About Lucas Oil Stadium
Lucas Oil Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. It replaced the RCA Dome as the home field of the NFL's Indianapolis Colts and opened on August 16, 2008. The stadium also serves as the current venue for the Big Ten Football Championship Game and hosts the annual NFL Scouting Combine.
The stadium features a retractable roof and a large retractable window on the north end, allowing for an open-air feel while protecting from the elements. The design, with its brick facade, is inspired by the classic fieldhouses of Indiana, blending in with the historic architecture of the city. It has a seating capacity of 67,000.
Widely praised for its accessibility and fan amenities, Lucas Oil Stadium hosted Super Bowl XLVI in 2012. The ability to control the climate makes it a fast track for offenses and a comfortable venue for fans. It acts as a major economic engine for Indianapolis, connected directly to the convention center.
The venue is owned by the Indiana Stadium and Convention Building Authority, a special-purpose public entity created by the Indiana General Assembly in April 2005 to finance the 720-million-dollar construction using an increment of the state's regional food-and-beverage tax. The Irsay family's Colts organisation contributed 100 million dollars of the total cost and holds a 30-year lease running through 2039 with two five-year renewal options. The Lucas Oil naming-rights deal signed in February 2006 for 121.5 million dollars across twenty years is with the eponymous automotive-lubricant manufacturer founded in 1989 by California-born entrepreneur Forrest Lucas, whose surname is displayed on the venue's exterior in a serif Roman font specifically chosen to evoke automotive-parts packaging aesthetics. The Colts moved to Indianapolis from Baltimore in the middle of the night on 28 March 1984 in a fleet of Mayflower Transit trucks organised by then-owner Robert Irsay.