Construction is complete inside Lucas Oil Stadium as it prepares for the 2024 US Olympic Trials that begin on June 15th and run through June 23rd. It took just over three weeks for the pool to be completed.
Work began inside Lucas Oil on Sunday, May 12th, and was unveiled on June 5th, 2024, ten days out from the first day of competition. This is the first time that swimming will take place inside of a football stadium as Trials have most recently been held at the CHI Health Center, a basketball arena, in Omaha, Nebraska.
The city of Indianapolis has also been gearing up for the meet. Streets have been renamed after famous swimmers, the children’s museum features medals on dinosaurs, and Kate Douglass appears on the side of Lucas Oil. The airport has also had a makeover as it features USA Swimming logos on displays as well as a big sticker on the floor of a swimming lane.
Even the Colts mascot took a dip in the pool today, so he basically took a trip to the spa. The pool also features a large video board that the athletes will appear on during their walkouts.
Check out our new pool. 💧 pic.twitter.com/2oT7245Cqr
— Indianapolis Colts (@Colts) June 5, 2024
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I have some prelims tickets I’m not going to use for day 1 – any ideas for getting them to someone?? USA Swimming seems to have decided to prevent resale to maintain their high prices which is honestly super annoying. ..
Peyton Manning must be conflicted. Omaha or Indianapolis?
Anyone know which end the 50’s will start from?
Hope they measured twice
Thanks for the reminder to pack my binoculars!
Telescope would be more appropriate.
You’re probably right but I hate checking bags at the airport.
can someone please enlighten me if it makes financial sense to rent the stadium and build a temp pool for the OG Trials vs building a permanent aquatic facility that can host all 4 aquatic sports throughout the year?
Well, look at the cost analysis….
- Permanent Pool – 24/7/365 pool maintenance required. Must be profitable outside of every 4 years otherwise this idea won’t work. Would require likely some sort of agreed upon commitment from TYR (pro swim series), Speedo, USA Swimming, etc to be a location worth visiting at least once per year, even outside of Olympic years. Would the cost of housing that many people that a temporary facility could house make sense financially? I don’t know exactly how many Lucas Oil Stadium will house, but it’s going to likely be in the tens of thousands. Will this permanent pool have that capacity?
- Temp pool – Pool build and usage requirement is only for about a
… Read more »And then we have to account for the fact that it’s to USA Swimming’s advantage, as a participant sport vs. a spectator sport, to have these 2,000 seat pools financially supported around the country hosting PSS meets and Winter Nationals and those kinds of things.
<$5Million vs >$100 Million. For a venue with either inadequate seating for trials or far far far too much excess for the rest of the quadrennium.
Yeah the math on building a permanent stadium is not great. The stadium is way more expensive than the pool.
The idea I’ve floated out is you flip the script. You build a permanent swim stadium that has a basketball court or hockey rink that can go over the pool. Use it for NCAAs, Trials, Nationals, SEC Championships, etc, then lease it to a local G League team or a high school district the rest of the year (or in partnership with one of those orgs), host concerts, etc.
honestly maintence wise having a court or rink on top of water/a pool is unlikely to ever make sense.
Yeah I’ve just kind of assumed that some engineer would be able to figure that out. Beverly Hills High School has a retractable floor over a pool.
Someone would have to model out the economics, but I wonder if you’re using it as a basketball/concert facility for 40 weeks a year, if you even need to leave the water in the pool. Could you drain it and just fill it for the big meets?
https://www.woodfloorbusiness.com/business/history/article/15132050/the-retractable-gym-floor-over-a-pool-in-its-a-wonderful-life-is-real
One of the greatest scenes in Hollywood history, where the floor opens to the pool, from “It’s a Wonderful Life”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rha-6qG4OQ
Yeah that’s the thing, it’ll be used for stuff that isn’t swimming more often than swimming.
Braden, a long time ago we swam age group and senior meets in that pool, and CIF championships were held there. I love the movie for that dance scene where the floor opens and and the dancers fell in.
There is a soccer field that gets stored and then maintained underground when it in use (Real Madrid)
I think we can figure it out, from an engineering perspective
However ….
his would require the agreement and financing from conferences and schools, the maintenance, etc
You would need a cohesive, focused and progressive NCAA structure
So yeah no
Pickleball courts they would be used all the time
Very impressive, appreciative to all the workers and organizers who got this done. Gonna be a once in a lifetime moment for many of the swimmers there especially the age groupers.
KD a great choice for side of Lucus stadium!
…and it’s a spectacular shot as well. looks awesome!
…. more so if Kate Douglass was swimming the breaststroke. The state of Indiana, breaststroke, notoriety, …….
I can envision Lilly King’s blood boil upon viewing.