The Super Bowl is expected to stimulate not only Indianapolis's economy, but also surrounding areas, including Muncie, said Michael Hicks, associate professor of economics.

With all of the activity surrounding the metropolitan area, Indianapolis is anticipating around 150,000 visitors. Hotels are expected to be at 100 percent occupancy throughout all of Marion County, and economists are predicting this game will continue to stimulate the city's economy once the tourists have left.

"Sixty thousand or so are going to see the game in the stadium; the rest are family and friends and attendees," Hicks said. "They're going to spend money; they're going to stay in the hotels; they're going to buy food and drink and brochures and T-shirts and everything else.

"Added to that is going to be the response of the community to the Super Bowl. Part of that is all the advanced construction that you've seen over the past couple months, but more of it is going to be positioning Indianapolis to be a tourism destination down the road. Hosting a Super Bowl is a gateway to being a top-tier community for tourism and conventions and those sorts of things."

Super Bowl Host Committee Marketing Coordinator McKenze Rogers said she anticipates the city will bring in from $150 million to $400 million. Hicks calculated similar numbers based on recent Super Bowl earnings and the fact that this is Indianapolis' first year hosting the event.

Hicks said the amount of people attending the festivities will greatly outnumber the rooms available in Indianapolis and Marion County, forcing many fans to travel as far north as Muncie for the duration. This will result in not only customers for Muncie lodging but also local restaurants, bars and shops.

The only thing that might affect attendance is the central Indiana weather, considering that this is only the fourth northern city to host the Super Bowl in its 46-year history. Luckily, this week's forecast is not anticipating anything extreme in terms of temperature or precipitation.

"It's definitely not going to be as much fun walking around the streets of Indianapolis as it would be in New Orleans, but I don't think the weather, unless it's a drastic snow storm, would greatly affect attendance," Hicks said. "Tickets right now are going at $3,000 and $4,000 a pop, so I don't think the prospect of bad weather is going to keep people away."

What separates the Indianapolis Super Bowl environment from cities that have hosted the event in the past, such as Miami, is that it is condensed enough so visitors can travel easily from attraction to attraction. While the Miami setup was spread from Ft. Lauderdale to the Florida Keys, the Indianapolis events will almost all be within a mile of the stadium.

Despite the difficulty of travel during this hectic time in the central Indiana area, Ball State students are still making plans to visit the Super Bowl events over the course of the next week. Rebecca White, a junior general studies major, said she is not only excited about attending, but also about how beneficial this is for the state itself.

"A lot of people from different states think that Indiana is just made up of a bunch of small towns, with not a whole lot to offer," White said. "But people are going to learn a lot more about Indianapolis and Indiana in general. Hopefully they'll realize how great of a city it is, because it seems like most people don't know enough about it."