[IndyGuy]

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seriously, why the hell do the Colts have a dome?


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I know this is just a troll, but I hear it often enough I'll respond anyway.

The Hoosier/RCA Dome was built before Indy had an NFL team. It was built to entice a team to come here, but it's also part of the convention center which has become a pretty big business in Indianapolis. It also was designed to host basketball events (as another poster noted, basketball is king here) such as the NCAA tourney and the highschool state finals which also draw crowds bigger than other facilities could accomodate.

That said, construction is already underway on a new retractible-roof stadium here. A big part of the selling point for the new stadium was that the existing dome could be torn down to allow the convention center to expand so that existing conventions wouldn't outgrow Indianapolis and go elsewhere.

The weather isn't as much of a factor. It's my impression that people here could care less about just the cold tempatures for games, but sitting through a game in freezing rain (which is more common here than snow) really sucks.