Lucas Oil Stadium - New Home of the Indianapolis Colts

The Indianapolis Colts are enjoying their stay at their new home - the Lucas Oil Stadium. The stadium is a retractable roof stadium located in Indianapolis, Indiana which opened in the second half of 2008. The new stadium replaces the RCA Dome which was the long time home of the Colts. This stadium is constructed in preparation for the Super Bowl XLVI to be held in 2012. Aside from the stadium, a new high-rise JW Marriot Indianapolis is being constructed as part of the preparation for the Super Bowl.

The architectural firm behind the design of the new stadium is HKS, Inc. with Walter P. Moore as the structural engineer. Similar to other stadium, the Lucas Oil Stadium has a retractable roof and window wall which allows the Colts to play outdoors. The concept of kinetic architecture was utilized in the design of the stadium for it to be a multi-functional facility with the ease of conversion for an increased return of investment.

The rights to name the stadium was purchased by Lucas Oil for approximately $120 million for 20 years, thus it is fondly nicknamed as The Luke by some commentators. Despite the state-of-the-art facilities of the new home of the Indianapolis Colts, a retro look is inculcated in the design as a result of Indianapolis's liking of a field house appearance of sports venues which were popular a few decades ago. The construction of the stadium costs $720 million which was raised through a cooperative effort from the government of Indiana and the Colts.

The seating capacity of the new stadium for football games is 5,000 more than the old one. Now, 63,000 fans can watch from the sidelines during the game. In the event that Indiana will host the Super Bowl, this seating capacity can be increased to 70,000. For basketball games, the seating capacity of the facility can go beyond 70,000. Features of the new stadium includes two huge Daktronics HD scoreboards each measuring 97 feet wide and 53 feet tall and located in the northwest and southeast corners of the stadium.

The retractable roof of the Lucas Oil Stadium was designed by Uni-Systems. The roof divides lengthwise into two retractable panels, each sliding down the slope of the roof of the stadium when it is open. Each panel weighs 2.7 million pounds each. It takes nine minutes for the roofs to open, twelve minutes for it to close and is fully automated at that. What is unique about these retractable roofs is that it is the first ever roof that divides lengthwise. However, the entire stadium is not waterproof so the roofs remain close for most of the year.

A peculiar addition to the stadium's design is the large moveable window wall that allow additional light while closed and gives a more open environment when open. This is another first for that stadium since it is the largest movable glass wall in the world. The first NBC Sunday Night Football of the 2008 NFL Season was played in the Lucas Oil Stadium. Unfortunately, the home team wasn't able to grab the win.

Rick Grantham is an avid NFL fan. Most of Rick's articles focus on Indianapolis Colts Merchandise. Many articles are related to NFL blankets and other sports related topics. Rick is a contributing author to BooYah Village

Sunday Night Football - The Weekly Television Broadcast of Sunday Evening National Football League

Sunday Night Football is a weekly television program on NBC that allows you to watch the Sunday evening National Football League games. The first program was telecast on Sunday, August 6, 2006. At present, the program stars Jerome Bettis, Tiki Barber, Dan Patrick, Cris Collinsworth, Keith Olbermann, Bob Costas, Andrea Kremer, and John Madden. The program runs for at least three hours, but the running time may get extended by the time the game is concluded.

Flexible-Scheduling System

Before August 6, 2006, ESPN used to air these Sunday Night Football programs. They aired these Sunday games from the 1987 through 2005 NFL seasons. This NBC television program is the beneficiary of the league's new flexible -scheduling system. NFL has the flexibility to choose games to air on Sunday night from the final seven weeks of the season.

Theme Music And The Theme Song Of The Show

The instrumental theme music for Sunday Night Football has been composed by Academy Award winner John Williams. The broadcast also has a theme song, which was first sung by Pink, but in the 2007 season, the country singer Faith Hill replaced her. Different lyrics have been used for the song depending upon the occasion. Some of the lyrics include "Waiting All Day For Sunday Night", and "Waiting All Year For Opening Night". This theme song resembles the Joan Jett song "I Hate Myself For Loving You".

Scoreboard, Logos, And Graphics

The scoreboard, logos, and graphics of Sunday Night Football have been designed by Troika Design Group. The NBC's show uses the same bottom line scoreboard that Monday Night Football used in the 2005 NFL season.

The 2008 schedule started on April 15. The timing for Sunday Night Football is 8:30 pm, but sometimes, the show starts at 7:00 p.m. - it recently happened on September 4 for the NFL Kickoff Game between the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants and Washington Redskins.

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Enhancing High School Football Running Back Routines

Weightlifting

Let's not forget weightlifting. It is one of the essential elements that will help you improve your game. The benefits of lifting weights are found in added strength, but more importantly it will increase your maximum power. Maximum power should be the goal of your training, because it involves muscle strength and muscle excursion during play. Strong and powerful execution will enable fast plays, quick action, and recognition on the field. We highly recommend working with a personal trainer when weightlifting to insure that you are doing it properly, and to help you design a program that will fit your position.

Staying Hydrated

Drinking plenty of water is all it takes to prevent dehydration, and thus should be an important part of football practices. Each athlete should bring or have a water bottle provided, and they need to use it often. Water should never be used as a motivational or reward type basis. When players are hydrated and energized they will practice harder and learn more.

Powerful Blocking Strategy: Double Teaming

In various plays whether you are on offense or defense you will want to have a strategic advantage over your opponents. A great technique that will give you an advantage on the line is double team blocking. It is basically putting two linemen on one. If you ever need to get a running back through or perform a great blitz, remember this technique. The basics are simple for this technique: First, both players will need to step together, and put their hips together. They form a wall that the opponent cannot break. The double team should focus on the shoulders, and arm pits of the opponent to control dominance. To be effective the double team has to work in a fast blitz like maneuver.

Traditional Driving Block

Simple drives are important for linemen to practice and perfect. Hence the name for the most common drive: the drive block. This drive block means that you are going to push the opponent in the direction that they are aligned. If the Defensive lineman is aligned slightly to the right of the offensive linemen then the drive block with pus the defender to the right. When executing this block start with your play side foot, meaning if the play is on the right side of you it will be your right foot. Connect hard against your opponent, bring your other foot into play and continue to drive in the aligned direction.

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