INDIANAPOLIS — Thousands of University of Georgia football fans are making their way to Indianapolis this weekend hoping to witness a Bulldogs national championship win.
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Georgia fans Winn and Kaitlin Merwin said they were not going to let a little cold weather keep them from seeing history.
“We booked it like the first week of December, so we were ready!” Kaitlin Merwin said.
“We knew we’d be here. This is Christmas for us, so it’ll be good,” Winn Merwin said.
And that was what UGA and Alabama fans decided as hotel rooms, game tickets and flights filled up fast.
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An Atlanta article last week suggested Indianapolis was cold, expensive and not the right place to host the College Football Playoff National Championship.
Amy Howell, the director of tourism for Visit Indiana, said the opposite is true.
“We hosted a Super Bowl. We hosted the entire NCAA championship last March, so we have a proven track record that says Indianapolis can do it and do it well, and you combine that with Hoosier hospitality, you can’t beat Indy,” she said.
Executive director of the College Football Playoff, Bill Hancock, agreed.
“This is our first venture into the norther tier of cities with this game. We’ve always been in southern cities, and we decided a few years ago that football is a national game,” he said.
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“We’re a very walkable city,” Howell said. “We have a great foodie scene. We have cultural districts. We have the world’s largest children’s museum.”
And then there’s Lucas Oil Stadium, the Circle Center Monument and Circle Center Mall with shops and restaurants.
There’s also Playoff Fan Central — an interactive fan experience — something Indianapolis perfected when it hosted the Super Bowl in 2012.
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The fans Channel 2 talked to in town are just ready to win.
“We have tons of talent. I feel like we’re ready and this is the year,” Winn Merwin said.
Watch Channel 2 Action News at 6 p.m. for the latest on Georgia from Indianapolis.
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