_hotos..._pdf/Tour-Indy
Finally was able to arrange logistics to leave friday for Indy...yeah!
Leaving Raleigh friday morning with hubby--we have room for 2 others in case anyone needs a ride...we will be coming back sunday though so we'll be here monday night.
Im booking the Drury Inn--noticed there are two in about the same location--which one? or does it matter?
Thanks--booked the same place--Drury Inn and Suites NE. Looking forward to it.
maybe we should post something down front/lobby area for the hotel party/social gathering? Ive been to conferences in Indy before--looking forward to walking around Saturday...
In general, Indy isn't the most "hopping" town around, but there is a fun, funky neighborhood not too far from downtown with tons of nightlife and good restaurants that I'd recommend. Letterman used to do stand-up comedy there back when. The area is called Broad Ripple. Check out this link:
http://www.pubclub.com/indy/broadripple.htm
Definitely worth hanging out there in the evenings, especially with a big event in town. Have fun!!
There will be "Official Final Four Apparel" (temporary) stores sprinkled around the downtown area. Think lots of "Final Four" -logo'd hats, shirts, jackets, license plate brackets, etc. Some with the logos of the four schools, and some not.
Obviously some apparel booths inside the stadium but the wait will be longer probbably (and prices higher?). Have fun - plenty of opportunities to spend money, for sure.
Broad Ripple and downtown have pretty equal bar scenes.
Broad Ripple is six miles directly north of downtown, is more the college age crowd, and is about a mile from Butler's campus. This will be Butler central...
One of the great things about when Indy hosts is that the downtown is pretty compact and there will be lots going on from the nightlife perspective.