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    Indianapolis' Pre-Super Bowl Festivities -- Bust or Boom?

    By Dan McGinnis | Yahoo! Contributor Network – Sun, Feb 5, 2012
    This story comes from the Yahoo! Contributor Network, where individuals publish their unique perspectives on some of the world’s most popular websites.
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    COMMENTARY | Indianapolis had some mixed things happen during its pre-Super Bowl festivities this weekend. The free concerts in downtown on Friday night sent nearly a dozen people to the hospital and nearly two dozen to jail, which is a bit expected from large gatherings. But at the same time, dozens of volunteers turned out to help refurbish the houses of those in need.

    Nearly 50,000 people jammed downtown streets for a free concert by LMFAO, Associated Press reported. But Mother Nature didn't cooperate and the city police did a lousy job of preparing for more such a massive crowd that showed up. What bright city official didn't think a Super Bowl concert would attract a crowd?

    The annual football rite is the largest sports event of the year -- but evidently some high mucky-muck in Indianapolis didn't get the memo because someone failed to prepare for a crowd of that size. I would expect city officials in a large metropolitan community to be better prepared with contingency plans for all sorts of crowd control situations, especially when a free concert is announced in days leading to the Super Bowl.

    Saturday night's concert was a lot more organized, mainly because 750 police officers hit the streets to maintain order. Fortunately, both nights attracted relatively peaceful crowds or the entire downtown area could have been wrecked. The Indianapolis Star reported police broke up several fights and made a few arrests Saturday night, but mainly fans were out to have a good time, and that's what it is all about.

    Indianapolis residents should be most proud of the wave of volunteers that turned out last week to help families in need. The Indianapolis Star reported the NFL's Kickoff to Rebuild program attracted volunteers, skilled carpenters and a few football players to help senior citizens and other needy families with large and small remodeling jobs -- all free of charge. They painted, laid new floors and did minor repairs for some of the neediest families in town. Now that's something to be proud of Indianapolis.

    So the pregame festivities were pretty good this year. We will forgive the police, who could have done a better job with crowd control and give a very big "Thank you" to all the truly big-hearted people who helped their neighbors.

     

    3 comments

    • Kyle
      Kyle  •  Indianapolis, Indiana  •  3 mths ago
      Oh, and by the way Dan, there were free concerts ALL week on two different stages in the Super Bowl Village. Again, I did not see any major problems and enjoyed the free shows. If you plan on trying to write a news article, even if it is a "commentary," you might consider actually ATTENDING the events prior to writing about them. I know that is just so old-fashioned journalism....
    • Kyle
      Kyle  •  Indianapolis, Indiana  •  3 mths ago
      Did you even go downtown? I was in downtown Indy on four different occasions this week. I did not see any major problems with crowds or police. I have lived in Chicago, NYC, Toronto, Denver, Baltimore and Indy. I have seen many large crowds and major events. The city handled this very well. I heard a few visitors received "scraped knees" during a push of fans during the concert you mentioned. If a scraped knee is the big problem for the week, no worries. Dan, you truly need to get out more often and visit other cities so you can compare. Indy did a great job!
    • Andre232
      Andre232  •  Rochester, New York  •  3 mths ago
      "We will forgive the police..."What an #$%$
      • looseyc
        looseyc 3 mths ago
        10 minor injuries, and 20 arrests in a crowd of 50 thousand and you think Indy failed? Really? Were you there? I was. A lot of people? Yes! Alot of fun? Yes!Trouble - nope!
     Post a comment
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