How the NFL Combine became one of the league's most valuable assets

Lucas Oil Stadium was designed to host the NFL Combine. Now, the NFL wants to move it to other cities, hoping to spark a bidding war similar to the NFL Draft.

When Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis opened in 2008, it was an engineering masterpiece. The stadium’s retractable roof weighed five million pounds yet could close in just 11 minutes. The 244-foot-long and 88-foot-tall window was the largest retractable window in the NFL, offering a panoramic view of the Indianapolis skyline.

Lucas Oil Stadium was a multi-use venue before that term became popular. Built on a 13-acre plot of land, the billion-dollar venue has hosted some of the world’s most popular events over the last two decades, including the Super Bowl, College Football Playoff National Championship game, multiple Final Fours, a friendly between Chelsea and Inter Milan, and they even built three temporary swimming pools on top of the field for the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials that took place there last summer.

Simply put, the home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts is one of the busiest venues in the country. It generates tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue for the state of Indiana and is wholly owned by taxpayers, a unique arrangement in today’s world.

But while Lucas Oil Stadium hosts dozens of events each year, including 8 to 9 NFL games, one of the most interesting aspects of the venue is that stadium engineers intentionally included design specs during construction for the annual NFL Combine.

Even though the event doesn’t generate seven figures in ticket sales like Taylor Swift’s concert last year, Lucas Oil Stadium has hosted the NFL Combine since 1987 and they wanted to make it perfect. This includes minor things, like the ability to turn luxury suites into meeting rooms for NFL teams to conduct interviews. But it also includes more complex initiatives, like running fiber optic lines underground that connect to the local hospital, allowing teams to analyze 600+ MRIs and 1,200+ x-rays in real time.

In some ways, Indianapolis is the perfect host for the NFL Combine. It’s centrally located for all 32 NFL teams. The city is walkable, and the stadium is integrated within a series of skywalks, meaning NFL personnel can access the stadium, convention center, and nine hotels without ever getting in a car or going outside.