The Indianapolis Indians

The Indians are a storied team who have been around forever and beloved by the locals. That's the big plus which drew me to Indianapolis to watch them. The thing which almost drove me away was the downtown location and the crummy seat they sold me.

It's a beautiful stadium located in downtown Indianapolis which was easy enough to get to. However, it does not have parking allocated for it. I drove a circle around it three times before realizing there was parking across the street and then went one more go around because I couldn't get over to turn off. Then I parked and had to stand in line for an automated computer pay system which everyone had to figure out because no one seemed to ever have used it before.

Then I went across the street and into the stadium. It was a nice enough stadium, but I didn't get a really good seat because the Indians' online site refused to sell me anything decent on the lower level (plenty of empty seats down there). So, I had a front row seat on the upper level - with a double bar right in front of my face which interfered with any view I had of the field. Joy. I can't say it's the first time a sports team has sold me a ticket that it shouldn't have because the view was obscured (I'm looking at you Cincinnati Reds and Huntsville Havoc), but that doesn't mean any team which sells this sort of ticket isn't acting in bad faith.

The Indians have an interesting logo which I spent a while trying to figure out before I gave up and went to the internet via my phone. It turns out that in an attempt to retain their traditional name, but have a logo that is not offensive to anyone, they created this thing that nobody recognizes as anything unless it's explained to them. It's a sort of pretty logo, but since all it looks like is part of a quilt, it's utterly useless as an identifier. I bought a hat with it, but rarely wear it because it looks so strange.

All-in-all, Indianapolis has been the most disappointing of the teams on my "must see" list. It's not bad per se and I'm sure if I was local and knew where to park and where not to buy tickets the experience would have been better. The confusing, strange logo doesn't help either. I guess my review of the entire experience could be summed up with one word: meh.