From Naptown Buzz:

Scotty’s Brewhouse:

Yats: Delicious Cajun and Creole dishes. Did I mention that they’re delicious?!

Papa Roux: Po-Boys, King Cake & other goodies. Special Hours: 10:30am-8:00pm.

Zydeco’s: Various Cajun & Creole dishes. Located in Mooresville, Indiana. Normally closed on Tuesday’s, so I’d give them a buzz first.

Nawlins Creole Cafe: Various Cajun & Creole dishes including an Alligator Sausage Po-Boy (don’t knock it until you try it!). Located in Avon, Indiana. Normally closed on Tuesday’s, so I’d give them a buzz first.

I think that this is the third or fourth year running that I’ve tried to get press credentials for the NFL Scouting Combine that is held here in Indianapolis every year.  And to keep  my 0-fer record in tact I received yet another rejection that goes like this:

We have received your request for media credentials to the 2010 NFL Combine. Unfortunately, due to tremendous demand, we are unable to accommodate your request.

Thank you for your interest in the NFL.

Corry Rush
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE

OK, fair enough. Surge Bucket Media is a small potatoes outlet that currently only publishes online via blogs & podcasts. But what gets me is the whole canned “due to tremendous demand” response that is sent out every year.

This isn’t the Super Bowl. This isn’t the Pro Bowl. This isn’t the NFL Draft. This isn’t a game. This isn’t even something related to a specific team. It’s the NFL Combine where they scout the potential incoming draft picks.

Now I know that there are quite a few people in town for it (just try to go to lunch around the stadium and you’ll see that). But go and take a look at the photos & video from previous Combine’s and you’ll see that there really aren’t that many people in the stands watching. Maybe they’re milling around the stadium or back in the media rooms, or at the food court at Circle Centre Mall, I don’t know, but I don’t believe for one minute that there’s “tremendous demand” if that’s derived at just by the number of good seats in the lower level of Lucas Oil Stadium. (BTW, Indy.com reports that the estimated attendance is 3,400 people.)

Anyway, complaining about it will not do any good. But I just wish for once that the NFL would be honest about it. If you don’t cater to smaller media outlets, please be up front about it. That’s your choice as all attendees are your guests. While that would bum me out a bit, that is something I could totally respect.

That said, as long as it’s held in Indianapolis (I’ve not heard if they extended the contract beyond 2010 or not) I will continue to throw our name in the hat. And who knows, maybe one year we’ll be able to attend.  But in the meantime I’ll sit back with the rest of you doing my best to follow what’s going on down at the Combine.

Hello fellow Indianapolis Colts fans! Please send in your Colts related videos, pictures & voicemails (317-565-4250) and we’ll get them posted to our Show Your Colts section.  Also, be sure to check out the Indianapolis Colts Friendly Establishments list.

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Last weekend I was watching Tim “Tree Boy” Bush report live from The Colts Pro Shop at Lucas Oil Stadium and he carefully ignored the fact the there were Indianapolis Colts thongs hanging on the wall (quite visible in HD though).  But Mary Milz decided to go right for it tonight.

Scroll over to 2 minutes in to watch Mary Milz try to sell the last Indianapolis Colts thong at The Colts Pro Shop at Lucas Oil Stadium.

At least later in the newscast the anchors voted against Bob Kravitz wearing a Speedo next week from Miami.

Some Indy establishments (bars, restaurants, etc) are apparently not Indianapolis Colts friendly.  So we’re putting together a list of where Colts fans are welcome on game day.  If you’d like to add an establishment, please contact us.  Check it out, leave us a message and GO COLTS! Beat those Baltimore Browns on Saturday night! And leave a message for Blue Shotgun Radio at 317-565-4250!

Cabela’s has put their 96 acres in Greenwood up for sale, thus effectively removing any hopes that they will be here in the Hoosier state any time soon, if at all.  Not that I find that surprising (they officially announced that they were pulling out back in July), but it is very unfortunate due to the money that was poured into developing the surrounding area solely based on the announcement of their opening.

The Indy Star also has a brief article about this.

Via the Indy Star:

Lafayette Square Mall management hopes plans to spruce up the mall’s exterior and improve security will help bring back customers and businesses.

“We’re working to re-create the mall as a family-friendly shopping mall,” said Phil Thornton, mall manager, who noted that another of his challenges is to fill space caused by the closure of Macy’s, Sears and Steve & Barry’s stores.

“We’ve experienced tough times like everybody else. We really think it will bring in new tenants,” he said.

I actually went to Lafayette “Scare” Mall on Monday night and I have to say that it has went downhill fast.  Back in the mid-late 1990’s it was renovated and pretty nice, but since then it has quickly went back to how it was before.

I don’t have the time to adequately go into all of the reasons that this may have happened, but in my opinion the blame cannot be placed solely on mall management even though they have clearly been grasping at straws to fill the vacant spaces.  (An old jewelery store filled with cell-phone cases & “bling”? A kiosk full of Kung-fu movies being sold at $12 a pop? Really? Come on guys. And that’s only what I saw in walking less than half of the mall.)

The tenants would also have to take some blame (yes, even the big names like Macy’s) due to their merchandise selection (they clearly didn’t properly evaluate their customer base).  Finding any clothes there for adults beyond athletic attire has been difficult at best for quite some time and I’ve had to head to the suburbs to have any luck.

And in my opinion the city has really dropped the ball in the entire Lafayette Square Corridor, which is probably the biggest issue at hand.  There are numerous vacant spots. Some get filled for a time, but not with anything you’d consider an “anchor”.  And when they do get big name stores to commit, they are given tax incentives to build new buildings.  While I don’t have an issue with new stores coming in (we want that), it seems silly to continuously build new shopping strips which are nice for a while until the tenants clear out for new construction or go out of business (K-Mart, Phar-more, Media Play, Hobby Lobby, Cub Foods, Galyan’s, Value City, Office Depot, Toys R Us, Venture, Waccamaw, Sears, Macy’s, Michael’s, etc.).

I don’t claim to believe that there’s a quick, easy & inexpensive fix, but something has to be done if we don’t want the entire area to be ran down.

But I do honestly think that if the right people were willing and able to invest in the community, we could create something unique that fuels the area, including being a small business incubator.  And we could build on that top of the already existing smorgasbord of ethnic cuisine options we have, which by nature is small business. Who’s in?

Via Reuters:

Healthcare workers in Indiana and Tennessee will be among the first to get swine flu vaccines in the United States on Monday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Call me paranoid (because I probably am), but is this because Indiana and Tennessee are special or because Indiana and Tennessee are “special”.  Now that I personally know of someone who has had Swine Flu / H1N1 (a little kid of course), I’m seriously considering packing up for the winter and finding some backwoods place to hunker down for a while.  OK, only half seriously…or ¾ths…but there’s no way you’ll give me a shot for an experimental vaccination at the moment. And I don’t like the idea of normal flu shots in the first place.

Seriously, if this thing has been as horrible as the media makes it out to be during the summer time, the winter is just going to be hell here in the northern hemisphere. Maybe I could visit my friends in the land down under.

Here is the Indianapolis Colts 2009 preseason and regular season schedule.  Note that games later in the season may be changed due to the NFL’s Flex Schedule starting on Week 11.  If you spot a time change that isn’t listed, please let me know.

2009 PRESEASON

2009 REGULAR SEASON

Via ESPN:

Officials from what will be known as Arena Football 1 said Monday they will have 16 teams ready to play in 2010, including three in former Arena Football League markets: Chicago, Phoenix and Orlando, Fla. The Arizona Rattlers and Orlando Predators played in the old AFL, but the Chicago team will be new to Arena Football 1.

The league will also have teams from the AFL spinoff, arenafootball2, as well as at least one team from another indoor league.

Commissioner Jerry Kurz said it would be a “brand-new league” not connected with the AFL or af2.

“There has been arena football before,” said Kurz, a former af2 commissioner. “It’s been done well but not as good as it’s going to be done this time.”

The few years that we had the Indiana Firebirds here in Indy I absolutely loved it. I was sad when the franchise went belly up and am disappointed that we’re not in the running for a team at the moment. While it’s not the NFL by any means, it is still football and is very entertaining.

I do have one complaint about the new version, and that would be the name.  With the “1″ slapped on the end it just sounds silly. Sort of like how I always get a chuckle when I see “First Baptist Church”, “Second Baptist Church”, “First First Baptist Church”, etc.  If you can’t secure the old name and/or want to differentiate it, rename the baby.

And I do have one concern.  If the old model failed, I’m not sure how they’re going to pull it off this time around.  The argument seems quite similar to what has happened to minor league hockey in recent years.

Here in Indy we had the major league Indianapolis Racers (WHA) in the 1970’s (the first professional team of Wayne Gretzky) which soon went belly up. Then through the years we just kept going down a rung (Indianapolis Checkers (CHL), Indianapolis Checkers (IHL), Indianapolis Ice (IHL), Indianapolis Ice (CHL) & the Indiana Ice(USHL)) to the point we’re left with inferior Junior Hockey which they charge minor league prices for.  Average attendance last year was 3,364.  The average attendance for the recent CHL years was 4,700. And going further back, I don’t have exact numbers in front off me, but I recall the IHL attendance averaging somewhere around 6,000 with many sellouts when we played the Fort Wayne Komets (who have an amazing fan base as far as attendance goes).

All of that hockey history to say, the further down the talent ladder you go, history goes to shows (at least in this city) that attendance suffers.  Which makes perfect sense and can even be said of our professional teams.  While the USHL doesn’t have to worry about that quite as much since they charge the same prices as minor league but don’t pay the players, the same cannot be said of Arena Football (in any form).

And for comparisons sake, the four year attendance average for the Indiana Firebirds was 10,833.  And the Indiana Fever’s average attendance was under 8,000 via the last numbers that I saw.  And of course the Indiana Pacers attendance is higher than both of these, but down in recent years.  And guess what? All three have claimed to be losing money at some point (as have the various minor league hockey teams).  The Pacers losing money makes perfect sense due to poor player decisions (including horrendous buyouts) and fans boycotting them by not buying tickets and merchandise.  But for the others to be losing money would lead me to believe that there are other factors involved since player expenses are far less.  Sure, the draw would have something to do with it, but an average attendance of close to 11,000 sounds pretty darn good to me (if the average ticket price was $15, which is a low figure, that would equate to $165,000 per home game).  After expenses that might not be much, but throw in a good turn of merchandise and refreshments on top of your sponsorships and you should be doing pretty good.  But then again, I’ve lived in Indianapolis my entire life and can say we’re a fickle bunch overall, so maybe things are different elsewhere.

With all of that said, I do wish the new Area Football League luck and sincerely hope you’ve came up with a good business model that can make money while delivering a solid product.