By Zach Crenshaw and Scott Swan
INDIANAPOLIS - Changes are already happening around Indianapolis in preparation for Super Bowl XLVI on February 5th. One of the most notable transformations will involve the decorations and banners that cover the city.
The company charged with creating the look for the Super Bowl is Indianapolis-based Sport Graphics, located on the east side. Sport Graphics, which handled all of the signage for last year's Super Bowl in Dallas, is working a little closer to home this year.
With downtown a mere 15-minute drive from the manufacturing plant, Sport Graphics worked with the NF and set out to make more signs and banners than ever before.
"If you threw all the elements together and the décor, easily over a thousand signs, easily. Some of them no bigger than a one-foot by one-foot sign and some of them are going to be as big as the hotels in town", said CEO and Founder of Sport Graphics, Frank Hancock.
The employees of Sport Graphics have been preparing designs, banners and décor since last May and they won't be done till tear-down during the weeks following the big game. The banners, window adhesive, and signs will go up throughout the city on streetscapes and buildings, the Indianapolis International Airport, and full hotels like the JW Marriot.
Creating the Super Bowl image for Indy is quite different from last year's game in Dallas. Instead of creating décor for over 400 square miles the company is packing more than ever in an area of roughly four square miles.
"The downtown is where you are going to see the significant difference. They'll incorporate a lot of images outside on buildings and hotels and streetscapes," said Hancock.
With the game being played in its own backyard, Sport Graphics is excited to provide for the city it has called home for over 25 years.
"For myself, I was born in Indianapolis and been here my entire life. I personally take a lot of pride to see what's happening within my own town," Hancock said.
Sport Graphics has supplied the Pacers, the Final Four, the Super Bowl and countless others. While Hancock declined to comment on the specifics of this year's Super Bowl deal, he did say, "It's a great relationship with the NFL and we're very happy to do it for them."
In the coming weeks, airports will be covered, hotels coated and cities engulfed. Hancock promises a super spectacle.
"This will basically engulf our whole city and central Indiana. It will be something like no one has ever seen."
