THE 317: Big Game Activities Outside of Indianapolis
Not all The Big Game festivities are happening in downtown Indianapolis. If you’re looking for things to see and do outside the Epicenter of Awesome, Hendricks County, Ind., has plenty to offer visitors and residents leading up to the NFL’s big game.
Where is Hendricks County?
Hendricks County is just west of Indianapolis, and its county seat is Danville. Its three main population centers—Brownsburg, Avon, and Plainfield—butt right up against Indianapolis. Take Interstate 74 west of Indy, and you’ll land in Brownsburg. Take U.S. Highway 36 (Rockville Road) west, and you’ll be in Avon. Take Interstate 70 west, and you’ll end up in Plainfield. In fact, if you fly into Indianapolis Airport, you can practically throw a rock from baggage claim into Plainfield.
Activities in Hendricks County
Josh Duke of the Hendricks County Convention and Visitors Bureau put together a nice compilation of some of the activities being offered around the county for residents and Super Bowl XLVI visitors. Some of the offerings that caught my attention as a sports fan include:
Super Fanbowl: On Jan. 28 from noon to 4 p.m., come on over to the Metropolis Shopping Center in Plainfield, decked out in the gear of your favorite NFL team, even if they just narrowly missed the Super Bowl like our Indianapolis Colts did. We welcome fans of the New York Giants, the San Francisco 49ers, and the Baltimore Ravens. (Oh, alright. We promise to be nice to any New England Patriots fans, too.) Head over to the new Event Center—located right above Journey’s, which is No. 57 on this map—to play games and win prizes. Test your driving skills on a head-to-head Indy 500 racing simulator, eat some food, and participate in other fun activities.
Video Game Tournament: Think you’d be tough to beat on a football field? Then try your hand at one of the four full-sized stand-up NFL Blitz video games at the Metropolis Event Center from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. daily between Jan. 30 and Feb. 3. The game will be free to play, and the person who earns each day’s high score will win a free ticket to the NFL Experience in downtown Indianapolis. You might want to start limbering up now.
Super Cars: Here in central Indiana, we love football and we love racing. So it just came naturally to us to combine our two passions into Super Cars—Indy racing cars painted to represent each of the 32 NFL teams. They’ll be on display in downtown Indianapolis from Jan. 27-29, and then dispersed throughout the metropolitan area. From Feb. 2-5 at the Metropolis Shopping Center, Hendricks County will have one of those cars on display. Flanking that NFL Indy car will be two other race cars from Hendricks County—one from Don Schumacher Racing and one from John Force Racing. Both racing teams operate out of Brownsburg. Bring your camera!
Free Shuttle
Hendricks County will also be providing fans with a free shuttle from the Metropolis Shopping Center to downtown Indianapolis on Feb. 3 and 4, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on a first-come, first-serve basis. Given that navigating a vehicle in downtown Indy during the Big Game festivities is going to require more patience than I possess, this free shuttle service is right up my alley.
Want to Learn More?
For more events and information, check out Duke’s article and visit Hendricks County’s Super Site.
To learn more about what Hendricks County has to offer in general—where to shop, where to stay, where to eat, and where to play—check out TourHendricksCounty.com.
