Normally, when the Orlando Magic call a hotel looking for rooms for their players, coaches and staff for the night, it's not a problem getting them in.
But when team officials tried to book 40 hotel rooms in Indianapolis in advance of their Feb. 4 game against the Indiana Pacers, they ran into a small problem: There were no rooms to be found — in the entire city.
The reason? The Super Bowl.
Indianapolis' Lucas Oil Stadium will host Super Bowl XLVI on Feb. 5. With more than 150,000 fans, league officials and media members expected to descend upon the city, rooms for the weekend leading up to the game are few and far between.
But don't go blaming the shortage of rooms for the Magic on the NBA lockout, which delayed the start of the season until Christmas Day. The city of Indianapolis has been sold out for quite some time.
According to the Merrillville (Ind.) Post-Tribune, the NFL booked 18,300 rooms in 141 hotels around Indianapolis — back in 2007.
Nadra Woerner, the director of sales and marketing for Hilton Indianapolis Hotels & Suites, told the Post-Tribune via email that the city had to commit between 95 and 97 percent of their rooms to the NFL more than four years ago in order to win a Super Bowl bid in the first place.
When the NBA's full 82-game schedule was originally released over the summer, the Los Angeles Clippers were scheduled to visit the Pacers on Feb. 4. Even in July, there were not enough rooms to accommodate the Clippers' traveling party.
Under normal circumstances, NBA rules would require the visiting team to arrive in the home city the night before the game, but with Indianapolis completely booked up, the league had to make an exception for the Magic — just like they presumably would have done for the Clippers.
Last season, the Cleveland Cavaliers — whom the Magic host on Feb. 3, the night before their game against the Pacers — played in Dallas on the Monday after the Super Bowl, which was played in nearby Arlington.
But unlike the Magic, the Cavs had no trouble making reservations despite influx of visitors in the area.
"We were able to make the same arrangements that we've always made when we went to Dallas," Cavaliers vice president of communications Tad Carper said. "The only thing that was altered for us, if memory serves me right, was that our flight might have moved up a little. . . . The rooms (in Dallas) were definitely tight, but we were all set."
The Magic didn't have the same good fortune as Cleveland, so rather than leaving for Indianapolis immediately after their matchup with the Cavs, the Magic will spend the night in Orlando and arrive on the day of the game at Conseco Fieldhouse.
The unusual scheduling quirk will actually allow the Magic to hold a walkthrough in Orlando on the morning of Feb. 4 before hopping on a 1:30 flight to Indianapolis for their 7 p.m. game that night.
After the game, the Magic will head back to Orlando, where they'll arrive in plenty of time to watch the Super Bowl and enjoy the game that threw a wrench into their travel schedule.
