INDIANAPOLIS -
The Super Bowl may have put Indianapolis in the worldwide spotlight, but a new survey says it didn't do much to change the city's image.
Competitive Edge Research, a national opinion research firm based in San Diego, has been conducting surveys on people's impressions of Super Bowl host cities for the past nine years.
Its survey about Indianapolis polled a total of 1,000 people across the country before and after the Super Bowl, asking for their impressions.
It found that 73% of Americans had no impression of Indianapolis before the game and 72% had no impression after.
Those saying they had a very positive or somewhat positive impression of Indy prior to the Super Bowl was 23% and went up just one point to 24% afterwards.
"You can make the argument that Indianapolis exposed itself very well and did a good job for those who showed up for the game, but on the national level, that advertising level that everyone thinks the Super Bowl is, it didn't work out that way. [Indianapolis] didn't hit a home run," said John Nienstedt, Competitive Edge Research.
People living in the Central Time Zone had a more favorable impression of Indianapolis compared with the rest of the country. That figure increased from 22% prior to the Super Bowl to 33% after and for Hoosiers in particular jumped from 70 to 100%. Those in the Mountain Town Zone had the poorest numbers of all - with 86% saying they had no impression of Indianapolis after the game.
The manager of Scotty's Brewhouse expressed surprise at the findings, noting his downtown restaurant and bar did "a record business" during the Super Bowl.
"Everyone thought this was the greatest city ever," said Dave Hornak.
The bar also got several plugs, including one from The Today Show.
Chris Gahl with the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association said the survey is just "one barometer" for measuring the impact of the Super Bowl.
"We also look at spending and how many times Indianapolis is mentioned," Gahl said, noting that "95% of the coverage was positive."
He said convention officials also pay close attention to what the corporate decision-makers think, as they're the ones who may decide to host meetings or conventions here.
In the nine years the survey has been done, only two cities saw a bump in their image after hosting the Super Bowl: San Diego and Tampa. Miami and Dallas both took hits after being overshadowed by bad weather.
The other host cities, much like Indianapolis, saw little or no change in their images.
