How will Indianapolis compare to Miami as a Super Bowl host?

There has been plenty of talk in Miami this week about not just the Colts, but also their home city of Indianapolis, host of the 2012 Super Bowl. Indianapolis Star columnist Matt Tully and Indianapolis Business Journal columnist Bill Benner both weighed in on the topic from Miami. Here's a taste of Benner:

Yes, we received the “weather question” a number of times. Hey, it is what it is … in this case, February in Indiana. My response was, “We’ll be the warmest cold-weather city you’ll ever encounter.”

I didn’t say that as P.R.-speak. I said it because I believe it. The warmth of our community spirit. The warmth of the personalities of our volunteers. The effectiveness of our preparation that can ease hassles and prevent the feeling of being given a proverbial cold shoulder. And the tangible fact of 4,700 hotel rooms connected by skywalks.

The other thing we noted, especially recalling the Super Bowl the Indianapolis Colts won three years earlier here and the torrential deluge that took place here early this pre-Super Bowl week, was that we could promise, at game time, a perfect environment: 70 degrees and dry.

Yes, we still have some misconceptions to overcome. A columnist for the Miami Herald referred to Indianapolis as the “capital of bland.” And a USA Today writer trotted out the tired (and no longer accurate) India-No-Place reference.

And here are a few thoughts from Tully:

In two years, a game associated with warm weather and outdoor parties will land in Indianapolis, a wonderful city but one that I hear is cold and snow-covered this morning.

I'll admit that in recent days, I have occasionally thought to myself: How can Indy compete with this Mecca of sunshine, scenery and decadence? Am I the only one worried about reading the blistering words of sportswriters from around the world who have grown accustomed to a break from winter weather?

Page after page of Miami's media packet boasts -- quite accurately, I must say -- about this area's "brilliant weather," "stunning waterfront," "vibrant nightlife" and, as one romantic local mayor put it, "unspoken poetry that stirs the soul." On page five, Gov. Charlie Crist smiles at readers, his face as tan as George Hamilton's. For all of his strengths, Gov. Mitch Daniels never will be mistaken for a beach boy.