INDIANAPOLIS — It is a big weekend for sports fans in Indianapolis as businesses gear up for the Indy Classic and the Colts game Saturday.
Gainbridge Fieldhouse will host the Indy Classic with Ball State taking on Indiana State and Purdue University taking on Arizona, the number one team in the country.
At the same time, the Colts will take on the Steelers. Earlier in the afternoon Ball State plays against Indiana State.
This comes just a couple of weeks after Indy hosted the Big 10 Championship, bringing in thousands of people.
Restaurants near Gainbridge Fieldhouse and Lucas Oil Stadium are expecting to see big revenue from it.
Joel Reitz, who is the co-owner of O'Reilly’s Irish Pub, said they are hosting the Indiana State Alumni Association.
“We do these large crowds in Indianapolis,” Reitz said. “Indianapolis is a great place to host events as everybody knows. My staff is excited. It’s a great time to earn some extra money head of the holidays.”
The owner of the Slippery Noodle, near Lucas Oil Stadium, said both events happening on a Saturday are going to drive up business.
“When the game is on a Sunday we are standing room only probably by 11:30 a.m.,” said Sean. “People get here early and line up to get here ahead of time. Throw that on a Saturday where there’s normally a pretty good crowd, then on top of that the basketball games, it’s going to be madness down here which is great.”
Both owners said they are fully staffed and stocked with food and beverages to take on the large crowds.