Replacing an Indianapolis Icon

Before Lucas Oil Stadium, the Colts called the RCA Dome home for over two decades. While the Dome served the franchise well during a period of sustained success, the team and city eventually pursued a new venue built for the modern NFL experience — wider concourses, premium seating options, and the kind of flexible, multi-use design that could host more than just football games.

A Retractable Roof, A Year-Round Venue

Lucas Oil Stadium’s most distinctive architectural feature is its retractable roof, which allows games to be played outdoors in good weather while still offering full enclosure during Indiana’s colder months. That flexibility has made the building useful well beyond football season, hosting other major sporting and entertainment events throughout the calendar year and turning it into one of the more versatile stadiums in the league.

A Downtown Address That Changes the Atmosphere

Unlike stadiums built in suburban areas surrounded by parking lots, Lucas Oil Stadium sits directly in downtown Indianapolis, within walking distance of hotels, restaurants, and the rest of the city’s core. That proximity shapes the entire game-day atmosphere — fans flow from downtown bars and restaurants straight into the stadium, and the building itself has become a visible, permanent part of the city’s skyline rather than a destination fans only visit a handful of times a year.

A stadium built downtown doesn’t just host football games. It becomes part of the daily backdrop of the city around it.

Hosting the League’s Biggest Stage

The stadium’s design and downtown setting made it a natural choice to host a Super Bowl in the years following its opening, alongside a related slate of citywide events that brought significant attention to Indianapolis. Few moments demonstrated the venue’s capabilities, and the city’s readiness to host events of that scale, as clearly as that week did.

By the Numbers

More Than a Building

For a fan base that has fully embraced the team as part of the city’s identity, Lucas Oil Stadium represents the physical home of that relationship. It’s where decades of future memories will be made, in the same way the Hoosier Dome and RCA Dome held the memories of the franchise’s earlier Indianapolis years.