FanHouse Lucas Oil Stadium

INDIANAPOLIS -- On his tippy toes, he might be 5-10, very easy to lose in the enormity of a football stadium where faces look like matrix dots and crowd noise drifts to the ozone. But no one strikes a larger pose in the Midwest today than Tom Izzo, public defender of the Big Ten's battered self-esteem. If trends and hipness start on both coasts in America, college basketball in the heartland also has been taking on an irrelevant, plodding look, to the point I stopped watching.

And I live in Chicago.

When the ball is tipped -- in a sure-to-be blowout of Indiana by Gonzaga -- Saturday at 1:30, it will mark the first time basketball is played in Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the NFL's Indianapolis Colts. While there have been some complaints from fans in the upper levels of the stadium, I personally think it's a phenomenal venue. As I stated in a FanHouse in the Stands for a Colts game, the concourses and exits are designed beautifully. You will rarely feel crowded when trying to reach your seats, and the restroom lines are nowhere near any concession stands.

I'll be very interested to see how everything works out for basketball, but space shouldn't be an issue, since half of the stadium will be unused. You can view a picture of the basketball setup by clicking here. I believe it's going to be a very solid basketball stadium for years to come, with many final fours in its future -- beginning in 2010 and coming back in 2015.

As some of you may or may not know, the Colts are building a new stadium, finally. The new stadium will be called Lucas Oil Stadium and it will be replacing the RCA Dome. Anyways, I figured I'd give out some links to information about the new stadium that I have run across.

First off, there is a PDF online which has a very detailed sketch of the new Lucas Oil Stadium. Some key features to point out from this would include: the retractable roof, the warehouse style design (seems to fit nicely with the Pacers' Conseco Fieldhouse), the retractable front window, among many other things. Check it out, it's a great site.

Next, we have the live webcam. What new stadium is complete without a live webcam? Here is the latest picture. You can easily tell the progress of the construction from that picture. It seems as if the lower level of concrete is nearly all laid. Still far from completion however.

For more details on the new stadium visit this site and scroll down until you see the Lucas Oil Stadium section. The stadium is set to open for the beginning of the 2008 season.