Downtown Indy will be rocking 66 days from now, but not all Super Bowl visitors will be able to

walk back to their hotel rooms at the end of the night.

 

In fact, most of the 18,000 hotel rooms needed to host the event will be outside of Downtown --

extending into suburbia and even cities as far away as Lafayette and Bloomington.

 

On Wednesday, the 2012 Indianapolis Super Bowl Host Committee named 17 local communities as

"super celebration sites" -- a distinction making them an official host to outside

visitors, even if they're miles away from the heart of the party.

 

"You know, not everyone gets to stay right Downtown where all the cool action is,"

said Karen Radcliff, who helped lead the committee to name the super sites. "It took a

regional effort . . . we had to reach out to hotels.

 

"If the fans are staying far away, we wanted to extend some of that Super Bowl experience

to where they will be."

 

There are only 7,100 rooms in Downtown Indy, but the region has 33,000, according to

Indianapolis Downtown Inc.

 

But the super sites are not only defined as those with hotels, but also those with entertainment

venues and local restaurants. That's why the list ranges from party spots like Broad Ripple and

Mass Ave to major concentrations of hotels in Carmel and the airport area in Plainfield.

 

As a designated super site, local businesses will be encouraged to create as much of a Super

Bowl atmosphere as they can.

 

"We know most visitors will be here for at least four days," said Radcliff, "but

if they are coming in as a vendor or a host, they could be staying up to 10 days or longer.

There's a good chance they may spend some of their time where they are staying."

 

That means they might take in a show at The Palladium in Carmel. Or catch a basketball game on

campus in West Lafayette or Bloomington.

 

At the Greenwood Chamber of Commerce, executive director Christian Maslowski will of course make

sure local restaurants and attractions are included in the visitor's guides handed out to folks

as they arrive at one of the 1,100 rooms along I-65 and U.S. 31 in Johnson County -- but in a

way that celebrates the event taking place in Indianapolis.

 

"We see this as our opportunity to support the host community and provide a unified

front," he said. "We are Greenwood, but we are part of the greater metropolitan area

and we want our visitors to still feel like they are part of that excitement."

 

Call Star reporter Dan McFeely at (317) 444-6253.