05/52 -- The Day After

Pandora-no-hako has added a photo to the pool:

Indy put on a truly super Super Bowl, and while it's going to be nice to get our city back to normal, part of me is going to miss the hype and excitement.

I took the NFL "Behind the Scenes" tour of Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Indianapolis Colts and of Super Bowl XLVI, on Monday evening. I was expecting the place to be a bit of a mess less than 24 hours after the Super Bowl, and I wasn't disappointed. But I was also impressed by how much clean-up and tear-down had already been accomplished. In fact, I was little dismayed by how much of the Super Bowl signage and decoration had already been torn down -- I was hoping they would leave most of that in place for the last two days of the stadium tours.

This is the view from the Quarterback Suite. If you don't have a private suite but don't want to sit in the stands, the Quarterback Suite is a 200-seat public suite with an amazing view -- this amazing view! Our tour guide couldn't give us ticket prices, but one of the staffers saw a QB Suite ticket on Sunday with a face value of $1700.

The confetti is still piled along the sidelines, the field is still painted for the Super Bowl, and the crew was working to tear down all of the special lighting and sound rigging from Madonna's halftime show.

It's been a crazy couple of weeks here in Indy, but it's been a lot of fun, even for someone like me who really doesn't care about football. The Super Bowl committee, the army of volunteers, the police, and everyone who worked so hard on Super Bowl XLVI did an amazing job! The city was festive, clean, and safe. I love this town -- Yay Indy!