He never imagined he would drive more than 10 hours to meet friends — whom he met his freshman year at MSU — to watch the Spartans play football.

Yet on Friday, he will be meeting Spartans who are commuting to Indy from Philadelphia, Chicago and Detroit.

“It seems like every year, we get more and more spirited as we get out of college,” McCulla said.
McCulla and his friends will join more than 2,500 MSU students and more than 15,000 Spartan fans at the game.

McCulla said his friends — whom he only sees about once or twice a year at MSU football games — anticipate an exciting and competitive game, and the large MSU fan base will make the day one to remember.

“Anytime you get a whole group of MSU people together, it is a lot fun,” McCulla said. “It should be a blast.”

Regardless of the outcome of Saturday’s game, he said he will be happy he made the trip.

“It’s the first Big Ten (football) championship game, and you can’t go to the first again,” McCulla said.

Scoring tickets
Football fans searching for tickets to the big game are in luck, as both stubhub.com and ticketmaster.com still have more than enough tickets available for purchase.

Following the return of tickets from Wisconsin and several other groups, the Big Ten released 2,000 more tickets for sale on ticketmaster.com on Wednesday morning, Big Ten spokesman Scott Chipman said.

On Thursday morning, ticketmaster.com was selling tickets on the lodge level of the stadium, ranging from $87 to $150, a ticketmaster.com representative said.

The amount of tickets left for sale could not be confirmed, she said.

Fans looking to purchase tickets at a possibly lower price can go to stubhub.com, which had tickets on sale for as low as $17 late this week.

The low prices on stubhub.com have made the game one of the top searches on the website, receiving more hits than the Indianapolis Colts football tickets, said Joellen Ferrer, a spokeswoman for stubhub.com.

“There will be a lot of last-minute activity to buy tickets,” she said.

Given the hype surrounding the first football championship game in Big Ten history, tickets sold from MSU were in high demand, and the MSU athletics department sold out within a few days, MSU Associate Athletic Director Paul Schager said.

MSU received about 15,000 tickets from the Big Ten to distribute to season ticket holders, students and the general public. Most of the tickets the university received were sold for $80.

About 2,500 of the tickets were set aside for students to purchase at a discounted rate of $40 — the marching band received about 500 of the tickets for free.

An application process was put in place for season ticket holders who wished to purchase tickets, and 1,500 applications were received within the first few days to claim the tickets.

Schager said the quick sellout was anticipated.

“They went quickly because there was a lot of excitement about the game,” Schager said.

Wisconsin’s student tickets sold out within eight minutes, but the university returned about 2,000 tickets to Big Ten that were not purchased by the public, Wisconsin Associate Athletic Director Justin Doherty said.

McCulla said he and his friends purchased their Big Ten tickets from Wisconsin.

Both MSU and Wisconsin’s athletic departments no longer are selling tickets.

Currently, tickets can be purchased from ticketmaster.com or resale sites and prices likely will fluctuate on the resale sites, Ferrer said.

“If inventory starts to dwindle and demand starts to rise even higher, then prices will go up,” Ferrer said.

A place to rest your head
Visitindy.com, the official site of the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association, compiled a list of under 50 hotels in the Indy area for fans traveling in for the game.

The hotels ranged in price, costing as much as $305 a night.

Midway though the week, fewer than half of the hotels were sold out, but there still were about six hotels with vacancy within 5 miles of Lucas Oil Stadium.

Crishelle Cruz — director of sales at the Hampton Inn Downtown Indianapolis-Circle Centre Hotel, 105 S. Meridian St. — said the hotel sold out their block of 35 rooms last Saturday for the championship.

She believes the quick sellout is because of their location.

“From our hotel, people go into the Circle Centre Mall and go all the way through a skywalk to Lucas Oil,” she said.

Spartan stomping grounds
For those headed down to Indy for the game, the city has put together numerous tailgates and events for Spartans and Badgers.

Each team will have six respective homebase bars and restaurants in downtown Indy for tailgates, viewings and after-parties, said Morgan Greenlee, senior communications manager at the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association.

MSU’s hubs all are located within a few blocks of each other and only a short distance from Lucas Oil Stadium.

Greenlee said one of MSU’s designated locations — the Slippery Noodle Inn, 372 S. Meridian St. — is Indy’s oldest bar, includes live blues entertainment, and is a great atmosphere for fans.
“It’s for people of all ages,” she said.

“A bad boy gangster used to hangout there, and his bullet holes are still in the wall; it’s said to be haunted. It was a stop on the underground railroad, and there was a former brothel on the top floor.”

McCulla said he has never been to the Slippery Noodle Inn, but he plans on stopping by with his friends before heading to the game.

Kate Gindro — a bartender at O’Reilly’s Irish Bar and Restaurant, 36 S. Pennsylvania Ave. — said they are opening at 8 a.m. for Spartans. Kilroy’s Bar N’ Grill, 201 S. Meridian St., will be another Spartan hangout, and will serve its normal Saturday drink specials while surrounded by almost 50 televisions, managing partner Chris Burton said.

Burton said the bar will not be taking reservations.

It will open at 11 a.m., and he expects the place to be filled by noon.

“Due to the basketball tournament, we’re aware (which schools) travel well, and MSU is one of them,” he said.

If fans do not wish to attend a designated Spartan event, there are about 200 bars and restaurants within walking distance of the stadium, Greenlee said.

Eat, drink, be Indy
For Spartan fans looking for tailgate action before heading over to Lucas Oil Stadium, the Indiana Convention Center is hosting the Big Ten Fan Fest for general fans.

Those with a ticket to the game get into the event for free, and adults without tickets can gain access for $8.

There will be interactive games, live entertainment, mascots, performances by the schools’ bands and giveaways, Greenlee said.

Communication junior Scott Runyan, who is heading down to Indy with a group of friends, said he most likely will stop by the event.

“I know we planned on checking out the Big Ten Fan Fest going on earlier that day,” he said.
“We know a couple other buddies who are going down there as well.”

Also inside the Indiana Convention Center will be an area designated for the Green and White — the Spartan Nation Pep Rally in Exhibit Hall D.

Gary Wilson, director of alumni and donor relations for University Advancement, said all 4,000 reservations were booked by Wednesday.

“We wanted to create an opportunity for Spartans … to get together before the game and celebrate the season and cheer the team on to win Saturday night,” he said.

If fans make their way out of the convention center, the Georgia Street Tailgate is just steps away.
Greenlee said the tailgate, which will run until kickoff, will appeal to the student body.

“We’ve taken out traffic lanes and made it a permanent pedestrian walkway … It’s another place for food and beverages; there will also be a beer garden … It will be the main party hub,” she said.

Spartan alumni groups across the country who are unable to make it to the game also will be hosting watch parties in their respective cities.

Information on the MSU Alumni Association’s events calendar includes game watches from Boston to Austin to San Diego.

Steve Culp, co-chairman for the Detroit Spartans Alumni, said some members of the alumni group are headed down to the game, and they hope to set up a tailgate. As a former field manager for the football team, Culp’s ties to the team have him excited for the championship.

“I think it’s huge for our football program and university,” he said. “It’s another moment that we get put in a national spotlight.”