Indianapolis Ideas Sought

Hello All --

I have a friend moving to downtown Indianapolis soon who I may go visit in about a month or so. We have looked for sports-oriented stuff to do, but other than the Colts -- which, obviously has become a sellout situation -- is there anything anybody can recommend doing over a weekend in Indy? Please note, neither of us may have a car at the time.

Any thing the SportsJournalists.commers can come up with would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

The Colts won't be playing in a month, but the AAA Indianapolis Indians will be. Victory Field is very nice. It's within walking distance of downtown, tickets are cheap and you can watch studs like Craig Wilson try to rekindle their Major League dreams.

Other sports related stuff: NCAA Hall of Champions is there. It's not really all that cool, but it's not very expensive (like $3 if I remember correctly). It's not very far from Victory Field.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway has a great museum and grounds tour. They take you all around the track and show things like the timing pagoda, press area (woo hoo!) and a garage. It's worth a trip, honestly...if you can find a way to that side of town.

 

If you camp out, maybe you can get a good seat at an NCAA recruiting violations hearing.

 

Victory Field is lovely. Sit in the grass bank in the outfield ... really cool way to take in a ballgame.

 

Indianapolis Zoo. Great zoo, kid friendly.

 

Summer in Indy pretty much blows, but check out the downtown bars and Broad Ripple if it suits your fancy.

 

You might try catching a Fever game, even if you don't like the WNBA. The Fieldhouse is worth checking out. It's fantastic.

 

I don't know if you can watch a game at the Slippery Noodle, but you can drink there. And I'd say that's good enough.

 

Couple of good brewpubs there, as I recall. In fact, I think I brought back a growler or two from Alcatraz (under the Circle Centre Mall). Believe the NCAA Hall of Champions is still closed after a fire, but I'll check on that. Maybe you can sneak into Lucas Oil Stadium for an impromptu tour? We did that at the RCA Dome when we were out there.

And dittoes on Conseco. Very cool place.

 

Whatever you do, don't go in the water with 1,100 men. Only 316 will come out. The sharks will take the rest.[/Quint]

 

Victory Field can be a nice place to spend a summer night. There's also a couple of museums in that area, and one of them has an Imax theater within. And one of the cool things about Conseco is that the concourses are essentially basketball museums, with displays full of all things related to Indiana hoops.

If you do have wheels, the speedway tour is interesting even if you aren't a racing fan. And on one trip to Indy I drove out to the Butler campus to check out the Hinkle Fieldhouse of "Hoosiers" fame. It was summer and the place was open for camps or some such, so I just walked in and looked around and soaked up the history for a few minutes.