Sept. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning is being asked to do more than win another Super Bowl. The state is using his name and popularity to score support for a $717 million stadium that has taxpayers booing.

The National Football League's Colts play their first regular-season game in the new Lucas Oil Stadium on Sept. 7. The 63,000-seat, red-brick arena, which resembles a college gym from the 1920s, is being financed with $612 million of state bonds. The team will contribute about $100 million.

``I'm a Colts fan, but they should have paid more seeing as they're going to make a lot of money off this stadium,'' said Harry Sutton, 54, a garage owner in southeast Indianapolis.

Governor Mitch Daniels says trade shows at the stadium and an expanded convention center next door will help make up for about 50,000 manufacturing jobs lost since January 2005. Indiana officials are urging bond sellers JPMorgan Chase & Co. and City Securities Corp. to play up the link to Manning, who led the Colts to victory in the 2007 Super Bowl.

``Would you rather buy some Peyton Manning bonds or some sewer bonds?'' said Ryan Kitchell, director of Indiana's Office of Management and Budget. ``I know what I'd prefer.''

The employment opportunities and investor appeal don't satisfy Howard Dorsey, who lost his job directing a truck- driving training program.

Bill Worries

``The Colts want to have the most up-to-date stadium, but paying for it with taxes was wrong,'' said Dorsey, 58, as he waited at a bus stop northeast of downtown. ``I've got enough to worry about paying already with utility bills.''

Publicly financed professional football arenas can fail as economic development engines because ``they're basically always closed'' except for about 10 games a year, said Allen Sanderson, a University of Chicago economist who has studied taxpayer- supported stadium projects for two decades.

The 1.8 million-square-foot (170,000 square-meter) stadium, designed by Dallas-based HKS Sports & Entertainment Group, has features that may make it more versatile. The field and stands can be covered during bad weather with a retractable roof. The structure also has the world's biggest closing glass wall, 9,680 square feet, providing a view of downtown.

Nod to Nostalgia

The building resembles a rectangular field house with a peaked roof, similar to an Indianapolis landmark, Hinkle Fieldhouse at Butler University.

Bonds for both the arena and the adjacent convention-center expansion will be repaid mostly by restaurant, rental-car and hotel taxes in Indianapolis and six counties, Kitchell said.

``The deal is the biggest taxpayer ripoff in NFL history,'' Gary Welsh, an Indianapolis attorney and former Republican lobbyist, wrote on his Advance Indiana blog on Aug. 9.

Manning sat out the preseason, including losses to the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals at the new stadium, to recover from a knee-repair procedure in July. The Colts expect the 32-year-old quarterback to extend his decade-long streak of uninterrupted regular-season starts in the season opener against the Chicago Bears.

Popular Players

The eight-time Pro Bowl player ranked third among active professional athletes this year in Marketing Evaluation Inc.'s Q Scores, a measure of U.S. consumer awareness. Only golfer Tiger Woods and New York Jets quarterback Brett Favre scored higher, said Steven Levitt, president of the Manhasset, New York-based firm.

Taxpayer grousing isn't tarnishing Peyton Manning bonds. Investor demand pushed the yield on $100 million of the tax- exempt stadium bonds maturing in 2035 to 1.6 percent yesterday from 2.37 percent on July 24.

While offering documents don't mention Manning, bond brokers are emphasizing the link to him and the Colts at the state's suggestion, said Jim Merten, an investment banker at Indianapolis-based City Securities, who helped arrange the deal.

``It certainly helps stir up demand,'' he said.

Manning's agent, Tom Condon, didn't return telephone messages seeking comment.

Generating Jobs

Daniels, a Republican and former director of President George W. Bush's Office of Management and Budget, said building the stadium was secondary to extending the convention center onto the site of the Colts' former home, the RCA Dome. Hotels are under construction about a block away.

``As emotional a Colts fan as I am, we wouldn't have done it just for the stadium,'' Daniels, 59, said in an interview. ``We were at risk of losing big trade shows. Ninety percent of the events you'll see in that stadium won't be Colts games.''

Manufacturing, Indiana's second-largest job source behind the combined category of transportation-utilities, shed 49,700 jobs from January 2005 to July 2008, an 8.7 percent decline, data from the Department of Workforce Development show. Monaco Coach Corp., the biggest U.S. maker of diesel-powered motor homes, is closing three plants in the state following the fuel's price rise to more than $4 a gallon.

The stadium and enlarged convention center will create 300 to 500 jobs, and the arena may host trade shows 180 to 200 days annually, Mayor Gregory Ballard has estimated.

The arena also will help nearby businesses, said Rick Hurst, president of N.K. Hurst Co., a bean-soup maker adjacent to the stadium parking lot.

``The first thing 63,000 people are going to see when they pour out of that stadium is the name of our company,'' he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Joe Carroll in Indianapolis at jcarroll8@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 5, 2008 00:00 EDT